“It will be a dreadful bore to have to go shopping just now,” said Jessie, who was impatient of anything that would delay the wonderful trip. “But if we must, we must.”
“You always have such a clear way of putting things, honey,” said Amy, irrepressibly. “And, oh, I saw the darlingest sports suits and things in Letterblair’s window.”
Letterblair’s was a fashionable shop in the downtown district of New Melford where the girls and their mothers did most of their shopping. It was from this shop that Jessie had won a beautiful sports coat, offered as a prize to the girl in New Melford who could think up the cleverest and most unique idea for a charitable bazaar that was to be held on the lawn of the Norwood estate. Jessie’s idea—the prize one—had been the devoting of one “concession” on the bazaar grounds to radio. The radio tent had been a tremendous success and, oh, how Jessie had enjoyed wearing that sports coat!
So now it was to Letterblair’s that they went in search of suitable apparel for this newest outing.
On the way to town they determined to stop and see Nell Stanley. Although they intended to urge her to accompany them on their trip to Forest Lodge, they had very little hope that she would be able to go.
Nell was the eldest daughter of the Reverend Doctor Stanley, a minister much beloved in New Melford. “The Reverend,” as Nell affectionately called him, was a widower with four children, three younger than Nell. Although the income of the Stanley family was small, Nell managed wonderfully. Strong, healthy and capable, the young girl presided cheerfully over the parsonage and cared for her two younger brothers and her little sister, to whom she was elder sister and mother as well.
Because of her many responsibilities, it was only upon rare occasions that Nell could share in the fun of the other two girls. But, in spite of all this and hard as her life might seem to some, no one had ever heard Nell Stanley complain.
Nell herself greeted them as they came up to the parsonage. She was wearing a clean gingham dress and a dust cap and her handsome face was shining with health and hard work.
“Hello!” she cried gayly. “You two look like conspirators. Come in if you can find room,” she invited, leading the way into the cluttered front room of the parsonage. “Sally and the two boys muss things up more quickly than I can straighten them out, I think.”
Nell listened sympathetically while the two girls told her of the trip to Forest Lodge, but shook her head regretfully when they said Miss Alling wanted her to accompany them.