"Cross your heart?"
"Yes; cross my heart."
"Then, it is this: Bill said he didn't believe there wa'n't no Santa Claus. He said it just that way." She stopped and looked searchingly at the doctor, but he was listening attentively.
She gave her little mirthful chuckle and went on. "Then I said, 'if you write to him, and he brings you what you ask, I reckon you'll believe in him,' and he said he'd be a blamed fool to do such a fing. He said blamed fool——"
"All right, he said blamed fool."
Elinor buried her head in the doctor's sleeve and laughed silently. Then she looked up with eyes still full of mirth. "That was so funny," she said.
"What was?"
"To hear you say blamed fool. Did you ever say it before?"
"Perhaps."
"Don't you like to say it? I do. I go off in the corner and say it to Lily sometimes, just 'cause I like to hear myself. Do you do that?"