The next morning Jannet and Jan rode home. Jannet heard Jan and Paulina in more than one mild argument as she tried to pack for him and he objected to her packing. "Of course I'm going to take that, P'lina. That is one of the most important things. If you can't get that in, I'll tumble the whole mess out and pack it all over myself. What's the idea? Do you think that you have to do it?"
"Now, Jan, your ma--" but Jannet shut the door to hear no more. She supposed, as she smiled over what she had heard, that some treasure like a bat or a ball glove or mask had been omitted. She was beginning a diary, suggested to her by her mother's having kept one. But Jannet decided that she would never destroy hers, because it would be such a good history for her children, if she had any.
Jannet spent a good part of the morning in this way, after a good visit with Mrs. Holt. Then Paulina came in to sweep and clean her room. There was another servant to help with this sort of thing, but Paulina, who almost felt that she had part ownership in the place, liked to take care of this old part of the home herself. Paulina was "queer," Jannet thought. She could not tell what Paulina thought of her, but she rather hoped that Paulina did not hate her, for "Old P'lina" was a family institution, it seemed. She grew older and older in Jannet's thought, for Paulina's face was much more lined than Uncle Pieter's, in spite of the dark hair. Nell said that P'lina must dye her hair, but Jannet knew that Nell was wrong.
Nell and Chick Clyde did not arrive until long after supper and said that they had company at home, unexpected company for supper. But they enjoyed the evening together, Mrs. Holt keeping her promise of the "party," which meant something good to eat at the proper time.
Jannet wondered if Uncle Pieter would have approved, for they had chicken and biscuits, with other accompaniments, for a first course, and Paulina's delicious angel food cake with a whipped cream "salad" over it or "by" it, as Jannet put it. Nuts, maraschino cherries and pineapple made this toothsome. But this was Jan's last evening at home. Sometime the next day he was leaving for school. "Yes, Nell," said he, "hard-hearted Uncle Pieter is responsible for my leaving; but after all Chick could scarcely get his lessons without me, and it will be fun to see the other boys."