"Yes, she said we might keep her out until twelve."
"Are the Hancocks and Watkinses coming early to the Club meeting?"
"About half past two. The afternoons are so short now that they thought they'd better come early so it wouldn't be pitch black night when they got home."
"We ought to do some planning for Christmas this afternoon. There's a lot to think about."
"There's one Christmas gift I wish Aunt Marian would give us."
"What's that?" asked Ethel Brown expectantly for she had great faith in the ideas that Ethel Blue brought forth now and then.
"Don't you think it would be nice if she would let us have a visit from Katharine Jackson for one of our presents?"
Katharine Jackson was the daughter of an army officer stationed at Fort Edward in Buffalo. Her father and Ethel Blue's father had been in the same class at West Point and her mother had known Ethel Blue's mother who had died when she was a tiny baby. The two Ethels had had a week-end with Katharine the previous summer, going to Buffalo from Chautauqua for the purpose of spending a glorious Saturday at Niagara Falls.
"O-oh!" cried Ethel Brown, "that's one of the finest things you ever thought of! Let's speak to Mother as soon as we go home and write to Mrs. Jackson and Katharine this afternoon if she says 'yes'."
"I'm almost sure she will say 'yes'."