“Yes, I voted for Lucy,” said Rollo. “I thought she would be the best.”
“And so did I,” said James and Henry.
Lucy looked down, and felt a little embarrassed at finding herself raised so suddenly to the dignity of regent; and she asked Mary what she was to do.
“O, walk along with them just as you would if you had not been chosen; only you will decide all the questions that come up, such as where you shall go, and how long you shall stay in the different places. The others may give you their opinions, if you ask them; but they must let you decide, and they must all submit to your decisions.”
“Well, come,” said Lucy; “we’ll go down the lane first.” So she took hold of Thanny’s hand, and walked along, the other children following. They passed through the great gate, and soon disappeared from Mary’s view.
They were gone two or three hours. At length, when the sun had nearly gone down, Mary heard voices in the front of the house. She left her back window, and went around to a front window to see. She found them returning, and all talking together with the greatest volubility. They had their baskets full of various commodities, and large bouquets of flowers and plants in their hands. They did not see Mary at the window, and as they all seemed to be good-natured and satisfied with their afternoon’s work, Mary did not speak to them; and so they passed along into the yard undisturbed. They proceeded immediately to the cabinet in the play room, and then began to take out their treasures from their baskets, and pockets, and handkerchiefs, and to spread them out upon the floor, and upon the bench. In a short time, the floor was covered with specimens of plants and minerals, with shells, and pebbles, and little papers of sand, and nuts, and birds’ nests which they had found deserted, and all sorts of wonders. The room was filled with the sound of their voices; questions, calls to one another, expressions of delight, exclamations of surprise, or of disappointment or pleasure. It was all,—“James, you are treading on my flowers!” “O Lucy, Lucy, see my toadstool!” “O, now my prettiest shell is broken!” “Move away a little, Rollo—I have not got room for all my pebbles”—“Where’s my silk worm? now where’s my silk worm?” “O Henry, give me some of your birch bark, do,”—and a hundred other similar ejaculations, all uttered together.
They soon began, one and another, to put their curiosities into the cabinet,—and then it was, as the old phrase is, confusion worse confounded. Lucy had some discretion and forbearance, and kept a little back, looking, however, uneasy and distressed, and attempting in vain to get an opportunity to put some of her things in. The boys crowded around the cabinet, each attempting to put his own curiosities into the most conspicuous places, and arranging them over and over again, according as each one’s whims or fancies varied.
“O dear me,” said Rollo, “I wish you would not keep moving these pebbles away, Henry.”
“Why, you put them too far this way,” said Henry; “I want my shells to go here.”
“No,” replied Rollo, “put your shells down on the next shelf. James! James! take care; don’t touch that birds’ nest.”