Florence couldn't help laughing at the suggestion.
Full of fun and frolic as they were, the little heads bowed reverently as Granny asked her simple blessing. She would as soon have gone without eating as to omit that.
"I really don't want any thing," she declared. "I've been tasting all day,--a bit here and a bit there, and such loads of things!"
"Tell us all about it," begged Joe. "And who was there,--the grand Panjandrum with a button on the top. Children's children unto the third and fourth generation."
"O Joe! if you only wouldn't," began Granny imploringly.
"No, I won't, Granny;" and Joe made a face as long as your arm, or a piece of string.
"Of course I didn't see 'em all, nor half; but men and women and children and babies! And Grandmother Kinsey's ninety-five years old!"
"I hope I'll live to be that old, and have lots of people to give me a golden wedding," said Charlie, with her mouth so full that the words were pretty badly squeezed.
"This isn't a golden wedding," said Florence with an air of dignity: "it's a birthday party."
'Ugly, ill-natured, and wrinkled and thin, Worn by your troubles to bone and to skin.'"
"She's never been much else," rejoined Flossy, looking admiringly at her own white arm.
"I'm not as old as you!" And Charlie flared up to scarlet heat.
"Oh! you needn't get so vexed. I was only thinking of the skin and bone," said Florence in a more conciliatory manner.
"Well, I don't want to be a 'Mother Bunch.'"
"No fear of you, Charlie. You look like the people who live on some shore,--I've forgotten the name of the place,--and, eat so many fish that the bones work through."
Charlie felt of her elbows. They were pretty sharp, to be sure. She was very tall of her age, and ran so much that it was quite impossible to keep any flesh on her bones.
"Hush, children!" said grandmother. "I was going to tell you about the party. Hal, give me a little of your salad, first."
The Kinseys had invited all their relations to a grand family gathering. Granny told over the pleasant and comical incidents that had come under her notice,--the mishaps in cooking, the babies that had fallen down stairs, and various entertaining matters.
By that time supper was ended. Florence set out to take some lace that she had been making to a neighbor; Hal washed the dishes, and Charlie wiped them; Joe fed the chickens, and then perched himself astride the gate-post, whistling all the tunes he could remember; Kit and Charlie went to bed presently; and Hal and his grandmother had a good talk until Dot woke up, strange to say quite good-natured.