“Then I suppose the stove has to go back?” Mrs. Ormsby wanted to know.
“We can sell it in Freedom, I have no doubt, and put the proceeds in the bank for the Adirondack Camp,” replied Mrs. Vernon.
“Oh, say, Verny! That’s what we can do with all this furniture, can’t we?” cried Julie, eagerly.
But her vivacious suggestion seemed to meet with another strange silence. Finally Mrs. Vernon broke the embarrassment by saying: “We ought to get dinner, as it is long past the hour.”
And Mr. Lee said: “I suppose the food-stock we brought to replenish the larder will be scorned.”
“Oh, no indeed, Daddy! We need things to eat!” said Betty.
As they all sat in a circle on the grass, eating and laughing, Eliza made a bold suggestion.
“Now, I sez we folks seem to be foolish over some things. One of ’em is, we hoard ole furniture and odds and ends that even a Dandelion laughs at! We pays rent fer jes’ sech useless trash that we never wants to use agin. Every house-cleanin’ time we moves and cleans the rubbish what collects moths, an’ finally, affer years of savin’, we throws it out.”
She paused to see what effect this statement had on her audience, and seeing it was politely received, she took another huge bite from the sandwich she held, and, while chewing vigorously, concluded her speech.
“Now, this is what I sez: ‘Let’s go home and clear out all the rubbage that clutters our attics, an’ give it to the poor, or sell it to a rummitch sale such as I hears tell of in Elmertown.’”