“Oh, you old Virginian,” cried Mr. Wells, “isn’t that just like you? Suppose some of the ladies would rather walk one way?”
“I would, I’m sure,” declared Jo.
“And I,” Daniella spoke up.
Jean wasn’t sure. Jack thought it depended upon the company she would have. Effie would do as the rest did. Nan was for walking over, Mary Lee for walking back. So the party divided and the wagon started off with Mary Lee, Jean, Jo and Effie for the feminine side; Dr. Paul and Ashby for the masculine.
Therefore to Nan’s joy she found herself setting out with Mr. Wells, Hartley escorting Daniella and Ran giving himself up to Jack who generally followed Nan’s lead. The wagon bumped on ahead and was soon out of sight.
The three mile walk, though a rough one, was generally shady, and those had the best of it who took a time of day which would not give them the sun immediately overhead. The wagon, of course, had reached the little shop before the walking party arrived, and already the counters were strewn with various stuffs. Mary Lee was buying yards of white cheese cloth, Jo was examining red flannel, Effie was looking at thin white muslin, while the two men of the party consulted together in low tones on the porch. Jean was on the lookout for Nan who had suggested her costume.
It was a bewildering time for Al Davis who told his chums afterward that he “didn’t know as he’d have a mite of stawk left on his shelves after they got through.” Every box of gold and silver paint was called for, ribbons were in demand and all sorts of impossible things were inquired for. Jo ended by asking for all the old newspapers he had. She wanted a quantity, and a pile of them was put in the wagon. Nan had already demanded pasteboard and not being able to secure sheets of this called for as large boxes of pasteboard as could be found.
Jo and Dr. Paul were hustled out of the shop while the gifts were selected; this took so long that the two kept coming back and demanding that a stop be put to purchases. “I don’t propose setting up a shop for myself,” said Dr. Paul. “You all seem to be buying out the establishment. Mr. Davis will think we are going to start a rival concern.”
Al laughed, and “cal’lated” he wasn’t “scairt”; he “ruther guessed he’d be there some time yet.”
At last all came out, each clutching a parcel, and the start back was made, though Mr. Wells gave up his place to Jean who complained of the sun, and so to Nan fell Ran’s companionship on the way back. She forced herself to be gay although it was bitter to see Mr. Wells walk off with Jo when she had counted on his society. She could have shaken Jean for her little affectation of not being able to stand the sun. “Jean always was a self-indulgent little piece,” she told herself. “There was room enough, anyway. I don’t see why he couldn’t have come. I didn’t dare make a point of it.”