“But we couldn’t ask Dr. Beulah to give fifty cents!” Grace cried out without even thinking.
“Of course not!” Laura agreed. “But we could make out a list of extra special people whom we would invite as guests. They wouldn’t pay anything at all.”
“That’s perfect!” Bess chimed in. “That takes care of everything. At fifty cents apiece, we will have some money left, and we can use that to buy Nan a going away present.”
“And Laura and Amelia and I will be the committee to buy the gift,” Grace added. “And let’s have the party on a Sunday afternoon and just serve simple refreshments so that there will be lots of money left over!”
“Yes, we want to get something nice for Nan, something that she would never buy for herself and something that she will use all the time she is away, so that she will think of us often,” Bess added rather sadly, for she wasn’t quite reconciled yet to Nan’s going away without her.
“Sh! I hear someone coming, and it’s not a cat this time,” Laura whispered in the silence that followed Bess’s statement.
Bess jumped up. “Everybody get busy,” she just had time to say, “so that this will be the very nicest party Lakeview Hall has ever seen,” before Nan burst into the room on the conspirators.