“Come on, son,” he commanded; “forward, march!”
Had he heard the words ringing in Sam’s brain?
Perhaps so. Anyway he spoke them. “Forward, march!” he said. He, too, knew Sam was going into battle.
CHAPTER XII
“THE DOLL LADY”
“My dear Annie Laurie,” said Mrs. Carson one Friday afternoon not long after this, “will you do Carin and myself the favor of spending the week end with us? I will send for you to-morrow morning, if you will do so, and we’ll have a chance to talk. Whenever we try to talk nowadays, Miss Helena Parkhurst cries out ‘Physiography!’ or ‘Grammar!’ or ‘American History!’ Anyone would think she didn’t want us to become acquainted.”
She shook her finger smilingly at Miss Parkhurst, who was putting the schoolroom in order at the close of five hard days of teaching, and was well pleased at the thought that she could retire to the peace of her own little sitting room and follow her own inclination for a day or two. There were stitches to take and letters to write and thoughts to think, and the young woman who gave so unstintingly of her time and knowledge to three restless girls, sighed with relief at the thought of being her own mistress for a while.
“Oh, thank you, Mrs. Carson,” Annie Laurie had answered. “I should love to come. You can’t think what a pleasure it would be. But ought I to leave the aunts? They just sit and watch for me to come home.”
“The aunts shall be bidden to Sunday dinner,” said Mrs. Carson. “We’ll all be gay together.”
She did not say it, but she knew that the flutter of getting ready for such an event as going out to The Shoals to dinner would keep Miss Adnah and Miss Zillah well occupied over Saturday.
“Please come, Annie Laurie,” begged Carin. “I’m getting quite dull, really.”