[p15]
No, they could not go alone. A nice thing it would be for the Judge’s children to be lost down a gully and sleeping out all night.
Well, might they go down to the waterfall? They couldn’t get lost on made paths and with picnickers everywhere.
No, they might not go down to the waterfall. What would the Judge say if he heard his children had been down a dangerous place like that and no one with them!
“Well, let us go up to the shops and the station. We’ve got twopence between us, and we want to spend it, and besides——” But Pauline broke off, recognizing it was worse than useless to explain to a person like Anna the pleasure they could obtain from watching to see whether Howie or their own Larkin got most of the customers by the excursion train. But Anna was horrified at the idea.
“In those dusty clothes and with your sandals off! A nice condition for the shopkeepers to see a Judge’s children in!”
“Oh, hang a Judge’s children,” muttered Pauline, but not until Anna had returned to the house.
“Wish daddy was a butcher,” said Muffie.
“Not a butcher,” said Lynn, who was sensitive and never could pass the shop of hanging carcases without a shudder,—“but a baker would be very nice, and make drop [p16] cakes seven for sixpence. Oh, I could eat a drop cake,—couldn’t you?”
“A Benson’s one,” said Pauline dreamily; “they’re the sweetest.”
“But there are more currants in Dunks’s,” said Muffie. “I shall spend my penny there.”