“Then the moral is easy of deduction,” said Meg drily.
“Oh, bother morals!” was Nell’s easy answer.
She tripped down the verandah steps with a glance or two over her shoulder at the set of the back of her dress, and she crossed the lawn to the crazy-looking summer-house.
“Oh dear!” sighed Meg.
She leaned her face on her hands, and stared sadly after the crisp, retreating frills and the shimmer of golden hair “done up.” This was one of the days when Meg’s desires to be a model eldest sister were in the ascendency, hence the very feminine exclamation.
She had not altered very much in all these five long years—a little taller perhaps, a little more womanly, but the eyes still had their child-like, straightforward look, and the powdering of freckles was there yet, albeit fainter in colouring.
[11]
]She still made resolutions—and broke them. She still wrote verses—and burnt them. To-day she was darning socks, Pip’s and Bunty’s. That was because she had just made a fresh resolve to do her duty in her state of life.
At other times she left them all to the fag end of the week, and great was the cobbling thereof to satisfy the demands of “Clean socks, Meg, and look sharp.”
Besides darning, Meg had promised to take care of the children for the afternoon, as Esther had gone out.
Who were the children? you will ask, thinking five years has taken that title away from several of our young Australians.