“Then isn’t it about time you did?”
“Uncle Joe—when he’s away from the ranch—just wires every little while,—he says it saves time and trouble.”
“I hardly think I should adopt that plan with Carita, dear.”
“No, but I’ll write to her to-morrow afternoon, after I’ve written Uncle Cliff.”
Promptly at quarter to three the other members of the club appeared in a body, and the seven went across to the Trent’s side door, where several pairs of rubbers showed that they were not the first arrivals.
Up the two flights of stairs to the attic they hurried. “What are they doing!” Kitty exclaimed. “It sounds like steam rollers!”
“Who says we can’t go skating?” Alec laughed, coming to meet them, as they reached the head of the second flight.
“Alec!” Blue Bonnet cried, joyfully. “Oh, you are the cleverest boy!”
“Roller skating!” Kitty clapped her hands, delightedly. “That will be fun! Alec, Blue Bonnet’s right!”
A wide space had been cleared from end to end of the big attic, and the stairway opening protected by a line of trunks; over other trunks bits of curtain stuff had been thrown for seats; before the windows, Alec had fastened heavy draperies, shutting out the daylight, while from the rafters hung lighted Chinese lanterns, left over from some garden party.