Giant Father shook hands with Eva, and was just about to say some kindly word of welcome when the side-door banged, and Jack, cap in hand, appeared before them. “Sis,” he cried, “cast your eye upon this package! Does it look like chocolate enough? And here are the nuts. It took all the money I have earned this month to make these purchases.”
“Earned!” exclaimed Adele. “Doing what?”
“Children! Children!” Mrs. Doring laughingly admonished from the doorway. And then she added, “Come now, since Jack has returned we will have our supper.”
When they were seated at the table, Adele gayly exclaimed, “Yes, Jackie, since we have a guest, let us have peace to-night.”
“I’ll gladly have a ‘piece’ of yonder chocolate mountain,” Jack said, as he waved his hand toward a large cake such as no one could make, so he thought, except their own cook, Kate. And Kate, serving the supper, beamed happily on the brown head of the boy who had been the darling of her heart ever since he had been placed in her arms fourteen years before. It was indeed her chief happiness to make or bake something for her boy, Jack.
The merry supper in such a happy home brought tender memories rushing to the heart of the orphan girl, but bravely she thought, “I must appreciate what I have and stop grieving for what I cannot have.”
When the supper was over Adele drew Eva into a little room near the library. “This is Giant Daddy’s den,” she said. “Come in and close the door. I want to telephone to the Sunny Six and invite them to the fudge party.”
Soon the line was busy, for Adele was holding merry conversations with first one of her friends and then another. Yes, indeed, Betty Burd could come, and wouldn’t it be jolly fun!
“What shall I bring?” Peggy Pierce asked. “Just your own sweet self,” Adele replied. Bob, Jack’s pal, had told Bertha Angel about the party, and she said that she and Gertrude Willis would come together. Doris Drexel lived next door to Adele, so all that she had to do was to crawl through the hole in the hedge.
Rosamond Wright said that she had to take a music-lesson first. Oh, yes, she would come to the party after that. Why, she wouldn’t miss it for worlds, but she might be late.