CHAPTER NINE
When the four girls came down and put on the supper they found a surprise waiting for them. Beside the large table the little sewing-table had been moved in, spread with a white cloth and set; and around it, very flushed and important, sat Florence, Bessie Lane, Frances Hughes, and Edith Hillis’s little sister Lucy. Before Frances, who was the oldest, sat a big dish of creamed potatoes, a platter of Hamburg steak, and in front of each girl steamed a bowl of tomato soup.
“Well, where——” began everybody. All the small sisters answered at once.
“We cooked ’em on the gas-stove in the back parlor!”
“All but the soup,” added conscientious little blonde Lucy. “We dumped that out of a can.”
“Well, we cooked it, too, didn’t we?” inquired Frances.
“So that was what was in the package Puppums wanted!” said Winona. “Where is Puppums, anyway?” she added as she set down her scalloped meat.
“I d’no,” said Florence carelessly.
But just at that moment Puppums accounted for himself. He came in from the direction of the half-open back door, in his mouth a neatly done up package.
“Oh!” cried Winona and Florence in one despairing voice, “he’s been stealing again! Drop it, you little wretch!”