“‘It feels so nice when it stops aching,’” quoted Jack. “Remember those green-apple pies, Miss Babbie?”
“Remember those rugs that you beat so happily?” retorted Barbara.
“Well, I am going to try to accustom the Duchess gradually to those regulations which are necessary; and if she won’t fall into line, she can—”
“Fall out!” said Jack, promptly. “Only in that case, my dear, you will not find the poet truthful in those charming lines,—
The falling out of faithful friends
Renewing is of love.
You will find it a renewal of—Idgits, I’m thinking.”
But it was another week before the clash came. A few preliminary skirmishes marked the passage of time, but Barbara might have overthrown theories and plans, however “necessary,” if matters had not been precipitated by a morning visitor.
“I just thought I’d drop in,” said Miss Bates, coming up to the porch where Barbara was sitting shelling peas and Gassy was reading. “I wanted to see how you were getting on. Where you goin’, Gassy?”
“To read where people aren’t talking,” answered the little girl as she left the porch.