"Your nurse!" exclaimed Cricket. "I wouldn't be 'Liza for anything! I'd as soon take care of a straw in a high wind, as take care of you."
Auntie Jean laughed, and drew Cricket down into her arms.
"Did you ever think, honestly," she whispered, "that Zaidee is a little, just a little, like one of her older sisters?"
"Oh, she's not so bad," responded Cricket, instantly. "But because she's like me is no reason I like it any better. I like it all the worse. Besides, I don't set up to be a polygon."
Hereupon Auntie Jean laughed until grandma demanded to know what the joke was, and why they were talking secrets.
"No secrets," answered auntie, wiping her eyes. "Cricket was only telling me that she didn't set up to be a paragon."
Cricket flashed a quick glance at auntie, caught her eye, and nodded her thanks.
"There's George Washington," she hastily remarked, changing the subject. "Come here, sir, and play a little. You've been as sober as a judge lately. I haven't seen you run after Martha for perfect ages."
The September days slipped by, until the first of October was just at hand. It was arranged that Auntie Jean should go and get the house in town in readiness for the family's return. At first she expected to go alone, but the girls begged to go with her, and finally she concluded to take them.
Will and Archie had already gone back to Philadelphia, on account of their school, so this arrangement would only leave the younger ones and Eliza with grandma for a few days longer.