“We’ll do it, Honey! It’ll take a pretty big box, won’t it?”
“If you knew how perfectly lovely it is to have you agreeing to things first time round! I’d like to pass a law making it illegal to ‘but’ people.”
Mr. Ashe laughed. “I reckon I do spoil you a bit, Honey! See here, suppose you come along to New York with me? We’ll manage to worry in a good time or so, between business appointments.”
“And school?”
“Looks to me like you’d earned a holiday.”
“If you’re going to talk that way, I’ll have to go indoors. There’ll be nearly two weeks’ holiday at Christmas. Only first come those horrid exams! Uncle Cliff, if I don’t pass, will you disown me?”
“I’d be likely to, wouldn’t I? I reckon if the others get through you will.”
The thought of those mid-year examinations was giving Blue Bonnet a good deal of uneasiness; she had found out that most decidedly she did not want her class to go on without her. And promotion would not altogether depend upon the result of the examinations, either; the regular class record counted for much—and she had done so poorly all the fall!
She needed little reminding to get at her studies these evenings, shutting herself up alone in the back parlor with a fortitude that Aunt Lucinda found most encouraging, and Mr. Ashe inwardly deplored. Surely all those long hours spent at the academy each day were enough. He felt that Uncle Joe would never approve of Blue Bonnet’s being so tied down.
“You wouldn’t like to go back to a tutor, Honey?” he asked, the next morning during the walk to school. “I reckon we could get our pick of them back here.”