"What for?"
"That's just what I don't know. There are so many things I want; and I do not know what I want most. I have a good mind to buy a writing-desk, for one thing."
"Why, you have got one already."
"I mean a handsome one—a real beauty, large, you know, and with everything in it. That lock of mine isn't good. Anybody could open it."
"But there is nobody to do that," said Matilda. "Nobody comes here but you and me."
"That don't make any difference!" said Maria, impatiently. "Don't be so stupid. I would like to have a nice thing, anyhow. Then sometimes I think I would rather have a gold chain—like Clarissa's."
"You could not get that for twenty-five dollars," said Matilda.
"How do you know?"
"Hers cost three or four times as much as that."
"Did it?—Well, then I guess I will have the desk, or a whole lot of handsome summer dresses. I guess I will have that."