CHAPTER VI.
MARIE LEWIS’ pretty home in West Philadelphia looked very bright and attractive on the afternoon of the lawn party. Mabel and Harold stood looking around at the tables and booths.
“That’s the tea-house,” said Mabel, indicating a gay structure at one end of the grounds. “Ethel is going to help serve the tea, and her sister is the Rebecca at the Well, where the lemonade is. I think we’ll get some lemonade first thing, for I am so thirsty.”
They sauntered over to the well, passing the tea pagoda on their way. Just here Mrs. Lewis stopped them. She had in her hands a plate of Mrs. Knight’s cinnamon-bun. “Come right in here, Mabel,” she said. “I’m taking this to the tea-house; it will be so nice to serve with the tea. Have you seen Marie? Here is Ethel, too.”
The girls looked at each other rather sheepishly as they saw Mabel. Mrs. Lewis went on: “Just think, girls, how Mabel has worked for us. She brought those lovely flowers over on the middle table, and besides those and this delicious bun, she has given three dollars, all herself, to the fund.”
“Oh!” Marie blushed up to the roots of her hair, and looked at Ethel. Mrs. Lewis passed on, leaving the four children standing there, rather embarrassed at the situation.
Harold broke the silence by saying, with a little amused smile: “Come on, Mabel, we were going to get some lemonade, you know.”
“Oh,” Ethel started forward, “don’t go away yet. I—we—you know we didn’t know.”
“But we were horrid,” Marie broke in, “and I’m awfully ashamed of myself, really I am, Mabel, and I think it was sweet of you to come this afternoon, after the way we behaved. Don’t you, Ethel?”
“Yes, I do,” replied Ethel, a little awkwardly. It was harder for her to yield than for Marie. “But why didn’t you say, in the first place, that you were going to give such a lot?” she asked, turning to Mabel. “You didn’t say you’d save up and give more than any of us.”