TIBBIE. I'd just as soon wash them again, but they're clean. I thought you said she was gone off to a party, and going to be gone till real late.
SALLY [_plumps down to contort herself in comfort_]. Law! She thought it was Mis' Darling herself! Law! Law! [TIBBIE _laughs, too, but less heartily._] Now what'll we do first? Do you want the treat right off?
TIBBIE. Oh, lemme guess, first, Sal, and tell me when I'm hot! Is it made of sugar?
TIBBIE. But you said it was a treat, didn't you, Sally?
SALLY. I did that. But ain't there treats and treats? There's goin' to the circus, for instance. That hasn't any sugar.
TIBBIE. Is it a circus, Sally? Is it a circus?
SALLY. No, it ain't a circus, but it's every bit as nice.
TIBBIE. Is it freaks, Sally? Oh, tell me if it's freaks! It isn't? Are you sure I'll like it very much? It's nothing to eat, and it's nothing I can have to keep, and it's not a circus. What color is it? You'll answer straight, won't you?
SALLY. Oh, it's every color in the world, and striped, and polka-dotted, and crinkled, and smooth. There's a hundred of it.
SALLY [_takes her hand_]. Come along now, I'm going to wash your hands in Mrs. Darling's basin. Ain't it handsome? [_Pokes the scented soap under the nose of_ TIBBIE, _who sniffs delightedly._] Flowers on the chiny, too. [_Washes_ TIBBIE'S _hands while they talk._] Did you get anything for Christmas yet, Tibbie? [TIBBIE _moves her head slowly up and down, absorbed in the process of washing._] What did you get?
TIBBIE. A doll's flatiron an' a muslin bag of candy. I put the iron on to heat and it melted. I gave what was left to Jimmy.
TIBBIE. Off the Sunday-school tree. But there weren't no lights on it because it was daytime. Sally, I know something that has a hundred----
SALLY. What's that? Let's see if you've got it now?
TIBBIE [_shamefacedly_]. A dollar--is a hundred cents.
SALLY. Well, and would I be bringing you so far just to show you a dollar? This is worth as much as a dollar, every individual one of them. Tibbie, it's just the grandest sight you ever seen--pink and blue and yellow and striped----
TIBBIE [_after looking her fixedly in the face, now almost shouts_]. It's marbles!
SALLY. Aw, but you're downright stupid, Tibbie! I don't mind telling you I'm disappointed. You're just a common, everyday sort of a young one, with no idear of grandness in your idears, at all! And you don't seem to keep a hold on more than one notion at a time. First it's a dollar. Is that pink and blue? And next it's marbles. Is marbles worth a dollar apiece? Now tell me what's the grandest, prettiest thing ever you saw----