"There are some of the girls coming in at the front gate now," said
Marian as she tied the big white bow on Patty's pretty, fluffy hair.
"Didn't I time this performance just right?"
"You did indeed," said Patty, and kissing her cousin, she ran gaily downstairs.
How the Tea Club girls did chatter that afternoon! there was so much to see and talk about in Patty's new home, and there were also other weighty matters to be discussed.
The proposed entertainment was an engrossing subject, and as various opinions were held, the arguments were lively and outspoken.
"You can talk all you like," said Helen Preston, "but you'll find that a bazaar will be the most sensible thing after all. You're sure to make a lot of money, and the boys will help, and we all know exactly what to do and how to go about it."
"It may be sensible," said Laura Russell, "but it won't be a bit of fun. Stupid, poky, old chestnut; nobody wants to come to buy things, they only come because they think they have to. Now if we had a play—"
"Yes," said Elsie Morris, "a play would be the very nicest thing. I've brought two books for us to look over. One's that Shakespeare thing, and the other is called 'A Reunion at Mother Goose's.' It's awfully funny; I think it's better than the Shakespeare."
"I think Mother Goose things are silly," said Ethel Holmes. "Who wants to go around dressed up like Little Bo-peep, and say 'Ba, ba, black sheep,' all the time?"
"Yes, or who wants to be Red Riding Hood's wolf and eat up Mary's little lamb?"
"Oh, it isn't like that; it's a reunion, you know, and all the Mother
Goose children are grown up, and they talk about old times."