“I think you are a very interesting family,” said Miss Madison, when she and her brother finally rose to take leave. “Don’t scold Sophy for coming down, will you? I take it as a great compliment that she wanted to see us. We have yet to meet your brother and the sister who disappeared so suddenly the other day. Please be very neighborly, for I like you,” she added, “and, Miss Katherine, perhaps you will come up Monday afternoon and bring some of your music. I long to play with you. I should be glad to have your sisters come, too. Good night.”
“What must they think of us?” exclaimed Honor, when the front door was finally shut. “The whole affair was too dreadful.”
“I don’t think so at all,” said Katherine. “It was all very funny from beginning to end, and they are just the kind of people to take it nicely. But did you ever see such a sight as Sophy! Fancy her taking all my precious things!”
“Fancy her coming down and listening in that way,” said Honor. “It was perfectly dreadful.”
“Don’t scold her about it,” said Victoria, who had joined them. “She has been crying so hard, and she is waiting for you to come to bid her good night, Honor. She didn’t know it wasn’t the right thing to do, but I’ve been explaining to her. She was crazy to see the Madisons, and she forgot she had those things on. I was rather curious myself to know what you were talking about when I heard such a jolly time going on down here.”
“Why didn’t you come down?” asked Katherine. “They both asked for you.”
“Too busy,” replied her sister. “I’ve finished moving you. If I hadn’t stayed upstairs, we should have had to be up all night, or you never would have been ready for Aunt Sophia.”
The next afternoon Peter announced his intention of going off to the woods. He was interested in a pair of birds that had made their nest in a certain tree, and whenever he had a spare moment he went to the woods to watch them. He had declined to take Sophy with him to-day, giving as his reason that she talked too much.
“You can’t see a thing in the woods,” he said wisely, “if a girl’s along. They always chatter, chatter, chatter, like a squirrel. When Carney and I go together, we don’t say a word, and pretty soon all the creatures come out and attend to their business just as they would if we weren’t there. Creatures are awfully afraid of people. You know you never see anything about when you just go walking through the woods. They all stay in their holes and nests. But if you just go sit there and watch and don’t make a sound, they begin to come out, and it’s lots of fun. I’ll take Sirius because he minds me and keeps quiet when I tell him to, but it’s no good to say that to Sophy.”
“Why, Peter,” said Sophy, in an injured tone, “I won’t say a word if you don’t want me to. You tell me things when we are out walking, and then I have to answer, but I won’t if you’ll only let me go.”