Elizabeth Ann drew a slip numbered 6. On it was written the word “cakes.” Catherine Gould drew a slip numbered 6, too, and that meant she and Elizabeth Ann were to ask people to bake cakes to sell at the fair.
Roger Calendar had a slip numbered 10 and Flora Gabrie drew the other slip marked 10. They were to get packages for the grab bag table.
“Any little things that can be wrapped in small parcels, and which can be sold for five and ten cents,” Miss Owen explained.
Then she told them, after they all had their slips, that they ought to do a little work for the fair each day.
“Otherwise, you will leave too much till the last minute,” said Miss Owen. “We mustn’t get excited at the last minute, because we’ll have to go to school as usual up to the day the fair is held.”
Doris’s slip had “dolls” written on it, and she was supposed to ask people to donate dolls for the fair.
“Paper dolls or china dolls—it doesn’t matter,” Miss Owen told her. “If anyone wants to lend us dolls, we’ll borrow them and send them back after the fair is over. They’ll help decorate the doll booth.”
“Better not lend Roger Calendar a doll,” said Catherine Gould in a low voice. “He’s likely to forget it, and leave it out in the rain or snow or something.”
Elizabeth Ann held her tongue. She had promised Uncle Hiram not to quarrel with Catherine about the cow episode. But, thought Elizabeth Ann, if Catherine meant to bring it up every chance she found, it would be very difficult not to answer her crossly.
And within the next week Elizabeth Ann discovered that it was not only difficult to keep from quarreling with Catherine, but it was almost impossible to work with her. It had been expressly explained that the children were to work in pairs, but Catherine wouldn’t let Elizabeth Ann know when she was going to people’s houses to ask for cakes. Of course she knew everyone in town and everyone who lived on the farms, for Catherine had lived in one place all her life. She said nothing to her father and mother about the plan for Elizabeth Ann to go with her, and first she went to everyone she knew in Gardner and then she coaxed her father to take her in his car to her friends who lived on various farms and before Elizabeth Ann knew anything about it, Catherine announced that she had twenty-four cakes “promised.”