“Everything you do, you do better than anybody else,” said Mary Louise. “What do you think of adding a tea service, girls?”
“We think: go to it!” cried Josie, delighted to know that Mary Louise was interested enough to plan for the welfare of the Higgledy Piggledies.
“I have all kinds of electric cooking things that Danny gave me. Grandpa Jim, for some reason, was opposed to them and I kept them packed away. I’ll go home and get them out of the attic and we can set up shop to-morrow afternoon. I’ll bring the necessary china and silver and table linen.”
“Don’t make it too fine,” cautioned Josie.
“Let’s name it the Higgledy Piggledy Electric Treating Tryst,” suggested Elizabeth.
A knock on the door and Bob Dulaney and Billy McGraw entered. Fresh tea was brewed for the two young men and then they were told of the scheme Mary Louise had evolved concerning the Electric Treating Tryst.
“Nothing astonishes me,” confessed Billy. “You girls take an old barn of a place and turn it into a thriving business and actually make a living, make a living as it were on other persons’ laziness and now you are threatening to feed the multitude. You can do anything!”
The misfortunes of Mary Louise had very much affected Billy McGraw. He had been devoted to Danny with an intense admiration as well as affection for him. The news of his death had been as sad a blow to him as it had been to Bob Dulaney. When it was known that the grandfather’s fortune had been mysteriously dissipated, he had rushed to the poor little widow with offers of unlimited financial assistance, but Mary Louise had explained that she was not in want and, thanking him sweetly and gratefully, had, of course, refused all offers of financial aid.
The two young men were glad indeed when “Mrs. Danny,” as they called Mary Louise, was moved from her big and now gloomy house to the more cheerful and busy surroundings offered by the Higgledy Piggledies.
“Where are you going to feed these hungry swarms?” asked Bob Dulaney, who, in spite of his poetical propensities, had a very practical mind.