Bess shook her head. “No, grandma and mamma both said I must stay with them.”
“Oh dear! Well then they won’t want us,” decided Elizabeth, “for on a holiday like Thanksgiving we wouldn’t think of going unless they particularly invited us, would we, Betsy?” Elizabeth was rather pleased with herself at having found a way out of the difficulty.
“But if I ask them they will invite you,” persisted Bess.
“It wouldn’t be the same,” Elizabeth was positive. “They probably will go to drive and will want you with them; there wouldn’t be room for us and so you see we’d only be in the way.” Elizabeth spoke forcibly, the slower Bess finding no answering argument.
“You’ll have lovely things to eat,” Elizabeth went on, trying to console Bess, “and you’ll wear that beautiful new frock, of course. We might run in for a teentsy-weentsy minute to see you in it, after church, you know. We could do that, couldn’t we?” She turned to Betsy to receive her assenting nod, and Bess, pleased at the prospect of displaying her finery, gave up further urging.
“Walk up to the next corner with me, Betsy,” said Elizabeth to her first best as they left Bess at her own gate, and Betsy agreed.
“I never saw anyone like you, Elizabeth,” said the latter admiringly. “You always know just what to say to Bess to make her satisfied. We really didn’t exactly want her, did we? Yet she wasn’t a bit offended.”
“I didn’t mind her coming to our house,” declared Elizabeth; “it was only that I didn’t want to go to hers. It would be as dry as pine needles to sit around in that stiff way, as they do at her house. We couldn’t jump about or run or make the least noise, for Bess would have to be careful of her new frock, and we’d have to talk in whispers and do some crazy fancy work or something. That reminds me, Betsy, I have a lovely idea for Christmas. If you will come over some rainy Saturday we can flabricate something nice.”
“What?” asked Betsy.
“Why, some little sachets, not sachets exactly, either—scent bags. I thought of them long ago, and I gathered all the sweet-smelling leaves and things I could from the garden to put in the bags: lemon verbenas, rose leaves, bergamot, rose geranium, lavender, and oh,—lots. I’ll give you some. My only trouble is to find bits of silk or ribbon to make the bags of; Kathie confisticates everything of that kind.”