“Otherwise,” this very capable young housewife asked, “how shall we excuse the keeping of an automobile when the up-keep and everything is so high?”
“Oh, do,” begged Agnes, the flyaway sister, “do let us have something impractical, Ruth. I just hate the man who wrote the first treatise on political economy.”
“I fancy it is ‘household economy’ you mean, Aggie,” returned her sister, smiling. “And I warrant the author of the first treatise on that theme was a woman.”
“Mrs. Eva Adam, I bet!” chuckled Neale O’Neil, hearing this controversy from the driver’s seat. “It has always been in my mind that the First Lady of the Garden of Eden was tempted to swipe those apples more because the price of other fruit was so high than for any other reason.”
“Then Adam was stingy with the household money,” declared Agnes.
“I really wish you would not use such words as ‘swipe’ before the children, Neale,” sighed Ruth who, although she was no purist, did not wish the little folk to pick up (as they so easily did) slang phrases.
She stepped out of the car when Neale had halted it within the garage and Agnes handed her the egg basket. Tess and Dot immediately began dancing about their elder sister, both shouting at once, the smallest girl with the green and yellow basket and Tess with the silver bracelet in her hand.
“Oh, Ruthie, what do you think?”
“See how pretty it is! And they never missed it.”
“Can’t we keep it, Ruthie?” This from Dot. “We paid those Gypsy ladies for the basket and all that was in it. Sammy says so.”