Dotty looked wonderingly into Colonel Allen's face.
"Who's got any to sell?" said she.
"Possibly the minister may have," said Colonel Allen, laughing. "You wait till this evening, and very likely he may be here. Then you can go up to him and say, 'Please, Mr. Hayden, will you sell me an uncle?'"
"But he'll cheat me—he will," said Dotty, shaking her finger.
"O, no, never fear. Just try him, and see. Here's a sealed envelope which Susy may keep for you till night."
"And shan't I have to spend the money in my porkmonnaie?"
"Not a cent of it, chickie."
Something was going on which was called a wedding; though what a wedding might be, Miss Dimple had no idea, having never attended one in all her life. But it was something remarkable, no doubt, for the parlors ware glowing with flowers, and everybody was in a flutter. The three children, dressed in their very best, were allowed to sit up for the whole evening, or, at any rate, as long as they pleased.
It was as lovely out of doors as "a Lapland night." The full moon and the gay lamplight tried to outshine one another.
"Do look at that great moon dripping down the juniper tree," cried Prudy, growing poetical as she gazed. "Let me tell you, Susy, when the moon is young and little, it makes me think of a smile, and when it's a grown-up, full moon, it makes me think of a laugh."