“You are to have a couple of hours more for your country frolics, and then, just think of it, this kind Uncle Fred proposes to take us all, on our homeward journey, in his yacht, as far as Rocky Point.”
“Oh, isn’t that beautiful, elegant, splendid, delicious?” chimed in many voices; and May slipped her hand into her father’s as she whispered—
“Oh, Papa, if we only but just could, too!”
“Well, little daughter,” he replied, “you only just are to, all of you, with Mamma to keep you steady. No, boys, no clapping,—you must quietly enjoy the fact.”
The boys obeyed their father’s words, but somehow the soft eggs in their glasses needed an unusual amount of violent spoon-stirring, and Mr. Havens heard little Alice, his next neighbor, repeating to herself, over and over again, one of Kit’s favorite couplets—
“Says Aaron to Moses, let’s cut off our noses,
Says Moses to Aaron, it’s the fashion to wear ’em.”
in order to restrain her impatience, for the child’s appetite had quite left her, when she heard of the good time that was coming, and breakfast seemed like such a long meal.
“Those boys never know when to stop,” she said to herself, more than once.
The boys did “stop,” however, and directly after were seen trooping down the lawn to the shore, for a boat launch. May, Gracie, and Daisy were soon busy at work, making wreaths with Harry’s help, to deck the pretty lamb, whilst Alice, with Mamma’s permission, carried Rosie off to Farmer Shedd’s, to see the Donkeys in the old stable, first stopping to fill their aprons with fresh clover and buttercups. Rosie had never seen donkeys, and when, through the half-opened stable door, the pair thrust out their shaggy necks, and pricked up their long ears, Rosie was tempted to retreat; but when she heard Alice’s petting words, as she stroked the peaceable animals, and saw how daintily they ate all the nice grass she had brought, without once offering to bite the white apron she held out, Rosie grew bolder, and emptied many times the little cart of its load of grass, which shy Tommy Shedd brought to them, and fed the good donkeys, even venturing to pat their shaggy manes and tell the homely animals what “regular beauties” they were.