"Could we do without it?" asked Floss. Nurse shook her head.
"What could we do without?" continued the child. "We couldn't do without bread or milk, I suppose. What could we do without that costs money?"
"Most things do that," said nurse, who began to have a glimmering of what Floss was driving at, "but the money's well spent in good food to make you strong and well."
"Then isn't there anything we could do without—without it hurting us, I mean?" said Floss, in a tone of disappointment.
"Oh yes," said nurse, "I daresay there is. Once a little boy and girl I knew went without sugar in their tea for a month, and their grandmother gave them sixpence each instead."
"Sixpence!" exclaimed Floss, her eyes gleaming.
"Sixpence each," corrected nurse.
"Two sixpences, that would be a shilling. Carrots, do you hear?"
Carrots had been listening with might and main, but was rather puzzled.
"Would two sixpennies pay for two hoops?" he whispered to Floss, pulling her pinafore till she bent her head down to listen.