Part 15 (2/2)

”It is not a real pie, Susan,” said she. ”It is going to be the largest dishpan we can buy, covered with paper to look like a pie and filled with little articles and toys that cost five or ten cents each. You will pull a string, and out of the pie will come something nice. And the blackbird curtains are to drape the booth. Do you understand?”

Susan smiled up into Mrs. Spargo's face. Already she felt at home with Letty's mother. And she liked Letty's baby, too, a fat, good-natured blue-eyed baby, not quite two years old, who poked his fingers into everything and who never cried no matter how many times he sat down hard on the floor with a thump.

”He is a little bit banty because he is fat. That is why he sits down so hard. But I like babies to be banty,” said Letty loyally.

”I do too,” agreed Susan. ”They are much nicer that way.”

The next morning before sun-up, Letty and Susan were awake, both very much surprised to find themselves side by side in bed.

”I knew I was here when I went to sleep,” said Susan, rubbing her eyes and staring round, ”but when I woke up I thought I was home.”

”No, you are here,” said Letty, sitting up on top of her pillow as if it were a stool and speaking earnestly. ”Now I'll tell you what I thought, Susan. You know the Fair is only one day after to-morrow now. Don't you think we ought to begin to save right away so that we can have lots of pulls at the Blackbird Pie? And there will be ice-cream, too, and other good things, I know. Have you any money?”

Susan was as business-like as Letty.

”Yes, plenty,” she answered, slipping out of bed.

And a moment later, she and Letty were gazing into the depths of her little green handbag where shone three bright new ten-cent pieces.

”Good,” said Letty. ”Just think how much we can buy with that. Now I haven't any money at all. But Father comes home to lunch every day, and we will be there to meet him when he comes up the street. I will ask him for some money then, and when he goes back to the office after luncheon I will ask him for more. He will never remember,” said Letty, with a confidence born of experience. ”He is a very absent-minded man. My mother herself says so.”

Susan was charmed with this idea.

”Shall we keep it all in my pocketbook?” she asked. Already she could see its green sides bulging with riches.

Letty twisted a curl and pondered.

”No,” she decided at last, ”for you might take it out in the street with you and lose it. I'll show you where we will keep our money.”

And on tiptoe for fear of waking the baby, she crept into the nursery next door and back.

”Here! just the thing,” said she, displaying a little round white jar decorated with a bunch of scarlet holly berries and p.r.i.c.kly green leaves.

”We can keep our money in this, because it is mine. No one will touch it. And we will put it on the end of the mantelpiece in the nursery, up high where the baby can't reach it. Shall we do that?”

In answer, Susan shook her three ten-cent pieces into the jar, and with head on one side admired the effect.

”But if any one looks in he will see the money, and maybe ask what it is for. Then we can't keep it a secret,” she objected.

Letty, with finger on lip, tiptoed into the nursery again, and returned with a doll's brown-and-white checked sunbonnet in her hand.

”It belongs to the baby's doll, Lolly,” said she. ”I just s.n.a.t.c.hed up the first thing I could find. We will stuff it into the jar on top of the money, and if people see it, they will think we have left it there careless-like.”

The sunbonnet was tucked into the jar, and the little girls felt perfectly sure that no one would suspect the presence of money under it.

”It does look put there careless-like, doesn't it?” repeated Letty.

She liked to use those words which she had borrowed from Annie the cook.

Many times had she heard Annie say, ”I think I'll toss off a pudding, careless-like, for dinner,” or, ”I'll give the room a little dusting, careless-like, before your mother comes home,” and she admired the turn of expression.

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