"Oh, yes, we would; we like currants and raisins in our cake, too, don't we, Hope?"
"Yes, indeed," laughed Hope.
"You'd have thought so last year if you could have seen Hope with my youngest brother, my little eleven-year-old," continued Kate, merrily. "He thought Hope was just perfect, and the way he followed her up! He wasn't in the least bashful, like some of the older boys, and he didn't have the slightest hesitation in trotting after her. I believe he asked her to dance every dance with him. I know I had to interfere and curb his ardor, or Hope wouldn't have danced with anybody else, for she really encouraged him in his attentions in the most decided manner."
"He was such a dear little fellow," said Hope,—"he told me I was just as good company as a boy."
When the laugh that this called forth had subsided, Dorothea said rather soberly, "I didn't know that you had such young boys."
"Look at her, look at her!" cried Kate. "Did you ever see such a worried, disappointed face? But cheer up, Dorothea, cheer up; we do have a few older ones. My brother Schuyler will be here this year."
"Oh!" exclaimed Hope, with a falling inflection to her voice, "and not Johnny?"
"And not Johnny," laughed Kate; "one at a time, you know."
"How old did you say your brother Schuyler is?" asked Dorothea.
"Seventeen,—quite old, you see, for a boy. He'll do for you to dance with, won't he?"