"Edith, dearie, will you ask your grandma or Aunt Catharine, if they know where the merino is for your new dresses?"
"Are we to have new dresses?" [pg 10] said Edith; "it's the first I've heard of it."
"Oh, children don't know everything in this house," said Miss Simms, laughing. Grandma came bustling in with bundles nearly as big as herself.
"You had better measure Edie first, as she is on the spot; and then I'll help sew on her skirt, while you are cutting out for Mabel."
"I'm glad I'm not a girl," said Johnnie, "always having to bother with new frocks."
"Mrs. Evans is wise to go South now," said Miss Simms to grandma. "I've been hoping she would, it's far too bleak for her here."
Edith opened her blue eyes very [pg 11] wide, and then they filled with tears. She hid her head in her grandma's bosom.
"Why, child, you little goose, it is to make your dear mother well. And you three small folks are going part way with her."
At this Edith's sudden tears dried up very quickly, and her face made itself into a question mark.
"You three children, and I myself, are going to see your Aunt Maria, in Virginia."