CHAPTER XXI
ALL STRAIGHTENED OUT
Elizabeth Ann blushed and the people who had come to the fair clapped. Doris forgot to be shy and beamed.
“Nobody ever guessed it was you, Elizabeth Ann,” she kept saying.
Uncle Hiram took them both over to the ice cream booth and there was still some ice cream left, vanilla and chocolate. Before they had quite finished their plates, Aunt Grace called to Uncle Hiram to come where she was and look at something, and that left Elizabeth Ann and Doris alone. The children in charge of the ice cream booth had gone to buy something at one of the tables—for the fair was almost over—and the teacher who had given the two little girls their ice cream had taken her money box over to have the money counted where all the money boxes were.
“P-st!” whispered someone right in Elizabeth Ann’s ear.
Of course she jumped, for it startled her.
“Here I am—back of these pillows,” said a voice and Catherine Gould put her head out between two black satin pillows that had been left on a piano bench.
“I think you were awfully mean to fool people, Elizabeth Ann,” said Catherine reproachfully. “Of course if I had known who you were, I wouldn’t have asked you to tell my fortune.”
“It was just for fun,” Elizabeth Ann answered, taking the last spoonful of her chocolate ice cream and looking at her empty plate wistfully.
“Well, don’t you ever tell what I told you about the corncrib door, or I’ll never forgive you,” said Catherine.