“We thought that that would be better,” said Miss Anne, “than to put all your names on.”
“Yes,” said Marielle, “a great deal better. Mary Jay will remember all our names.”
“Yes,” rejoined Miss Anne, “we thought it would be well, when you send it, to send a note with all your names in it, because she will want to know whom it is from.”
“And my name too?” said little Charlotte.
“Yes,” said Miss Anne, “your name too, by all means.”
“Well,” said Charlotte, in a tone of great satisfaction; and she went capering about in high glee.
Various plans were proposed for giving the crutch to Mary Jay. Among the others there was this—that Miss Anne and two or three of the children should be at the house when Mary Jay was going away; that they should have the new crutch hid behind the stage; and that, when Mary Jay came out to get into the stage-coach, Miss Anne should offer to hold her crutch for her while she got in; and then, after she was fairly in her seat, that they should put in the new crutch instead of the old one, and shut the stage door quick, and let her be driven off.
Miss Anne said that that was certainly an ingenious plan; but she thought that that mode would not be so pleasant to Mary Jay, as some other mode might be.
“It would give her a sudden surprise,” continued Miss Anne, “which would not be pleasant in so public a place as a stage-coach. She would probably be very much embarrassed and confused.”
“Besides,” said Laura, “I don’t want to have it given to her just when she is going away. I want to see how she looks, and to hear what she says. We had better all go together, and ask her to come out, and then give it to her ourselves.”