“And I. I have a friend there. You know Patty Peters is there this winter, mamma.” And Persis turned an eager face to her mother.
“Such reasonable claims,” laughed Mrs. Holmes. “I am afraid you must draw lots for it.”
“So we will. That will be the fairest way,” maintained Mellicent.
“Now, mamma, we won’t even tell you which we decide it is to be, the longest or the shortest, so you cannot exert an undue influence,” Lisa said.
Therefore, after a short conference in the corner, the girls gathered around to scan the slips of paper which Mrs. Holmes held in her hand.
“Lisa first, then Perse, then I, according to our ages,” decided Mellicent, and with breathless interest the lots were drawn.
“The longest! The longest, we decided. Who has it?” exclaimed Lisa, holding up her slip.
“I! I! It is mine,” Persis announced, joyfully. “Now I can go to see Patty Peters.” And she executed a wild dance about the room.
“Patty Peters!” Lisa repeated, disdainfully. “It always sounds so ridiculous, as if you were trying to say Peter Piper.”
The joy faded out of Persis’s face, and she stood curling the slip of paper around her finger, looking from Lisa to her mother. It may have been fancy, for Persis was keenly sensitive, but she thought she saw a shade of regret on her mother’s face. “Of course mamma would most enjoy having Lisa,” she said to herself. “She is so handsome, and mamma could show her off so finely to her Washington friends.” Persis swallowed a lump in her throat, then went over to Lisa and said, with eyes shining, “I’ll change with you.”