"Maud went ahead with some friends of her own," he explained. "She said they wouldn't want me."
The obvious thing was to ask him to go with them. Had Emily Louise been speaking for herself alone, she would have done so, Albert Eddie being her friend and going to her Sunday school. On the other hand, his father kept a grocery at the corner just passed, and lived over it with his family. He wasn't the friend of her three companions and he didn't go to their Sunday school. Emily Louise understood many things which Emmy Lou wot not of. Would they want him?
Verging' on thirteen, one has heard this nature of thing and its distinctions discussed at home.
Aunt Louise objected to certain associates of Emily Louise not long ago. "It's why I am and always have been opposed to the public school for her. She picks up with every class and condition."
"And why I have opposed your opposition," returned Uncle Charlie, "since it is her best chance in life to know every class and condition."
"I'm sure I don't know why she should," Aunt Louise had said.
"An argument in itself in that you don't know," from Uncle Charlie.
Fortunately for Emily Louise in the present case of Albert Eddie, twelve verging on thirteen was yet democratic. "We'll all go together," said Hattie as a matter of course, and the others agreed.
Hattie, as ever, was marshal and spokesman. They boarded the car and sat down. "Fifty cents all around to begin with," she stated after fares were paid and the common wealth displayed. "Five cents put in for carfare. Forty-five cents left all around. Five cents to come home on, five cents to spend, and thirty-five cents for supper just makes it."
Church creeds and nomenclatures may vary but the laws of church fêtes and fairs are the same. As the five left the car and approached the Goodwins' home, Whitney and Logan were patrolling the sidewalk outside the gate and the lantern-hung yard from whence arose the hustle and chatter of the lawn fête.