"We needn't wear them in the streets," said Rob: "we can take them off just outside the town, and hide them among the trees."
"Now, Rob," exclaimed Nelly, "I'd be ashamed to do that! That would look as if we were too proud to be seen in them. I shall wear mine into all the houses."
"Wait till you see how it feels, Nelly," said Lucinda. "Perhaps you won't like it so well's you think."
When Nelly and Rob told their father and mother about the shoulder-yokes that the Swede Jan was going to make for them, both Mr. and Mrs. March laughed heartily.
"Upon my word," said Mr. March, "you are going to look like little merchants in good earnest: aren't you?"
"Don't you suppose they will hurt your shoulders?" asked Mrs. March.
"Ulrica said they didn't," replied Nelly. "She said she had worn one a great deal. She puts a little cushion under the place where they come on your neck. She says we can carry twice as much on those as we can in our hands."
It was arranged now that Rob and Nelly should, for the present, go up to Rosita twice a week, on Tuesdays and Fridays. Mr. March reckoned that they would be able to spare butter and eggs enough to bring them five or six dollars each week. The money from the trout they did not allow themselves to count on, because it would be uncertain; but Rob made most magnificent calculations from it. "Four dollars a week, at least," he said; "and that will be one way to pay off those old grasshoppers. I'll make a good many of them work for us: see if I don't!"
The next time Rob and Nelly went to Rosita, when they bade their mother good-by, they said:—
"Be on the lookout for us, mamma, this afternoon. You'll see us coming down the road with our yokes on."