"Oh, I don't know," Elizabeth cried.
"Anyhow, she took that telegram to bed with her, and it was all mussed up under her pillow. I know, because I made the beds this morning. Our treasure of a second maid went to mass, and stayed out to breakfast."
"What's all that whispering about?" Grandfather inquired, looking over his shoulder. "I've a great mind to just reach over and tech the whip to you," he made a movement toward an invisible whip socket. "I guess I won't. It makes Lizzie nervous to have me flourishing a whip around. I suppose you are trying to get all giggled and whispered up before you have to stop it and talk to the boys."
"We aren't giggling much this morning," Elizabeth said. "There they are on the corner, waving to us."
"Did you ever see such red hair?" Peggy said. "I like red-headed children and boys. I don't think I like red-headed girls so much. I think Mabel is awfully cunning with her red curls."
"Mabel? Oh, she has real auburn hair," Elizabeth said, "and it's beautiful. How do you do?" she returned Tom Robbins' greeting with more than a touch of her customary shyness as he scrambled for a place on the floor of the car at her feet.
"It's my turn," he insisted, as his friend Bill tried to argue the matter. "You ride with Captain Swift, and mind the rakes."
"You've got real nets!" Peggy cried. "How scrumptious! We just take rakes, you know."
"I don't know as the Swan Pond crabs will consent to do anything but be raked in," Grandfather said. "I heard of a boy once that caught a crab in one of those store nets, but it was a bad one."
"You wait and see," Tom said. "Our object is to catch crabs, and we are going to catch them."