"I don't like them," said Jeanne.
"Why not?"
"There isn't a bit of fun in them," declared Jeanne, blushing because their resemblance to her cousins was her real reason for disliking them.
"Well, there's Cora Farnsworth. Surely there's plenty of fun in Cora."
"I don't like Cora, either. She says mean things just to be funny," explained Jeanne, who had often suffered from Cora's "fun." "I don't like that kind of girls."
"Lydia, Ethel, and Cora live on the Avenue," returned Mrs. Huntington. "You ought to like them. At any rate, you must bring no more East Side children home with you. I can't have them in my house."
Mrs. Huntington always talked about the Avenue as Bridget, who was very religious, talked of heaven. When their ship came in, Mrs. Huntington said, they should have a home in the Avenue. The old house they were in, she said, was quite impossible. Old Mr. Huntington, Jeanne gathered, did not wish to move to the more fashionable street.
Jeanne wondered about that ship of Aunt Agatha's. The river—she had seen it once—was a small, muddy affair. Surely no ship that could sail up that shallow stream would be worth waiting for. She asked her grandfather about it.
Her grandfather frowned. "We won't talk about that ship," said he. "I don't like it!"
"Don't you like boats?" asked Jeanne.