"I'm glad we nearly tipped over!" Blue Bonnet suddenly declared.
"Blue Bonnet!" exclaimed her grandmother in a pained tone.
"Well, I reckon I didn't mean that," confessed Blue Bonnet after a moment's reflection. "But I'm glad we've met Knight Judson. Alec has had too many girls around him here. He needs a spell of roughing it," and then, as she saw an odd look on her grandmother's face, she asked quickly: "Isn't 'roughing it' in good society?"
Mrs. Clyde laughed. "I believe it moves in the best circles—here."
"That's good, for there isn't a Massachusetts word that could possibly take its place."
"The dining-table is cleared, Benita says," Sarah announced from the doorway, "and we can begin our sewing lesson."
They all repaired to the house, and a few minutes later the big dining-room was the scene of great activity; the table strewn with the bright-hued pieces of material, Benita smoothing and pinning the patterns, the Señora superintending, and the girls cutting and snipping to their hearts' content. At the same time there went on an incessant chatter, chatter, to the cheerful accompaniment of the sewing-machine.
When Juanita entered to spread the cloth for their early dinner, the girls looked up in surprise.
"I never knew time fly so quickly before," said Debby.
"If I'd known this kind of sewing was so easy and so fascinating," Blue Bonnet declared, "I'd have taken it up before. It's much nicer than embroidery or mending. Just see how much I've done!" She proudly held up the bright red garment.