“But how much? I mean how much would it cost to make enough for—for fourteen girls?”
“Why, not a great deal. I could bake them in the little scalloped pans so they would be more crusty. I don’t believe it would cost more than twenty-five cents, for you know we have our own eggs.”
“Good! Then what else could I have? We can’t have more than three things.”
“Let me think for a minute and I will perhaps be able to suggest something.” She went on kneading her bread while the children watched her. Presently she said: “I have a bottle of raspberry shrub that your Aunt Henrietta gave me and which we have never used. Would you like to have that? I can recommend it as a very nice drink, and I should be very glad to donate it.”
“Would it be nice?” Nettie looked at Edna for endorsement.
“I think it would be perfectly delicious,” she decided, “and nobody has had anything like that. We have had ginger ale and lemonade, and chocolate and such things.”
“Then, mother, that will be very nice, thank you,” said Nettie, as if Edna were at the other end of a telephone wire. “Now for number three. I shall have ever so much to spend on that, so I could have most anything.”
“What have the other girls had?” Mrs. Black asked Edna.
“Oh, different things. Some have had sandwiches and chocolate and some kind of candy, and some have had ice cream and cake and candy; some have had—let me see—cake and lemonade and fruit, but the third thing is generally some kind of candy.”
“Do you remember what Uncle David sent us last week?” Mrs. Black asked Nettie.