“Have you any plans?”
“I suppose I shall send her to boarding-school in the autumn. But the poor child is woefully behind her years in knowledge. I shall write to the city for books and set her a daily task at once.
“And now about my visit to you, dear Mrs. Baker. It is very kind of you to take Letty in as well as me, and those great ponies too. But I must not impose upon your hospitality too long. As soon as arrangements can be made, Letty and I must return to the village. Now that I have a willing pair of little feet to wait upon me and run my errands I shall get on nicely. We stopped on the way home this afternoon at Mr. Parsons’ and bespoke a room for Letty. Mr. Parsons thinks he can make room for the ponies in his stable.”
“We shall be very sorry to see you go,” replied Mrs. Baker regretfully, “but I dare say you will feel freer and more undisturbed in your own rooms. The children will miss you.”
“I hope they will come in to see me often—every day, if they wish. We shall have little tea-parties in my sitting-room or down under the trees. And I trust you will come too, to drink tea with me.”
So matters were arranged; much to the children’s disappointment at first, but when they understood the extent of Mrs. Hartwell-Jones’s invitations to them, they were frankly delighted. They did not like the idea of losing Letty and the ponies, but the prospect of almost daily tea-parties made them look forward almost with eagerness to the time of Mrs. Hartwell-Jones’s return to her own rooms in the village.
Jane was filled with rapture at the idea of more fairy plays, for Letty had entered into the game of dolls as eagerly and interestedly as Jane herself, her vivid imagination making the dainty waxen creatures seem all but alive. Christopher, for his part, rejoiced secretly over the chances these visits promised of going to the village and continuing his intimacy with Billy Carpenter.
Billy and half a dozen other village boys were trying to get up a baseball nine, and Christopher and Jo Perkins had both been invited to join. Billy Carpenter came out to Sunnycrest nearly every afternoon on his bicycle, and he and Jo Perkins and Christopher had great times practicing pitching and batting down in the long meadow.
Grandmother looked on at this new friendship of Christopher’s with some surprise and a little uneasiness. Until the present time, the twins had been inseparable, sharing their pleasures and enjoying the same games. Jane was hurt sometimes by Christopher’s desertion, but she was too busy and happy to feel badly for long, and after Letty came she was quite reconciled to Christopher’s new friends.
Letty was a delightful playfellow, always ready for whatever game Jane was pleased to suggest, and as Mrs. Hartwell-Jones demanded very little of her new companion’s time, she was able to devote herself to Jane. Every morning Letty drove Mrs. Hartwell-Jones out in the pony carriage, Jane and Christopher taking turns in the little seat behind; then there was an hour’s work over arithmetic and reading. After that the two little girls might amuse themselves as they pleased.