“I don’t see how I could manage it,” she said, adding thoughtfully: “Though I might get Mrs. Tompkins to take care of the children and keep house——”
“Nell, you have a wonderful mind,” said Amy, with conviction. “Mrs. Tompkins was the very person I was about to suggest!”
“I suppose the children would run wild,” said Nell, hesitating.
“Let ’em. It would do them good for two weeks,” said Amy.
“Nothing very bad could happen in that short time,” Jessie added, pleadingly. “And, Nell, we would have such fun.”
“Don’t you suppose I know it?” retorted Nell, longingly. But she added, as she picked up a few of the scattered playthings in an attempt to restore the room to order: “I will ask the Reverend about it, anyway; and if I can get Mrs. Tompkins I may go with you yet. Now run along downtown like good children. And you might bring us some ice-cream cones on the way back. The young ones would appreciate it particularly.”
The girls agreed gayly, after winning from her a promise that she would come over some evening soon and “listen in” with them.
“And bring Fol with you,” Amy added, as they went off. “He is a rather nice boy, considering his age.”
In answer to this sally Nell laughed good-naturedly and made a face at Amy, an action—and Nell herself would have been the first to admit it—that was not at all a good example to set her ever-watchful and imitative little sister, Sally.
Once at Letterblair’s, the girls discovered numerous other needs which had not occurred to them before, and it was past noon when they had successfully finished their shopping.