swear.”
“I didn’t say you did.”
“Well, you looked it. But I admit my thoughts verged on the profane. And I
have such a cold in the head—I can do nothing but sniffle, sigh and sneeze. Isn’t
that alliterative agony for you? Queen Anne, do say something to cheer me up.”
“Remember that next Thursday night, you’ll be back in the land of Alec and
Alonzo,” suggested Anne.
Phil shook her head dolefully.
“More alliteration. No, I don’t want Alec and Alonzo when I have a cold in
the head. But what has happened you two? Now that I look at you closely you
seem all lighted up with an internal iridescence. Why, you’re actually
SHINING! What’s up?”
“We are going to live in Patty’s Place next winter,” said Anne triumphantly.
“Live, mark you, not board! We’ve rented it, and Stella Maynard is coming, and
her aunt is going to keep house for us.”
Phil bounced up, wiped her nose, and fell on her knees before Anne.
“Girls—girls—let me come, too. Oh, I’ll be so good. If there’s no room for
me I’ll sleep in the little doghouse in the orchard—I’ve seen it. Only let me
come.”
“Get up, you goose.”
“I won’t stir off my marrow bones till you tell me I can live with you next
winter.”
Anne and Priscilla looked at each other. Then Anne said slowly, “Phil dear,
we’d love to have you. But we may as well speak plainly. I’m poor—Pris is poor
—Stella Maynard is poor—our housekeeping will have to be very simple and
our table plain. You’d have to live as we would. Now, you are rich and your
boardinghouse fare attests the fact.”
“Oh, what do I care for that?” demanded Phil tragically. “Better a dinner of
herbs where your chums are than a stalled ox in a lonely boardinghouse. Don’t
think I’m ALL stomach, girls. I’ll be willing to live on bread and water—with
just a LEETLE jam—if you’ll let me come.”
“And then,” continued Anne, “there will be a good deal of work to be done.
Stella’s aunt can’t do it all. We all expect to have our chores to do. Now, you—”
“Toil not, neither do I spin,” finished Philippa. “But I’ll learn to do things.
You’ll only have to show me once. I CAN make my own bed to begin with. And
remember that, though I can’t cook, I CAN keep my temper. That’s something.