"You are very kind, Sister Elsie, to begin so soon to think of amusement for our babies," laughed Lucilla, "and I hope you and Ned may be able to keep your monkeys alive and well till they are old enough to enjoy them."
"Yes, indeed, I hope so," responded Elsie. "I want both Mary and Ray to have lots of fun when they are old enough for it."
"Yes," said Dr. Harold, "I am always in favor of timely, innocent fun as a great promoter of health."
"Yes," said Lucilla, "'laugh and grow fat' is an old adage, and we'll try to have our babies do it, won't we, Eva?"
"I certainly intend to do all I can to make my darling bit lassie both healthy and happy," returned Evelyn, looking down with a tender, loving smile at the little one on her knee. "But fun and frolic need not fill up all the time. There is a quiet kind of happiness that would be better as a steady diet, I think, than constant frolic and fun. I hope she will be a contented little body, for there is much truth and wisdom in that other old adage, 'Contentment is better than wealth.'"
Both Violet and the captain expressed warm approval of her sentiments, as did Lucilla, Chester and Dr. Harold also.
"But I'd like to have some fun now with our tee-tees," said Ned, stroking and patting his as he held it in his arms. "I wish we had Max or Cousin Ronald here to make them talk."
"I'd wish so, too, if it would do any good," said Elsie.
"No," laughed Lucilla, "it wouldn't, and I am reminded of the old saying, 'If wishes were horses, then beggars might ride.'"
"As you two are so glad to get your tee-tees back again, don't you feel sorry for Lily and Laurie, that they had to part with them?" asked Violet.