"All of us?" she cried between hugs.
"No, this time we'll leave mother home with Billy and Alice. Then the next time they'll go."
Peggy's eyes swept over Billy's and Alice's disappointed faces.
"Oh, I wish we could all go!"
"Mother'll make it up to them, my dear. I'll wager right now all sorts of nice plans are floating around in her head. Well, can you be ready?"
"Can we--!" they cried in chorus.
The hours then were full of excited preparations. The new clothes had to be purchased. "Keineth may be invited to meet the President," Mrs. Lee had laughingly explained, as she held two pretty hats, one in each hand, and considered them carefully.
"Oh, wouldn't that be _wonderful!_" Keineth whispered. She wanted to ask him so many questions about Daddy--she would tell him that she could keep a secret!
Billy gave them a thousand instructions. They must remember everything they saw to tell him! They must climb the big monument and walk up the Capitol steps and hear the echo in the rotunda of the Capitol Building. They must go to Camp Meyer and to Arlington and to Mount Vernon and be sure to see Washington's swords!
"And the White House china," Mrs. Lee added. "It must be as good as a lesson in history to look at that exhibit in the White House! They'd tell the tastes of the different ones who used them! I can picture pretty Dolly Madison ordering all new china because the pattern of the old did not please her!"