"Is that so?" her father said in surprise, while Carl and Bess both exclaimed. "Did you know anything of it, Zélie?"
"It is rather a sudden decision, I fancy. Some friends have been urging him to go. He was here this afternoon and said good-by," she replied.
"I met him just as he was leaving," said Louise, "and he asked me to say good-by to everybody for him."
"If everybody goes, what are we to do?" asked Bess disconsolately.
"Suppose we go, too! What do you say, Zélie, to sending Carie and Helen to comfort Aunt Annie in her loneliness while the rest of us go off for a holiday? We can see Ikey on his way and drop Carl at school later on."
"You are an angel to think of such a thing!" cried Louise, and Mr. Hazeltine was so nearly suffocated by his ecstatic daughters that he almost regretted his proposal.
Aunt Zélie wouldn't have dared to object if she had wished to, so she and her brother made their plans while the girls and Carl ran over to tell Ikey the good news.