“There’s a fire in the first cabin,” said Elizabeth Ann. “We can go in there, if you’d rather.”
“I wish you wouldn’t talk that silly way,” Catherine said pettishly. “When you mean the parlor, say so. Let’s go in—I’m freezing.”
Elizabeth Ann saw that she was cross. Some people are cross the day after a party, and Catherine was evidently one of those who do not feel happy the next day.
They went into the house and sat down on the white rug before the logs blazing so merrily in the fireplace. Doris didn’t say a word and Elizabeth Ann was rather glad she didn’t. She was so afraid that if Doris did say anything, it would be to mention the chocolates.
“I know I never should have asked that dreadful Roger Calendar to my party,” said Catherine unexpectedly. “Now I hope you’re satisfied, Elizabeth Ann; you and Miss Owen. You’re the ones who thought I ought to ask him.”
“I do think you ought to have asked him,” Elizabeth Ann declared staunchly. “You couldn’t ask the whole class and leave him out. Miss Owen said so.”
“Well, he’s made plenty of trouble,” said Catherine disagreeably. “He left the door of the corncrib open last night and one of my father’s best cows got in and ate too much corn and died. It was a very valuable cow.”
Elizabeth Ann looked horrified.
“But how do you know it was Roger who left the corncrib door open?” she asked. “There were other boys at the party.”
“Roger came over and helped Aunt Nan fix the strings from the barn to the kitchen,” explained Catherine. “Aunt Nan told us this morning when Daddy found the cow on the barn floor. He opened the corncrib door to see how to run one of the strings under it and I suppose he forgot to close it.”