"Then Aunt Helen said: 'I've only one thing to say, Mary. If Miss Sarah is to undertake all this, I hope you will feel that you have enough to let her have all she can make out of her—her——'"
"Her experiment," suggested Nan who had a more ready vocabulary than Mary Lee.
"I think she said 'undertaking,'" said Mary Lee, not to be corrected. "Then I said: 'Are we really going to California, Aunt Helen?' And she said, 'I should like to think so. It all rests with your mother. I have always wanted to go there and I can't bear to be parted from you all, so why can't we go together?' Then she asked mother what she thought about it."
"She said yes, of course," put in Nan.
Mary Lee nodded. "Uhm—hm. She did indeed, and I got up and just yelled, and then I told them I was going hot-foot to find you, and I left them there still talking about it."
"Oh, do let's go back and hear the particulars," said Nan. "Isn't it perfectly wildly exciting? Did you ever believe such a thing could happen to us? To think we are all going. I wonder when we shall start, and where we shall go, I mean the exact place. To think of living, really living there. Come, let's find out more."
They went racing toward the house and burst in upon the three ladies still absorbed in making plans. "Are we really going to California?" asked Nan, excitedly. "When shall we start? What place is our cottage to be in? May I take some of my books? What trunk shall I use?"
All three smiled. "Gently, Nan, gently," said her mother. "We are not going to-morrow, and there will be plenty of time to decide on trunks before October."
Nan drew a long sigh, and went to sit down by her Aunt Helen. "Fairy godmother," she said, "the Poppy fairy never brought me this dream. Just wave your wand, please, and make me see it all."
"We shall go to Southern California," said Miss Helen, drawing Nan close to her, "probably to San Diego or Pasadena. We shall travel a little at first and decide upon the best place for your mother, then we will take a little cottage, hire a piano, have some books, engage a teacher for you girls, and settle down to enjoy our winter."