"But you couldn't spare us: could you? You couldn't stay here all alone." And her face fell.
"Yes, I think we could spare you; and we have said you might go," said Mrs. March, smiling.
Nelly's arms were round her mother's neck in one moment, and she was kissing her and half laughing and half crying.
"Oh, mamma! mamma!" she said, "I can't tell whether I am glad or sorry. I don't want to go away from you; but oh! if you only could hear Arthur tell of all the beautiful things in New York! Oh! I don't know whether I am sorry or glad!"
But Mrs. March knew very well that she was glad, and this made it much easier for her to bear the thought of the separation.
If Nelly, the quiet Nelly, were as glad and excited as this, how do you suppose the adventurous Rob felt, when he heard the news? The house wouldn't hold him. He had to run out and turn summersaults on the grass. Then he raced off down to the tents, and told Flora and Ralph and Thomas. It was early in the morning, and Arthur was not up. All the servants were glad. They all liked Rob and Nelly, and they all saw how much better Arthur had grown since he had had children to play with.
"Ah, Master Rob," said Thomas, "just wait till I drive ye out in the Park; that's a place worth looking at,—all beautiful green grass, and lakes, and roads as smooth and hard as a beach, and groves of trees,—not like this bare wilderness, I can tell ye."
"Are there mountains there, Thomas?" asked Rob.
"Mountains! no! The Lord be praised: never a mountain!" exclaimed Ralph; "and if ever I'm thankful for anything, it is to get out of sight of the ugly sides of 'em!"
"Oh, Ralph!" was all Rob could say at hearing such an opinion of mountains.