"Jack-stones."
"Oh yes, jack-stones. Well, we haven't got any."
"Yes, we have, too. I brung 'em."
"Oh, did you?"
Apparently there was no help for it. Elizabeth despised jack-stones, which hurt her knuckles, and which she never could catch; but one must be polite in one's own house.
"I say, you are funny ones!" said Val, who had thoroughly enjoyed his luncheon, and had now time to grasp the situation. Elizabeth's company manners amused him extremely, and the whole thing was "no end of a lark," as he expressed it.
"Why don't you play something you don't play at home?" he asked. "Let's try 'Fish, flesh, or fowl,' or 'When I was in Spain,' or some other nice game?"
Bella said nothing, but Eva Louise at last found her voice.
"Ef we don't play jack-stones, we ain't agoin' to play nuthin'. We're agoin' home."
Bella here nudged her sister's elbow.