At last it was tea-time, and, when the girls had eaten their supper, their mother called them to her.
"Oh, mother! mother! we have had such a nice time."
"Softly, softly, children," said Mr. Allis; "be careful, or you will make your mother sick again."
"Are you better now, mother?" said little Susie, going softly towards her bed.
"Yes, my dear child, I am much better, and you two little girls have helped to make me so."
"We, mother?" said Susie, while her black eyes sparkled at the thought. "I
wonder how
we
could make you better, when we have been all the while at
play up-stairs."
"I can guess how," said Annie. "Mother means we didn't make any noise: don't you, mother?"
"Not just that, or rather a good deal more than that; but first tell me what you played up-stairs."
"Oh, it was so pleasant: wasn't it? Why, mother, don't you think, we played school; and first I let Susie be teacher, and then she let me; and we played I was a little girl come to school, and by-and-by, when we got tired of that, we got out the dolls, Bessie and Jessie, and the pussy, and then we made three more little girls out of our sun-bonnets and Susie's pink apron, and then we both played teacher, like Miss Jackson and Miss Williams in the academy where we used to live, you know."
"Oh, yes, mother," interrupted Susie; "and, don't you think, sometimes Annie would pull pussy's tail and make her say 'Mew,' and we made believe that one of the little girls cried to go to her mother."