When he saw Elizabeth Ann in school the next Monday, Roger told her what had happened and that he expected to be working on the Gould farm Saturdays, “forever and ever.”
“I know you didn’t leave the door open, Roger,” said Elizabeth Ann.
“I know you didn’t leave it open, either, Roger,” Doris added. “Catherine ate up all our candy, so I don’t believe a word she says.”
“Uncle Hiram scolded you for saying that last night and you told him you wouldn’t say it again,” Elizabeth Ann told her severely. “I don’t believe Catherine tells fibs; she thinks you left the door open, Roger, and you know you didn’t. Some day you can prove it to her father that you didn’t.”
Roger didn’t see how he was ever going to prove it, but he said it made him feel better to know that Elizabeth Ann and Doris were sure he had not been careless. And when they went into school, there was a notice on the bulletin board that made them forget about cows and corncribs and Hallowe’en parties.
“The school is going to have a fair,” said Elizabeth Ann at the supper table that night. “It was on the bulletin board this morning and Miss Owen explained it to us. Each class has a booth and we make lots of money, and buy Christmas presents for poor people.”
“But we have to go around and ask people for things,” Doris said in such a discouraged voice that everyone laughed.
“Never mind, Doris, I’ll go around with you,” promised Uncle Hiram. “What do we ask for?”
“Oh, everything,” Doris explained. “Cakes and pies and fancy work to sell. It’s a great deal of work, Miss Owen says, and she thinks it will be good for us. We have to trim our own booths, and the fair lasts a whole afternoon. We have it in the basement of the school.”
The next day Miss Owen held a meeting after school and explained more fully what her class was expected to do to make the fair a success. She had slips of paper and they were numbered in pairs. Each child drew a slip and found something written on it. The child who drew the slip with the same number was his partner and was supposed to work with him.