“For them?” her aunt asked.
“I should think it might be, Aunt Lucinda. It must be—a bit exciting, not being quite positive whether you are going to have any dinner, or not. And then, think what a lot of trouble they’re saved, not having a crowd of things to take care of and keep in order!”
“Bureau drawers, to wit?” Mrs. Clyde laughed.
“What I should like,” Blue Bonnet remarked, “would be a bureau without any drawers and a closet without any shelves.”
“My dear,” her aunt warned, “do you see what time it is getting to be?” Blue Bonnet glanced at the clock, then settled down to the business of breakfast. Aunt Lucinda had very definite ideas as to the proper length of time to be given to a meal; whatever hurrying was done was not to be done at the table.
“Would you mind walking pretty fast, Uncle Cliff?” Blue Bonnet asked, as they started out together.
But in spite of this precaution, she got there just in time to catch the first notes of the opening march, and to see the monitor for the day closing the door. That meant that she must wait in the outer hall until morning exercises were over.
Well, what couldn’t be cured must be endured; Blue Bonnet sat down on the stairs to plan the afternoon’s expedition.
Grandmother had said that the Pattersons were certainly poor, even if Patterson, Senior, was not particularly worthy. Blue Bonnet felt that she should not so much mind being poor, but she would hate to be described as “worthy.”
It was a little disappointing, however—though, of course, not for him—that Mr. Patterson was neither sick, nor out of work; merely burdened with a large family, and (Grandmother had been obliged to admit) rather lazy.