'That’s all, Frank. Well! So finally Mrs. Kiljohn took the coffee, and the Lemmon girls took the grab-bag. The Guild will look out for the concert, and I took one fancy-work booth, and of course, the Children of Mary’ll have the other, just like they always do.'
'Oh, was Grace there?' Teresa was eager to know.
'Grace was, darlin'.'
'And we’re to have the fancy-work! You’ll help us, won’t you, mother? Goody—I’m in that!' exulted Teresa.
'I’m in that, too!' echoed Alanna quickly.
'A lot you are, you baby!' said Leo unkindly.
'You’re not a Child of Mary, Alanna,' Teresa said, promptly and uneasily.
'Well—well—I can help!' protested Alanna, putting up her lip. 'Can’t I, mother? Can’t I, mother?'
'You can help me, dovey,' said her mother absently. 'I’m not goin' to work as I did for Saint Patrick’s Bazaar, dad, and I said so! Mrs. O’Connell and Mrs. King said they’d do all the work, if I’d just be the nominal head. Mary Murray will do us some pillers—leather—with Gibsons and Indians on them. And I’ll have Lizzie Bayne up here for a month, makin' me aprons and little Jappy wrappers, and so on.'
She paused over the cutlets and the chicken pie, which she had been helping with an amazing attention to personal preference. The young Costellos chafed at the delay, but their mother’s fine eyes saw them not.