Elnora felt driven. "Aunt Margaret selected them, and she meant to give
them to me," she explained, "but I wouldn't take them. I paid for them
myself." There was silence.
"Don't you believe me?" panted Elnora.
"Really, it is none of our affair," said another girl. "Come on, let's
go."
Elnora stepped before the girl who had spoken. "You have made this your
affair," she said, "because you told a thing which was not true. No one
gave me what I am wearing. I paid for my clothes myself with money I
earned selling moths to the Bird Woman. I just came from the bank where
I deposited what I did not use. Here is my credit." Elnora drew out and
offered the little red book. "Surely you will believe that," she said.
"Why of course," said the girl who first had spoken. "We met such a
lovely woman in Brownlee's store, and she said she wanted our help to
buy some things for a girl, and that's how we came to know."
"Dear Aunt Margaret," said Elnora, "it was like her to ask you. Isn't
she splendid?"
"She is indeed," chorused the girls. Elnora set down her lunch box and
books, unpinned her hat, hanging it beside the others, and taking up
the books she reached to set the box in its place and dropped it. With
a little cry she snatched at it and caught the strap on top. That pulled
from the fastening, the cover unrolled, the box fell away as far as it
could, two porcelain lids rattled on the floor, and the one sandwich
rolled like a cartwheel across the room.
Pages:
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98