“I’ll bet the boys down there at the mill could throw together a perfectly swell little shack. They could either have it down by the mill or put it right here at the crossroads. Lucy could put in all kinds of supplies, films for cameras and post cards and candy.”
“Better put in a few canned goods, too, and staples,” add Becky. “I declare, I’d kind of like to have a hand in that myself. Kit, I do believe you’ve started something that may wake this town up.”
Kit herself attacked the problem of winning over the Peckhams to her idea of Lucy’s taking charge of a little store at the crossroads. Lucy sat with wide anxious eyes on the extreme edge of her chair, while her mother said over and over again it was utterly impossible.
“Why, I couldn’t get along without Lucy, especially in the summer, with all the fruit to put up and the young ones home from school.”
“But, Mrs. Peckham,” pleaded Kit, “when you were our age, wasn’t there ever anything that you wanted to do or be with all your heart and soul? Didn’t you ever just want to get away from what you had been doing for years, and start something new?”
“Well, come to think of it now,” smiled Mrs. Peckham, “I’d have given my eye-teeth to have left home and gone to be a teacher in some town.”
“Then please let Lucy do this. Becky says she’s willing to keep an eye on everything, and one of us girls will probably be helping her out most of the time, too. It would only be until the middle of September, and Anne’s fifteen and Charlotte’s twelve. Why, it isn’t fair to them to let them think all Lucy’s good for is to stay at home and do housework. You will let her go, won’t you, Mrs. Peckham?”
Mrs. Peckham sighed and smiled. “You’re a fearfully good pleader. I don’t suppose it would hurt the other girls any to take hold and help. I’m willing, and if her father is, why, she can go. Seems to me you are starting something you can’t finish, but maybe you can.”
The first part of April was unusually mild. A sort of balmy hush seemed to lie over the barren land, as though spring had chosen to steal upon it sleeping. On one of these warm spring days Kit, Doris, Tommy, and Jack went out to inspect the cabins to see if they needed repairing. Matt had promised to help them mend any leaking roofs and replace rotten boards, but except for two of them, they seemed to be in excellent condition. The furniture had all been scraped and painted and almost daily something was added to the store of supplies for the summer venture. The next problem to be solved was finding the occupants for the cabins, and here it was Jean who helped out.
“You don’t want to get a lot of people,” she wrote, “who will be expecting all the comforts of a typical summer resort, so I suggest my spreading the word among the art students here. They are sure to pass it along to their friends.”