“I do forget it, all the time. And do you know why? It’s because you seem to know such an awful lot about other places and things you never saw there. I suppose they made you read books.”
“Made me! That was one of the things Maw Hoover used to get mad at me for doing. Whenever she saw me reading a book it seemed to make her mad, and she’d say I was loafing, and find something for me to do, even if I’d hurried through all the chores I had so that I could get at the book sooner.”
“Then you used to like to read?”
“Oh, yes, I always did. The Sunday School had a sort of library, and I used to be able to get books from there. I love to read, and you would, too, Dolly, if you only knew how much fun you have out of books.”
Dolly made a face.
“Not the sort of books my Aunt Mabel wants me to read,” she said decidedly. “Stupid old things they are! It’s just like going to school all over again. I get enough studying at school, thanks!”
“But you like to know about people and places you’ve never seen, don’t you!”
“Yes, but all the books I’ve ever seen that tell you about things like that are just like geographies. They give you a lot of things you have to remember, and there’s no fun to that.”
“You haven’t read the right sort of books, that’s all that’s the matter with you, Dolly. I tell you what—when we get back to the city, we’ll get hold of some good books, and take turns reading them aloud to one another. I think that would be good fun.”
“Well, maybe if they taught me as much as you seem to know about places you’ve never seen I wouldn’t mind reading them. Anyhow, books or no books, you’re going’ to love the seashore. Oh, it is such a delightful place—Plum Beach.”