Part 27 (1/2)
”Did you think of a Christmas-tree?” asked Hugh eagerly.
Agnes shook her head. ”It was of no use thinking of it; we hadn't money enough. No, we thought of games; only the boys are apt to get rough, and without mother and father it seemed a great undertaking.”
”So it is,” said Alice; ”for don't you remember what a dreadful noise they made one year when we had them?”
”Yes,” answered John; ”so, as I was pa.s.sing along the Strand the day after father went to America, I noticed 'magic-lanterns for school treats,' posted up very large in a window, and it gave me the idea of using mine for our little treat, and hiring a few more slides to make it last longer.”
”Yes, we haven't so very many slides,” said Minnie, considering.
”Pretty well,” answered John; ”but at anyrate two dozen more will be an advantage.”
”And after the magic-lantern is over?” asked Alice.
”Agnes is going to talk to them, or tell them a story, and after that they'll have an orange.”
”Oh!” said Minnie, ”I shall like that.”
”Which,” asked Hugh, ”the 'talk,' or the 'story,' or the 'orange'?”
Minnie blushed, but after the late little breeze determined not to be vexed, and answered, ”You know perfectly well what I meant, Hugh; so it's no good trying to make out anything else.”
”Do you want me to do anything to-day. Agnes?” asked Alice.
”Of course I do,” exclaimed Agnes; ”I have a perfect list of things to be done. Cakes to be made by Alice; room to be got ready by Hugh; chairs brought from everywhere, seats devised, flowers arranged--there, I can't tell you all till we are in it.”
”And is there anything for me to do?” asked Minnie, getting up and coming round to lean against her sister's shoulder.
”Yes, I want you to be willing to run messages all day long, and never to mind how often Alice sends you upstairs, or Hugh sends you downstairs, but to have feet of love for to-day.”
”All right,” said Minnie.
”And then for pleasant things, between whiles, you shall go to buy the oranges, and some buns, and some gingerbread nuts, and so on, and we'll have I hope as happy a day as any since they went away.”
As Agnes turned at the door to give a parting direction, Hugh put his arm round her and said humbly:
”I'm awfully sorry I was so stupid, Agnes--so wrong--but I'm for ever forgetting.”
And Agnes said, ”I'm sorry too, Hugh, that we made a secret of it, for I see now it would have been nicer for you to have known; but I didn't mean to be unkind.”
After that they worked on happily together all the morning, though Hugh felt a twinge whenever any one remarked, as Minnie and Alice were apt to do all day, ”How funny it seems not to have known.”
”It's the last secret I'll have, John, that I can help,” said Agnes to him when they were left alone for a few minutes, and were busy pinning up the sheet.
”Yes,” answered John, reaching down from the top of the steps, where he was astride, and taking the corner from her outstretched arm, ”Yes, Agnes. I don't believe in secrets.”
”Nor I,” answered Agnes, ”I have seen it before, and it will this time be a lesson to me.”
”But we didn't quarrel over it, exactly.”
”Oh, no; but we might have if you had not remembered in time. I do not mean that I defend Hugh for being so cross over it, but I see once more that n.o.body likes to have things kept and then given all of a heap.”