A Dear Little Girl"s Summer Holidays.
by Amy E. Blanchard.
THE INVITATION
It was a very warm morning in June. Edna and her friend Dorothy Evans were sitting under the trees trying to keep cool. They both wore their thinnest morning frocks and had pinned their hair up in little pug knots on the tops of their heads. They had their boxes of pieces and were trying to make something suitable for their dolls to wear in the hot weather.
"It"s too sticky to sew," said Dorothy, throwing down her work.
"Marguerite will have to go without a frock and sit around in her skin."
"You mean in her kid," returned Edna.
"Well, isn"t kid skin?" asked Dorothy.
Edna laughed. "Why, yes, I suppose it is, and Ben says we are kids, so our skin is kid skin. Oh, dear, it is hot. I wish I were a fish; it would be so nice to go slipping through the cool water."
"Yes, but it wouldn"t be so nice to be in a frying pan sizzling over a fire."
"I feel almost as if I were doing that now. There comes the postman, I wonder if he has a letter from Jennie. We promised one another we would always write on blue paper because blue is true, you know, and that looks as if it might be a blue letter the postman has on top. I"m going to see."
"I"ll wait here," returned Dorothy. "It"s too hot to move."
She sat fanning herself with the lid of her piece box, watching her friend the while. Once or twice Edna stopped on her way back, and finally she began to dance up and down, then ran toward Dorothy, calling out, "Oh, there"s a lovely something to tell you. Oh, I do hope it can come true."
"What is it?" cried Dorothy, roused out of her listlessness.
"Just listen." Edna sat down and spread out the letter on her knee.
""We want you and Dorothy to come down to make me a nice long visit.
Mamma is writing to your mothers about it and I do so hope you can come. I shall be so awfully disappointed if you don"t. Oh, Edna, we shall have such fun. I can scarcely wait to hear.""
"Do you suppose our mothers have their letters from Mrs. Ramsey?" asked Dorothy now as much excited as Edna.
"Do let"s go and see," returned Edna. "We"ll go up and ask my mother first because that will be the nearest and if she has her letter your mother is pretty sure to have hers."
All thought of the hot sun was forgotten as they sped across the lawn to the house, and two little girls with hot faces, panting as they came, burst into the room where Mrs. Conway was reading her letters.
"Oh, Mother," began Edna, "did you get a letter from Mrs. Ramsey?"
"Mrs. Ramsay? Why, I don"t know. I will see in a moment. Just wait till I have finished this from your Aunt Kitty."
It seemed incredible to Edna that any letter should be of more importance than Mrs. Ramsey"s, and the two little girls danced around so impatiently that Mrs. Conway finally put down the sheet she was reading and said, "How warm you children look. Do sit down and cool off. I never saw such little fidgets."
"We ran all the way from the oak tree," explained Edna. "We were in such a hurry."
"No wonder your faces are red. You are such an impetuous little somebody, Edna. You shouldn"t forget that mother has so often told you not to run in the hot sun."
"But we did so want to hear about Mrs. Ramsey"s letter," replied Edna anxiously. How could her mother take things so coolly?
"Is it so very important, then?"
"Oh, Mother, it is so exciting we can scarcely stand it till we know."
"Then there is nothing to do but relieve the strain," said Mrs. Conway laughing. She turned over the letters at her side. "Let me see. This is from the dressmaker, and this one from cousin Grace. This must be it."
She opened the letter with what seemed to the children a great lack of haste, and began to scan the lines, two pairs of eager eyes watching her the while. "Ah, now I begin to understand," she remarked as she turned the page.
"Well," said Edna breathlessly.
"Wait a moment, dear." And Edna was obliged to be patient till the last line was reached.
"Oh, Mother," said the child pleadingly, "you are going to let me go, aren"t you?"
"Why, dearie, I shall have to think about it a little. I can"t say just on the instant, and I shall have to see what your father thinks about it."
"But, Mother, won"t you say that maybe I can? That will be better than nothing at all."
Mrs. Conway smiled. "I think I can venture to say that much or even a little more. I can say that I should like very much to have you go."
"Goody! Goody!" cried Edna clapping her hands. "That is almost as if you said I really could. I had a letter from Jennie, Mother, and she is just crazy for us to come. You know Dorothy is invited, too. Would you like to see Jennie"s letter?"
"Very much."
Edna promptly handed over the blue envelope, and was not disappointed to have her mother say, "That is a very nice cordial letter, Edna, and I am sure the invitation shows that both Mrs. Ramsey and Jennie really want you. I will talk it over with your father this evening. Now run along, and don"t exercise too vigorously this warm day, and don"t forget what I said about being in the sun." She returned to her letters and Edna with Dorothy left the room.
"Now we must go to my mother," declared Dorothy.
"Yes, but we must walk slowly and I think we had better take an umbrella," returned Edna, fresh from her mother"s advice.
"All right," said Dorothy, "I think it would be better, for there is that long sunny stretch along the road, though the rest of the way is shady."
They set forth talking eagerly. "Don"t you think it sounded as if I might go?" asked Edna.
"Why yes," replied Dorothy, "only I don"t see how we can wait till evening to know."
"Do you believe your mother will say positively that you can or that you can"t?"
"I think she will say just what your mother did; that she will have to talk to papa about it, but--oh, Edna, I know what I shall do."
"What?"
"I shall ask mother if she can"t telephone in to father and find out, and if she says she can"t take the time to do it, I know Agnes will."
"What a lovely idea!" exclaimed Edna. "I shall do that very same thing as soon as I get home."
"And if he says yes, you can telephone over to me."
"That"s just what I"ll do. Oh, isn"t it exciting?"