"Then it was well worth all your sacrifice?" said Mr. Minturn.
"Yes, indeed. It would have taken us a lifetime to accumulate as much money as we have earned in this year. Of course, it was hard for the men who had families, McLaughlin especially; the others were all working sailors, but he was a landsman and my partner in the enterprise; but I will make it up to him, and the mahogany hunt will turn out the best paying piece of work he ever undertook."
"Oh, isn't it perfectly splendid!" declared Nan and Dorothy, hugging Nellie. "You will never again have to go back to that horrid store that made you so pale, and your mother will have a lovely time and nothing to worry about."
"I can hardly believe it all," replied their little friend. "But having father back is the very best of all."
"But all the same," sighed Dorothy, "I just know you will all be going home before we leave for the city, and I shall just die of loneliness."
"But we have to go to school," said Nan, "and we have only a few days more."
"Of course," continued Dorothy; "and our school will not open for two weeks yet."
"Maybe Aunt Emily will take you down to the city on her shopping tour," suggested Nan.
"Indeed I do not like shopping," answered the cousin. "Every time I go in a store that is crowded with stuff on the counters under people's elbows, I feel like knocking the things all over. I did a lot of damage that way once. It was holiday time, and a counter that stuck out in the middle of the store was full of little statues. My sleeve touched one, and the whole lot fell down as if a cannon had struck them. I broke ten and injured more than I wanted to count."
"And Aunt Emily had to pay for them?" said Nan.