"Never!" exclaimed Nat, handling the braid gingerly. "How much did you settle for?"
"That would be telling," said Mrs. White, "but what I want you boys to do is to drive the girls down to your barber's. You said it was a very nice place."
"Tip-top," interrupted Ned. "Bay rum or old rum or anything else from oyster cocktail to Castile soap."
"But have you seen ladies go there?" asked the mother.
"Took 'em there myself," insisted the younger boy. "Don't you remember the day Daisy Bliss got burrs in her hair? Of course I did not put them there—"
"Oh, no!" drawled Ned.
"Well, she always was a dub at ducking," went on the other, "but I put up for the hair cut all the same."
"Now do listen, boys," and the mother spoke firmly. "Tavia must have her hair trimmed. I tried to get a hair-dresser to come out here, but we could not have it done until after the railroad man appraised it. So now the hair-dresser could not get here until after Sunday. That is why I am having recourse to a barber."
"Couldn't do better, mother," spoke up Ned, who had been trying to get a word in with Dorothy "on the other side."
"Then run along, girls, get your things. Don't dress up; it is country all the way, and the dinner folks are not out yet. It will be pleasanter to fix up after the operation," said Mrs. White.