“Hush! You make me so thirsty!� said Anne. “We could get the lemons at Cousin Will’s store, but we ought not to use the sugar. Mr. Hoover says we must save more than we’ve been saving.�
“Dat Mr. Hoover shore is stingy wid his sugar,� grumbled Emma. “How come folks let him have it all, anyway?�
“He wants us to use less so there will be some for our Allies,� explained Anne.
“H’m!� snorted Emma. “I’ve always been havin’ all de sugar I could buy an’ pay for. Why can’t dem ’Lies git on like dey always done?�
Anne knew; she had read Mr. Hoover’s appeals. She said: “Our Allies used to get most of their sugar from Germany and Austria, the countries we are at war with. Now they can’t get that, so we must divide with them the sugar from Louisiana and Cuba and the Hawaiian Islands.�
“Wellum, course what you say is so; but I don’t believe a word of it,� said Emma. “An’ here Miss M’randa come this mornin’ an’ say I can’t have no sugar to make a cake for Sweet William’s birthday. Um, um, um! If my old man was livin’, he’d git sweetenin’ for dat cake an’ for you-all’s lemonade, too.�
“How could he get sugar?� asked Patsy.
“I ain’t say sugar,� answered Emma; “I say sweetenin’. I was talkin’ ’bout honey.�
“But we haven’t any honey,� said Anne.
“He’d git it, Amos would. He was a powerful hand for findin’ bee trees.�