"I think you're pretty big, Rosie," remarked Grace.
"Yes; in my fifteenth year; almost a woman, as grandpa tells me sometimes—when he wants to make me ashamed of not being wiser and better I suppose," returned Rosie with a laugh, closing the casket and returning it to the drawer, just as Betty, the little maid, showed her black face and woolly head at the half open door with the announcement, "Dinnah's ready, Miss Rosie; an' all de folks gwine into de dinnin' room."
"Very well; we're not sorry to hear it, are we girls? Let us pair off and go down at once to secure our fair share," said Rosie gaily. "There's just an even number of us—Maud and Lora, Lulu and Eva, Grace and Rosie Lacey, Sydney and I. We're to have a table to ourselves; I asked mamma if we might, and she gave consent."
"I like that," remarked Sydney with satisfaction; "we can have our own fun and eat what we please without anybody to trouble us with suggestions that perhaps such and such articles of food may not agree with us."
"But we'll be in the same room with the older folks and they can overlook us if they see fit," said Rosie.
"And I'd rather have papa to tell me what to eat," said Grace.
They were hurrying down the stairs as they talked and reached the dining room just in time to take their places before the blessing was asked—by Mr. Dinsmore at the larger table.
It was a grand dinner of many courses, and a good deal of time, enlivened by cheerful chat, was spent at the table.
Quiet games—mirth provoking, yet requiring little exertion of mind or body—filled up the remainder of the afternoon.
After tea they had romping games, but at nine o'clock were called together for family worship; then the younger ones, including Lulu and Grace, went to their beds; very willingly too, for the day—begun so early because of their eagerness to examine their stockings—had been an unusually long and exciting one; so that they felt ready for rest.