“Well, I know some one else who is a beauty,” said Mr. Danvers, looking admiringly at his wife’s rosy face and wide-apart, laughing eyes, adding with a smile: “Even though she has a big patch of flour under one eye.”
“Oh!” cried Connie’s mother, and wiped her face vigorously with a pink and white checked apron. “Now just for that,” she said, turning to her husband, who was still lounging in the doorway, “I’m going to put you out. And Bruce, too. I have enough to do without having a husband who makes fun of me and a dog who sticks his tail into everything under my feet all the time. Hurry on,” and she pushed her protesting, laughing husband and the reluctant dog out through the open door and into the brilliant sunshine beyond.
“Are you going to call us in time for breakfast?” Mr. Danvers called back to his wife over his shoulder.
“Of course,” she answered. “I’ll send Connie after you.” And she playfully waved a frying pan at him.
“She put us out, Bruce,” said Mr. Danvers laying a caressing hand on the dog’s beautiful head as he walked gravely along beside him. “But we love her just the same, don’t we?” And Bruce’s answer was to press close to Mr. Danvers and wave his tail enthusiastically.
Hardly had Mrs. Danvers had time to put the bacon in the oven to keep warm and break the eggs into the pan when there was a sound of skirmishing on the stairs, and a moment later a whirlwind broke in upon her.
“Mother, Mother, Mother, everything smells good!” cried Connie, dancing over to her mother and hugging her so energetically that she almost sent the eggs, pan and all, on the floor. “Is there anything we can do to help?”
“Yes—go away,” cried Connie’s mother, seeing with dismay that one of the eggs in the pan was broken—and Connie’s mother prided herself upon serving perfect eggs. Then, as she saw the surprise in the girls’ faces, she relented, left the eggs to their fate, and hugged them all.
“You’re darlings,” she said. “But you’re awfully in the way. Billie, for goodness sake, hand me that pancake turner. Quick! These eggs are going to be awful!”
But Billie had jumped to the rescue, and when the eggs were turned out on the platter with the bacon surrounding them on four sides, they did not look “awful” at all, but just about the most appetizing things the girls had ever laid hungry eyes on.