“I want to picnic, too,” cried Alice.
“So you shall, you little darling,” said all the girls, running to her and kissing her, “and you can bring Nancy with you.”
Nancy was a knit worsted doll, with two jet beads for eyes. She slept with Alice, who loved her dearly, and who now ran off to get her, in a great state of delight.
The children took a lunch, of course; for who ever heard of a picnic without it? A stick of peppermint candy was broken in four pieces, which, with four ginger-cakes and four huge apples, begged from the farmer’s wife, were packed in a little basket, and then they set off, all running, for no girl or boy can walk when they are so happy; at least, I never knew of any—have you?
The warm, bright sun had dried up all the drops on the grass long before. They ran merrily through the meadow at the back of the house, and soon got to the entrance to the wood. There they found a nice, mossy place, and, sitting down on the old roots of the trees, they spread their lunch on a large, flat stone that was near, and commenced to “tell stories.”
“Last night,” began Daisy, “I woke up, and I thought I would get out of bed, and look out of the window; and what do you think I saw?”
“Oh! what?” cried the rest, with their mouths wide open.
“Why, I saw ten thousand diamonds dancing and sparkling in the dark.”
“Oh, oh! I wish I had seen them!” cried May and Katie.
This was the first time that Daisy had seen the fire-flies flashing their soft, bright lights. She did not mean to tell a falsehood; she really thought that they were diamonds.