“Don’t worry. We wouldn’t miss it. Has the box come?”
“No; but Mother said it would before night, and what Mother can’t put through has not yet been discovered! Miss Randolph said we could sit up a while after ‘lights out,’ so we can have a good time and not hurry. Yum-yum, I know Uncle Andrew’s chickens from Brookdale farm will be in it!”
“Did you say ‘CHICKENS’? in the plural?” asked Diane in deep and husky tones, while she made her eyes big and waved her claws again.
“Ow! Let me escape, fierce beast!” and Hilary disappeared.
As Hilary came into the room, Cathalina, who like all the rest was industriously sewing, pointed with a smile to the birthday box, just deposited near the table by the janitor. The top was open and the nails carefully drawn from the boards.
“Hooray!” cried Hilary. “But I’m not going to take a thing out till after dinner.”
“How can you wait so long?”
“Because I think it will be fun to take it all out at once, and it will spoil our appetites to nibble at things,—and how could we help it?—and then, Mother has packed that box and I know that the eats and everything are in glorious shape. They’ll be better to stay as they are until we are ready. I hope the girls won’t eat much at dinner.”
“If I were Pearl Opal I’d exclaim—‘eat much? here?’”
“Poor Pearl! How she hates it here!”