As soon as lunch was finished, Lyn came in to clear the table and Lex went out to study for another hour. He did most of his studying under an old apple tree, and sometimes Jaspar came and cropped the grass around him, just to be sociable, Lex said.
“Come out where it is shady, Elizabeth Ann,” said Uncle Doctor. “I want to talk to you.”
He and Cousin Nellie and Elizabeth Ann went out doors where there were some comfortable chairs on the grass near the house. It was shady here part of the day and Cousin Nellie liked to sit in her easy-chair and sew.
“Is it about the letter?” asked Elizabeth Ann, perching herself on the arm of Uncle Doctor’s chair.
“You’ve guessed it exactly,” he answered her. “Your Aunt Jennie has written a letter to Cousin Nellie—to both of us, rather, because she wants our advice. And your daddy and mother are so far away she can not write to them and get an answer in time.”
“Then,” said Elizabeth Ann, beginning to feel excited, “the letter is about me.”
“Right again,” Uncle Doctor declared. “The letter is about you—about you and Doris. Poor Doris has been very ill indeed, but she is better now.”
“But she can’t go back to school,” said Cousin Nellie quietly.
Elizabeth Ann stared, too surprised to speak. Why, she and Doris had been sent to Aunt Ida’s school because Doris’s mother thought she ought to go away to school. Doris had an older sister and four brothers and she was apt to be spoiled with too much attention at home.
“Do I have to go to school all by myself?” gasped Elizabeth Ann.