"But in the winter?" suggested Rosemary, "You go to school, winters, don't you?"
Louisa's lips tightened.
"I didn't last winter and I don't intend to this," she announced with curious defiance. "There's no one to take care of the children except Alec and me. We tried taking turns staying home, but neither one of us could learn much that way so we gave it up."
Richard had come over, so he said, to borrow a file and presently he declared he must get back to work. June was handed back to Louisa, Sarah summoned from her lecture on pigs—to which the boys were giving rapt attention, and Shirley, with difficulty, detached from Kitty and a dilapidated rope swing.
"You'll come over and see us, won't you?" said Rosemary eagerly.
"No," interposed Alec, standing straight and tall beside his sister.
The monosyllable sounded ungracious but Rosemary, looking at Alec, saw that he did not mean to be discourteous. He looked a little unhappy, a little shy, a bit afraid, even. And Louisa's blue eyes were wistful.
"Then we'll come see you," promised Rosemary gravely.
"I'm glad you said that," approved Richard, leading the way down the road. "Alec never goes anywhere that he doesn't have to and Louisa is getting to be just like him. First thing those kids know, they'll be queer."
"Am I queer?" asked Sarah in sudden alarm.