Still Mr. Hooper hesitated.
“I scarcely know what to say,” he told her kindly. “Cherry picking isn’t as easy as it looks. You might fall from a ladder and hurt yourself. In that case, I’d be liable.”
“Brownies are taught to be careful,” Veve assured him. “You wouldn’t catch us falling off a ladder!”
Pa Hooper chuckled. “I pay a cent and a half a pound for stripping,” he explained. “That’s not as good a rate as some of the orchards offer. It takes a lot of cherries to weigh a pound.”
“We won’t mind,” Connie said. “Please, Mr. Hooper, let us try! The trees aren’t high, and you could let us pick the lower branches.”
The orchard owner thought a moment. Then he said:
“I’ll tell you what I’ll do. Suppose I test you with a half hour’s picking? If you do well, and think you would like the work, then I might hire all the Brownies. How many are there of you?”
“Six, not counting Miss Gordon,” supplied Veve. “Where do we start?”
Mr. Hooper said he would show the girls as soon as he had finished packing another lug.