Emily was there. She felt Martha was annoyed for the moment by her presence.
She said, "It's a lovely room; it grows on you."
"If I was you I'd have it papered, mammie. Make it into a good guest room."
"I will not!" said Emily, emphatically. Did Martha suppose she would just agree to the idea that there should be no daughter's room any longer in the house?
"I'm afraid Ruth might spoil something, Martha. You don't mean to let her turn your stove on. Ruth, don't do that!"
"She can't hurt anything. The first day it rains I'll show her how to make candy up here, or maybe we'll cook a little supper up here and invite your aunt and my mammie." And Martha smiled gravely at the happy child. "Nice days like this it's better to play out in the yard. I'm going to show you how to make a beautiful kind of a playhouse out there."
They were running in and out of the house, collecting their house-building material. They were up in the tree. Emily could have imagined that Jim Kenworthy was playing there in the garden with his little niece. For, after a little, four pieces of rope came dangling down from certain limbs of that tree. Presently they were weighted down taut by four bricks tied to them, just missing the grass. These ropes were the four corners of the house. In a few minutes the walls of old sheets were being safety-pinned into place. And a fifth taut rope came down for the side of the door. And the rag rugs were being spread on the grass inside. "And where are those old little chairs, mammie? Where are my old things? Where's my little table been put?" They were running up and down from the attic, dustily. At dinner time Ruth was more talkative than ever before. Nobody else knew how to build as nice playhouses as Uncle Jim, she told her auntie as they sat down. He had invented that kind of playhouse.
"Uncle Jim who?" asked Bob, suddenly.
Ruth looked blank. "I don't know Uncle Jim who," she said. "I just mean Martha's Uncle Jim."
"Oh," said Bob. He looked at her keenly. He looked at Emily. "Funny," his face seemed to say, "to hear this child of a stranger talking about Jim."