It made Tiny very happy when Johnny approved of her, so the building of the fort went merrily on with so much laughing and talking that Mrs. Leslie, who was in the kitchen, not “eating bread and honey,” but making doughnuts, looked in once or twice to see if any of the children’s friends had called. And when the stately fort, with its tin battlements, at last yielded to the fierce attack of the brass cannon and the pea-shooter, used after the manner of battering-rams, she rushed to the scene of conflict with the dreadful certainty that the stove had been knocked over, but an invitation to help hurrah for the victory quieted her fears.
The ruins had just been picked up and repacked in the basket, when Ann came in to set the dinner table, and Johnny found, to his astonishment, that the morning was gone.
“But there’s all the great long afternoon yet!” he thought, ruefully, “and mamma will have to lie down, I’m afraid, and Tiny’s going to that foolish doll-party, and—hello! if I keep on this way I shall say something, and, if I do, Tiny will stay at home; it would be just like her, she’s such a good little soul. Brace up, Johnny Leslie, and win your sleeve!”
And Johnny marched up and down, and tried to sing “Onward, Christian Soldier!” but only succeeded in coughing.
“Mamma, I wish to whisper something to you,” said Tiny, after dinner. “Don’t listen, please, Johnny,” and she whispered, “Don’t you think it would be dreadfully mean for me to go to the doll-party, mamma, when poor Johnny has such a cough and can’t go out? Because if you do, I’ll stay at home, and I wouldn’t mind it, or not so very much, if Johnny would play with me as he has played this morning.”
“No, darling,” whispered her mother, “Johnny would not be so selfish as to wish you to stay; and the other little girls you are to meet would be disappointed, for they all know about your new Christmas doll. So run and get ready, and Ann will carry you and your daughter across the street. You will have a great deal to tell us when you come home, you know.”
Tiny went, but not very briskly, and, when she was gone, Johnny said,—
“I’ll bet—I mean I think I know what Tiny said, mamma; didn’t she offer to stay at home from her doll-party?”
“What a brilliant boy!” said his mother, smiling. “She did, but I knew you would not like her to make such a sacrifice; she has been counting upon the party for a week.”