"I guess, to tell the truth," returned Miss Lacey, laughing, "Sylvia doesn't know much more about one end of the broom than she does of the other."
CHAPTER XXV
THE LITTLE RIFT
When Sylvia reappeared that noon she carried a pillowcase, which she held before her by its corners with care. She thought to slip around the house to the back door, but Edna and John rose from a corner of the piazza and greeted her.
Dunham viewed the graceful bare head and warm, demurely smiling face in its tree setting as the girl approached.
"Doesn't she look like a dryad?" he said to his companion.
"Oh," cried Edna, "so it was fir balsam you wanted to get, Sylvia. You weren't very successful, I'm afraid. Your bag looks flat."
"Serves you right for not begging me to go with you," added John. "Edna has been swallowed up all the morning. I think it was very careless of you not to realize what a help I should have been."
Sylvia shook her sunny head. "No, I needed to be alone," she returned.