“Oh.”
“It’s really dreadful, isn’t it—and they were such friends!”
“I asked them to overlook the mistake and make it up without explanations—and with them, if need be.”
“But they won’t do it. The girls have tried to help and I’m sure I have, too!”
“Well,” smiled Miss Allen. “What’s at the bottom of it, do you know, Betty?”
Betty nodded. Then Miss Allen pushed aside the papers, “Frankly,” she said, “I don’t know what to do. They’re both such splendid girls but neither one of them will be the first to make an apology. They’re very childish, aren’t they?”
“It’s just a misunderstanding,” explained Betty. “I can tell you. It was all because Mary made a joke and Laura thought it was a personal one. Mary said ‘die, der, der, die and das, des, dem, das.’ Laura thought she said something about her to me. Mary wouldn’t let me explain. She said if Laura thought that, she’d have to find out what the words meant herself.”
“What sillies!” declared Miss Allen. “I suppose they’ll keep this up eternally. I’ve tried all manner of ways to stop it; have you anything to suggest, Betty?”
Betty pondered. “I was wondering,” she mused, “whether if you counted three and told them both to speak when you came to that, they’d speak?”
“I never thought of that,” laughed Miss Allen. “We’ll try it.”