“Maybe Mother’d give me some spice cakes. She’s making some,” suggested Gertie tactfully.
Carol, who was a bit of a glutton, pricked up his ears.
“Let the kids have their duds if they want them. It won’t spoil the goodies.”
“Oh, well, I don’t care what they have, but I’m not going to eat from their old doll things,” said Sherm, who prided himself upon being above childish things.
“Nobody wants you to, you old cross patch, but you will, won’t you, Carol? And I bet Ernest and Sherm’ll want to when they see what we’ve got,” and Katy bustled off with fire in her eye, resolved to produce a spread that should make the boys’ mouths water.
She dispatched Chicken Little for the dishes with instructions to beg Alice for something for the feast, while she and Gertie foraged at home.
Mrs. Halford was a jolly little woman who readily entered into the child’s scheme.
The boys were set to tending the roasting apples and potatoes, and the little girls spread their tiny table daintily with a big towel for a tablecloth and rosebud china about as big as a minute.
One untoward accident occurred before the spread was ready and came near wrecking the whole plan. While the girls were off after more food a plate of tempting cookies disappeared bodily from the table, plate and all, and loud and wrathful were the laments.
“You mean things—you’ve got to put those cookies right back!”