“Oh, goody! chocolate cake,” shouted both, skipping joyously and swinging the pail. “You sweet Marmie! Do you know, the old red hen laid an egg to-day, and so did the pullet that crows, and that Dad said never would be anything but a feminist. I guess he’ll be surprised!”
“I guess he will, and we’ll give him that egg for his breakfast to-morrow. But hurry in—I’m freezing.”
My gracious, but that cake and milk were good! The girls pretended they were two grown-up ladies, and that Ruth was visiting Rose, and they conversed in the most perfect manner while they ate and drank, being careful not to lose so much as a crumb.
They giggled a lot, too, but if you asked why I’m sure I don’t know, and I don’t believe they did. After all, that is the pleasantest kind of giggling, that just comes, as Rose once said, rolling up from inside you without your having anything to do with it.
So when Ruth said that she had been obliged to leave her six children at home because they all had chickenpox, both girls went off into a perfect gale of laughter. It was only when they stopped for breath that they heard the fairy’s voice, and it was all mixed up with laughter too, saying:
“What in the world are you two young ones laughing at? And if you’re having such a good time of course you won’t want to go visiting with me.”
At that they laughed again, all three of them, especially when Rose tried to explain why they were laughing. So she gave it up finally, which was easy since after all she didn’t know.
“Oh, Fairy Honeysqueak, I do wish we hadn’t eaten up all the cake, so that we could have had some for you. Do you like cake?”
“No, I usually take a little pollen and dew when I’m hungry,” replied the fairy. “Cake is too solid for my constitution. So don’t worry. And now where shall we go?”
After some excited conversation on that topic, it was decided that they would visit Di Vernon, whom the girls had long known in “Rob Roy.”