"Now hush, children; it's too hot for you to be scolding," said Ninny.
"Yes: O, dear, it's the hottest day I ever saw. I should think the sun would melt and drop right down out of the sky," said Lucy. "And there's Mrs. Prim, she don't care: she's in her nice, cool parlor, with the blinds all shut."
"Eating i-scream, I s'pose," put in Flaxie.
"Yes," said Lucy; "and gets fifty cents a box for these strawberries, and wouldn't give us more'n three cents if we should faint to pieces out here and be picked up dead."
"What awful scolds you children are," said Ninny, who kept up her spirits by laughing at them.
"Well, she did have some i-scream last night," said little Flaxie; "for I saw her through the door. Why didn't she say, 'Come in, dear, and you may have some?' My mamma would. My mamma's a great deal better'n Mrs. Prim."
"O, well, lots of folks are better than Mrs. Prim," said Ninny, growing earnest. "Now, there's Mrs. Stillman; if she didn't live so far off we could pick for her. Why once she gave Eva Snow all she got on three boxes, and told her to keep it, for it was hard work to pick in such a broiling sun. Eva took the money, and bought her mother a great piece of salmon."
"O, my," cried Lucy; "why don't we take some of the money Mr. Potter pays us, and not give it to Mrs. Prim? I'd like to buy my mamma a great big piece of—something."
Thus spoke the rattle-brained child, with a heedless jerk of her elbow, which almost upset the basket.