Mickey exchanged the fish for a handful of wet, vividly coloured pebbles, then brought a bunch of cowslips yellow as gold, and a long willow whip with leaves on, and when she had examined these, she looked inquiringly at Mrs. Harding.
"Nicest lady, may I put my feet in your water?"
"How about the temperature of it, Mickey?" inquired Mrs. Harding.
"It's all right," said Mickey. "I've washed her in colder water lots of times. The Sunshine Lady said I should, to toughen her up."
"Then go ahead," said Mrs. Harding.
"Peter, may I?" asked Peaches.
"Surely!" agreed Peter. "Whole bunch may get in if Ma says so!"
"Well, I don't say so!" exclaimed Mrs. Harding. "The children have their good clothes on and they always get to romping and dirty themselves and then it's bigger washings and mine are enough to break my back right now."
Peter looked at his wife intently. "Why Nancy, I hadn't heard you complain before!" he said. "If they're too big, we must wear less and make them smaller, and I'll take an hour at the machine, and Junior can turn the wringer. All of you children listen to me. Your Ma is feeling the size of the wash. That means we must be more careful of our clothes and help her better. If Ma gets sick, or tired of us, we'll be in a fix, I tell you!"
"I didn't say I was sick, or tired of you, I'm just tired of washing!" said Mrs. Harding.