“Oh, oh! That’s why Eliza told us she would fix us up with some jams and other food-stuff,” laughed Julie.
“And mother asked me did we want any furniture or china?” added Ruth.
“What did you say?” asked Julie.
“I told her we’d rather she donated the price of china or furniture this time, and let us invest it as we found need.”
The girls laughed and Mrs. Vernon ran out of the side door, saying: “I’m missing all the fun! Do tell me what it is about?”
Then Julie told her what Ruth had replied to her mother’s question, and the Captain laughed also. “I see Ruth is developing a wonderfully keen sense of finance.”
“You’ll say so when you see this scrap of paper, Verny,” said Ruth, taking a crumpled oblong of tinted paper from her middy blouse and passing it over to the Captain.
Mrs. Vernon looked at it in surprise, and gasped: “Why, of all things!”
“The price of china and furniture that mother figured we would smash or damage,” explained Ruth.
“Girls, it’s a check for twenty-five dollars from Mrs. Bentley. We’ll have to vote her a letter of thanks at once.”