"Say, Hester, I'll tell you what! I'll change baskets with you. Want to?"
"Will you?" and Hester's eyes sparkled. "Oh, Marjorie, will you?"
"Yes, I will, on condition that you'll be nice and pleasant, and not go around looking as cross as a magpie!"
"All right, give me your basket," and Hester put on a very bright smile in anticipation of winning the game.
"What did you do that for?" asked Kitty, who saw the transfer of baskets.
"Oh, because. Never mind now, Kit, I'll tell you to-morrow," and Midget danced away with Hester's almost empty basket hanging from her arm.
She picked up a few more things here and there, and then Cousin Jack rang a bell to announce that the game was over. The baskets, each having its owner's name on a card tied to it, were all put on the hall table, and Mrs. Maynard and Cousin Ethel appraised the contents, while the children went to another game.
This time Uncle Steve conducted affairs. Several tables in the living-room were surrounded by the players, and each was given a paper and pencil.
"I see," Uncle Steve began, "that this is a Good Luck party. So each of you write the words 'good luck' at the top of your paper. Have you done so? Good! Now, I hope you will all of you have all good luck always, but if you can't get it all, get part. So try your hand at it by making words of four letters out of those two words you have written. Use each letter only once,—unless it is repeated, like o in 'good.' However, that's the only one that is a repeater, so use the others only once in any word you make. The words must be each of four letters,—no more and no less. And they must all be good, common, well-known English words. Now go ahead, and the best list takes a prize."
How the children scribbled! How they nibbled their pencils and thought! How they whispered to each other to ask if such a word was right!