“You see,” she began eagerly, “I wanted to ask you three to help me in something, but I can’t do it unless you let me help you. Listen—the next holiday is Halloween. I want to decorate my shop with a lot of real jack-o’-lanterns cut from pumpkins. It will be hard work and a lot of it and I was hoping that perhaps you’d help me with this.”
“Of course we will,” Dicky said heartily.
“Gee, I bet Dicky and I could make some great lanterns,” Arthur said reflectively.
“And I’ll help you fix up the store,” Rosie said with enthusiasm. “I just love to make things look pretty.”
“It’s a bargain then,” Maida said. “And now you must teach me how to help you this very afternoon, Dicky.”
They fell to work with a vim. At least three of them did. Rosie continued to frisk with Delia and Tag on the floor. Dicky started Maida on the caps first. He said that those were the easiest. And, indeed she had very little trouble with anything until she came to the boxes. She had to do her first box over and over again before it would come right. But Dicky was very patient with her. He kept telling her that she did better than most beginners or she would have given it up. When she made her first good box, her face beamed with satisfaction.
“Do you mind if I take it home, Dicky?” she asked. “I’d like to show it to my father when he comes. It’s the first thing I ever made in my life.”
“Of course,” Dicky said.
“Don’t the other children ever try to copy your things?” Maida asked.