It was very pleasant to know people liked her to stay. She ran into the kitchen, and said to Katinka,—
"O, Katinka, my papa and mamma are going to be married again! Do you know I've got to start day after to-morrow?"
"So?" replied Katinka, not very much impressed. "I'm going to a party. I must up stairs go, and make my hairs and shut my dress. Gute Nacht."
"I'm only going to stay one more day; aren't you sorry?" said Dotty to broken-nosed Phebe, who came in from the pantry with a long face.
"Why, I reckoned you was going to-morrow," was Phebe's cool reply, rolling the whites of her eyes to hide a twinkle of fun. She knew Dotty expected her to say, "I am sorry;" but, though she really was sorry, she would not confess it just then, because she was an inveterate tease.
Dotty felt a little chilled. She could not look into the future and see the tomato pincushion Phebe was to give her, with the assurance that "she liked her a heap; she was a right smart child, and not a bit stuck up."
The day ended with Dotty's dear, dear letter under her pillow. She was going to be very happy by and by; but just now she thought she was so homesick that she should never go to sleep. She longed to see Prudy, and hear her say, "O, you darling sister!"
Then that wedding! Those white slippers!
How they did all miss her at home! Such dear friends as she had, and such beautiful things as were going to happen!
"But they are so good to me here! I've behaved so well they love me dearly. If I go home, I can't stay here and have good times. I should be happy if I was at my mother's house and out West too! Every time I'm glad, then there's something else to make me sorry."