“You’ll take the paint off!” screamed Cousin Margaret.
“Take the paint off!” echoed Betsey. “Just see here.” She doubled her cloth over a skewer and began digging out the corners of the little dining-room windows. And when the room was clean enough, she wiped the smooth floor vigorously back and forth with a clean cloth.
“Now see the difference,” she announced, looking first at the clean dining-room and then at the drawing-room.
“Why, the other is actually gray, isn’t it?” said Cousin Margaret, peering in at the little room. “Don’t you want to let me do this one?”
“HE SURE DO LOOK MIGHTY STYLISH A-DRIVING DAT KERRIDGE,” SAID DINAH
“O thank you!” cried Betsey, seizing the carpets to shake out of the window. So Cousin Margaret promptly began her first house-cleaning. As she polished off the threshold, she heard a gentle thud, thud, over by the desk, so she took her head out of the house to see what was going on. There sat Betsey beating pillows with two of the tiniest little carpet-beaters you ever saw. They were made of twisted wires, exactly like big ones, only so small that they made you laugh to look at them. Cousin Margaret laughed. But she had to own up that the rooms looked very fresh and sweet, as they put back the clean carpets and dusted furniture.
“What does your Mrs. Delight do to entertain her guests?” she asked.
“I thought they could have a picnic,” said Betsey, pausing a moment to think. “I have a pattern for a dandy lunch-basket. And Tom has the dearest little canoe!”
“Has he, indeed?” observed Tom’s voice around the corner.