“Of course not. I am very fond of Ruth and we three can play together whether Bess joins us or not. I wish we could do something as a sort of welcome for Ruth. Can’t you think of something, Elizabeth?”
Elizabeth proposed several plans, but all were too elaborate or impossible. “I will tell you what we can do,” she said at last. “We can dress up like old beggar women. We will bend over and take sticks to walk with, and baskets. We will sneak around the back way and when we hear Ruth coming we will ask for food in a whining voice and suddenly we will throw off the disguise and appear in our true characters.”
“Oh, I think that will be fine,” cried Betsy, well pleased with the idea. “It will be such a surprise. What can we wear as a disguise, Elizabeth?”
“We ought to have rags, I suppose, but maybe we can root out some old skirts or petticoats. One of us could wear a shawl over her head and the other could find something like a big handkerchief. We must bring them ’way over our faces so we cannot be recognized.” They were quite enraptured with their plan, Elizabeth promising to let Betsy know just as soon as the Gilmore family had returned, and the two parted, arranging to meet at a certain chosen spot.
The next day, when Elizabeth came home at noon she heard that her cousins would arrive about two o’clock, but her mother did not think it worth while for her to stay at home to see them. “You can go right up after school this afternoon,” she said, and Elizabeth was satisfied, the more so that Betsy would be free to help her carry out her plan of surprising Ruth.
Each girl had taken her bundle of poverty-stricken clothes and had carried it to the hollow trysting-tree. This being in a most secluded spot, they were not observed when they changed their appearance and assumed the characters of old women.
“You look so funny,” giggled Betsy when Elizabeth, in a much stained and faded skirt of Electra’s, an old worsted shawl, and a battered felt hat tied down over her ears, announced that she was ready and how did she look.
Betsy was more respectable in a cast-off skirt of Elizabeth’s, a black shawl over her head, and a basket on her arm. Being shorter than her comrade, the skirt reached to her ankles, but instead of her own neat shoes she displayed an old pair of Kathie’s which Elizabeth had found in the attic. The skirt which Elizabeth wore was sufficiently long to cover her feet, but she had chosen her oldest shoes to wear.
Taking a circuitous route, the two stole around the back way and approached the rear of the house where they could take a survey, hiding behind the grape arbor and peeping out from time to time.
“I see cousin Belle on the front porch,” Elizabeth at last whispered, after making a tour of investigation. “Grandpa Gil is there, too, and Cousin Tom went down toward the studio. There comes Ruth now, Betsy. She is probably going down to the spring. Hide, hide, Betsy, and when we hear footsteps we will walk out and confront her. It will have to be she for there is no one else, for I can see both maids in the kitchen and Martin is down at the garage.” All this in hurried whispers.