Will entered with the air of one conferring a favor, and successfully evaded the efforts of his sister to take away a certain box he was carrying.
"Have patience, little sister mine!" he mocked. "Have patience, and you will get your desires."
"You mean thing! and I haven't had a chocolate all day. How did you come to bring them?"
"Amy asked me to," he said boldly.
"Oh, Will Ford! I did not!" and Amy blushed a "lobster red," as the lad ungallantly informed her.
"Well, anyhow take them, and dole them out," he added, tossing the box of confectionery into her lap.
"Oh, Amy, I always loved you!" confided Grace, "shooting" a look of wonder at her brother.
"And while Amy passes the treat, perhaps you will kindly elucidate the riddle of the ice boat for us," suggested Mollie, catching a marshmallow chocolate which Amy deftly threw across the parlor.
"Nothing very complicated about it," replied Will, himself munching on some candy that he produced from a hidden source—likely one of his seemingly innumerable pockets. Betty said she never could understand how a boy could remember all the pockets he had—fourteen she once counted, when she had Allen Washburn enumerate them for her.
"It's this way," went on Will, with tantalizing slowness, but Grace knew better than to try to hurry him. "Allen and Frank and I have bought a big ice boat."