Peggy and Alice seated themselves in the same chair, with the book between them.
“You ought to come over nearer the light; you will strain your eyes,” said Miss Thornton.
Mrs. Owen gave up her seat to the children and Miss Thornton began to talk about the surprise party.
Peggy soon found herself listening.
“It is to be in the afternoon—like an afternoon tea,” she said.
“Are all the parish to be there—men as well as women?” asked Mrs. Owen.
“No, only the women. It is what Prissy Baker calls a ‘hen-party.’”
Peggy could keep silent no longer. “Do you mean people are going to give her hens?” she asked.
“Hens? No; that is just an expression, Peggy; that means a party of ladies.”
Peggy was silent. She might have known that they would not have thought of anything so interesting. The fact that they were to take the minister’s wife ten five-dollar gold pieces, in a silk bag, was a poor substitute, indeed, for living, cackling, laying hens.