Joe Carter then made his first offering to the conversation.
"Ben Spaulding drank eight glasses of lemonade,—four pink and four yellow."
The irrelevance of this bit of gossip did not make it any the less interesting to us. Instead, it gave Susy a chance to play once more her favorite rôle of prophetess of woe.
"Pink lemonade's made of coachyneel, an' that's deadly poison. My mother knew a boy that drank pink lemonade an' died of it."
"I don't believe it," put in Harry Fletcher.
And he added, in a tremulous tone: "I drank two glasses of it."
We all turned and looked at Harry, as at one who would not long be with us.
"How do you feel?" asked the elder Carter.
"All right," replied Harry; but he had a sickly expression about the mouth. He turned a little aside, and did not seem to take any further interest in the conversation.
"I gave two bars of pop-corn to the ellerphants," announced Susy, "but I don't like 'em very well. They're all covered with dust an' they curl their trunks at you. I—"