“Aw, cut it out!” cried Becky, indignantly. “Do you want to spoil all our fun?”
“My sister is religiously inclined,” observed Allerton; “yet there is a place for everything, and this is not a funeral.”
“Oh, Allerton—how shocking!” exclaimed the girl.
“I don’t believe,” said Don, “you Randolphs would have spent a penny on the poor if you hadn’t given this party; so what’s the odds?”
It suddenly occurred to Becky that this wasn’t a proper topic of conversation under the circumstances, and might lead to a quarrel; so she turned the subject by asking:
“What’s in that red-and-white striped tent?”
“Lemonade and ices,” said Allerton. “Will you have some?”
“Sure thing!” was the reply, and away they went, to be served by a maid in a white cap and apron.
“Doesn’t it cost us anything?” inquired Sue, who found the lemonade extremely good.
“Course not,” returned Becky, helping herself again from the big bowl when the maid was not looking. “But if Doris had her way they’d collect a nickel a glass for charity,—the kind of charity that doesn’t help the poor a bit.”