“The truth of the matter is, I cut the ice cream brick by rule, and each one of the pieces is two inches thick.”
“It’s delicious, Dicky,” Virginia said, “and I especially appreciate it after having read aloud for so long.”
Silence reigned for at least five minutes that the treat might be enjoyed to the full, then, when the dishes had been cleared away, Virg offered to stay and wash them, but Dicky shook her head.
“What?” she inquired in mock dismay. “Do you think that we would permit the president of our club to wash the dishes? No, indeed! I choose Betsy Clossen and Barbara Wente to assist me. Moreover, I heard you say you were due at Pine Cabin at 4:30, and it’s five minutes of that time now.”
Betsy moaned and groaned when she found that she had been elected to wash dishes, but Babs cheerfully accepted. The other girls went their various ways, some to do reference in the library, Sally to take a lesson on a beautiful gilded harp which her mother had recently sent to the school, and which was the joy of all of the girls, though none but the professor who came from Boston once a week could play upon it.
“Little Sally, she do well,” the long-haired foreigner had assured Mrs. Martin. “She has ze ear. More than some! Zat Betsy, she has no ear.”
It chanced that Babs had been passing through the lower corridor at the time, and as she dried dishes she took the opportunity to tease Betsy about her missing member.
“You can’t make me mad telling me that. I warned my dad that I never would make a musician, but he said that he wasn’t going to leave a stone unturned to try to make me into something.”
“Poor man! He’s doomed to bitter disappointment,” Babs began, then suddenly whirled and gave her friend a hug. “I love you!” she said. “I wouldn’t have you different, not for anything, so now!”
“Say, old dear!” Betsy shook out her drying cloth, “Just for that I’ll give you the nuttiest piece of ice cream or cake or fudge that turns up at the next treat.”