“I have enjoyed the deer most,” Arthur declared.
This specification of enjoyment had developed to a game now. Arthur went on. “Having those deer about is the most like Robin Hood of anything I’ve ever known. It’s like stories you read in Kipling and Stevenson. When I come across a group of them in the woods, I feel—well I give it up—I don’t know how I feel.”
“I know what Dicky enjoys most,” Maida said.
“What?” Dicky demanded.
“The white peacocks.”
Dicky admitted it. “But the swimming and the canoeing and the tennis, too,” he added as though a little jealous for these new sports of his. “But of course the white peacocks most— Well, if Arthur thinks the deer are like adventure stories I think the peacocks are like all the fairy stories in the world come true. What do you enjoy most, Maida?”
Maida thought carefully. “Everything! Having all of you here.”
“Oh but what special thing, Maida?” Rosie pleaded. “There’s always one thing you like better than others.”
“Betsy’s badness, then,” Maida admitted. “I’ve never laughed so much in all my life as at the things Betsy does. You see when I was a little girl, I was so sick that I never did anything really naughty but Betsy—Oh she’s such fun!”