“Yes,” agreed Nancy, “it does seem as if this shop should belong to little old people like Miss Townsend, and I guess that’s why Miss Manners is so interested. You see, girls, I’m still a very poor housekeeper, and our maid, Anna, won’t be back until fall. After I get tired playing store, I suppose,” and she sighed heavily, “I’ll be expected to start in playing house.”
“But if you run the shop as you have done this morning,” Isabel interposed, “don’t you suppose your mother will think you’re a real genius at business?” she inquired.
“You can’t fool my mother on geniuses,” replied Nancy, who like her companions was putting away the odds and ends of things that had been scattered in the morning’s adventure. “Mother is an expert, and she sort of knows—me.” This last was said in a way implying a very doubtful compliment for Nancy. “I’ve been almost a genius at art, for instance. When I was five years old I could draw a goose with my eyes shut.”
“How about it when your eyes were open?” asked Ruth, quizzically.
“It was usually a little fat pig, then,” Nancy admitted, amid an outburst of girlish laughter.
“Nancy,” interrupted Isabel, “here’s the ice cream man.”
“Ours,” declared Nancy. “Now we’ll whistle for Ted and his boys and shut up shop for lunch. Isabel, will you please open the side door? We’ll take a tray over to Miss Manners and then sit down and enjoy ourselves.”
“Here’s Ted and his friends now,” announced Ruth. “They seem to know it is ice cream time.”
“That will save trouble,” Nancy remarked. And presently the big sale was all but forgotten in preparations for the feast of ice cream, with other suitable summer lunch supplies.
Isabel took an attractive tray over to solicitous and attentive Miss Ada Manners, while Nancy and Ruth attempted to satisfy the demands of Ted and his ice cream loving friends. The noon day was much warmer than the morning had indicated, and this coupled with the sale excitement, went far to make the little party a tremendous success, just as Mrs. Brandon had planned it to be.