'And I'll be very glad to tell you,' said Patty eagerly, 'for I've tended bees since I were a child, and know all their tricks, and as to their swarmings.'
''Tis the Lord's Day,' put in Deb grimly, and Gwen and Elfie promptly took their leave.
'Aren't they old dears?' said Elfie enthusiastically; 'they seem to live in quite another world. Imagine reading The Pilgrim's Progress all your life, and no other book beside the Bible! Do they ever see a newspaper, I wonder?'
'It isn't often one meets such a couple; we shall get a good deal of entertainment out of them, I expect. What an awful existence! Is it what we shall come to years hence, I wonder? And yet I, for one, am quite certain that will not be my lot.'
'What?' inquired Elfie, 'the old maid's existence, do you mean, or the little secluded country cottage?'
'Neither. I have my plans and purposes; and not all Jacob's machinations and schemings will frustrate them.'
'What are they?' inquired Elfie.
'Ah, well, I had best not say. I mean to see you all thoroughly comfortable and settled here, and then break them to you. I have plenty of resources and interests to take up my time, so am in no hurry.'
'You always were a wonderful one for plans! Let me guess. You are going to start a magazine, and be the editor of it!'
'No, thank you. Magazines are as plentiful as pins just now; they appear and disappear like sky-rockets!'