"Well, if you ain't a baby!" cried Rachel scornfully.
"My mother said we weren't to call names," observed Peletiah.
"Oh, my! I forgot that. But he is a baby," declared Rachel.
"My mother said we were not to call names," repeated Peletiah, exactly as if he hadn't made that remark before.
"Oh, dear me! how perfectly awful you—I mean I never saw such boys. Oh, my!"
"My mother said——"
"Yes, yes, I know," interrupted Rachel, splashing away for dear life; "well, now we must hurry and get these dishes done."
"And then we can go out and play," said Ezekiel, departing with the plate he was drying to a safe distance from the hot shower from Rachel's busy fingers.
"Yes. Oh, my, what fun! Let's hurry." And before the boys quite knew how, the dishes were all piled in the pantry, the dishpan and mop washed out and hung up to dry, and the crumbs swept from the kitchen floor.
"There," said Rachel, smoothing down her apron in great satisfaction, "now we can go out. Come on, I'm going to the corner to see that funeral go by."