A happy girl worked with a capable father, who took off his coat, tied an apron around his waist and had as much fun as Betty, especially when the time came to cook the steak. Appetite did not lack when dinner was ready and before there was any thought of dish washing, Mr. Lee sent Betty to hunt up her over-night bag and looked up his own grip. “Put in a dress that you can wear to dinner in a hotel, Betty,” said he, “and don’t forget the fixings.”
“Oh, Daddy, my chiffon dress won’t muss a bit and I mustn’t forget my shoes that go with it!”
Betty forgot all of her duties as a housekeeper, as she laid out on the bed the array of what she wanted to take with her to New York—New York! “How long are we going to stay, Father?” she called from her bedroom.
“Just two or three days—have to be back to meet Mother and the children, you know.”
“How long does it take to get there?”
“About a night and half a day,” replied Mr. Lee, who was preparing another small surprise for Betty. She was so absorbed that she did not realize how time flew until she ran back into the dining room and found that her father had cleared the table and was washing the last dish.
“How awful! Father, I’m just as sorry as I can be! I never saw you washing dishes before!”
“I have, daughter, in dire emergencies, but this time it was for fun. Are all the gew-gaws, or doo-dads, ready?”
“I’ve got everything I ought to have, I think, ’cept washing out some silk stockings. Do you think it would be wicked if I’d do it tonight?”
“That is, indeed, a serious matter,” grinned Mr. Lee, looking like Dick. “But since it is my fault and not yours, and they will have to get dry to be packed, we might consider it. And matters of necessity are different, though we’d not make a point of saving our stockings to be washed on the Sabbath, would we?”