“Crazy about it!” said Tom. “‘Beautiful Coralie’s Doom; or, Answered in Jest,’” he read from the vivid cover. “Say Louise, this hero was a dream. You ought to hear the amount of things he’s called the heroine, and this is only the first chapter!”
“Go ahead,” urged Louise, while Winona tried vainly to get the book away from her brother, “I guess I can bear it!”
“Let’s see. Child, sweetheart, angel, cara-mia, little one—I’ll have to start on the other hand, I’ve used up all my fingers on this one—loved one, petite, schatzchen—wonder what that is? The only thing he’s left out so far is ‘kiddo.’ I suppose we’ll come to that further on. ‘Lancelot looked down at her through his long, superfluous eyelashes,’” Tom went on, reading at the top of his strong young voice. “Those were well-trained eyelashes all right. I’ll bet he hung by ’em every day to get ’em in shape to use so much. I’ve found six sentences about those lashes on one page, and every one the same.”
“You wouldn’t expect him to have a new set every time, would you?” inquired Louise sarcastically.
“It’s a wonder he didn’t have to. One set must have been pretty well worn out by the end of a chapter. ‘Ah, you wicked fellow,’ Coralie said archly,” he went on, sitting down on the floor with the book. Winona made a dive for it, but she wasn’t quick enough. “This wicked part’s what gets me. There’s an average of twenty-five ‘wickeds’ to every chapter, and the poor fellow’s never even forgotten to return an umbrella!”
“Or a book his sister was reading,” suggested Louise.
“And what’s a ‘saucy meow,’ Winona? Coralie did ’em all the time. Can you?”
But here Winona threw herself bodily on him, and this time she managed to recover her book, which she sat on.
“Well, this literature class is very interesting, but my happy home wants me,” said Louise, rising and taking up her loom and the headband, which was in a fair way to be properly finished now. “Thanks, ever so much, Ray of Light. You’re the best girl as ever-ever-was. See you to-night, Tommy.”
“Now, that’s some girl,” said Tom admiringly. “No nonsense about her. Do you want me to take you over, Winnie?”