“Do you really stop to think about the eating? How many do you imagine would have to be fed? And I assure you, my young dreamer, that, though it doesn’t sound especially well, the feeding of her guests is one of the most important duties of every hostess. But I’ll take that part off your hands. You attend to the spiritual and moral entertainment and I’ll order the table part. Yet your plan calls for many sleeping accommodations. How about that?”
“I thought, Grandmother, maybe you’d let me open the ‘Barrack’ again. That would do for the boys, and there’s surely room enough in this great house for all the girls who’d care to stay.”
A shadow passed over the Sun Maid’s face, but it—passed. In a moment she looked up brightly and answered as, a few hours later, she was to be most thankful she had done:
“Very well. After the war was over and I closed it I felt as if I could never reopen the place. Though Gaspar and my boys never saw it, somehow it seemed always theirs. I suppose because it had been built for the benefit of those who had fought and suffered with them. Now I see that this was morbid; and I am glad I have never torn the building down, as I have sometimes thought I would. You may have it for your friends and should set about airing and preparing it at once. Also, if you are to give so many invitations, you would better start upon them.”
“Couldn’t I just put an advertisement in the papers? That’s so easy and short.”
“And—rude!”
“Rude?”
“Yes. There would be no compliment in a newspaper invitation. Would you fancy one for yourself?”
“No, indeed, I should not. That rule of yours, to ‘put yourself in his place,’ is a pretty good one, after all, isn’t it?”