"So it is; but this tree is to be in the church."
"What tree?"
"La! how stupid you are, Charity," exclaimed her aunt. "Didn't Mrs.
Seelye tell you?—the tree the other church are gettin' up."
"Oh—" said Charity. "Well, you can't hinder 'em, as I see."
"Don't want to hinder 'em! What should we hinder 'em for? But we don't want 'em to get all our chil'en away; that's what we're lookin' at."
"Do you think they'd go?"
"Mr. Seelye's afraid it'll thin off the school dreadful," said Mr.
Seelye's helpmate.
"They're safe to go," added Mrs. Marx. "Ask children to step in and see fairyland, and why shouldn't they go? I'd go if I was they. All the rest of the year it ain't fairyland in Shampuashuh. I'd go fast enough."
"Then I don't see what you are goin' to do about it," said Charity, "but to sit down and count your chickens that are left."
"That's what we came to tell you," said the minister's wife.