Page:Anna Chapin--Half a dozen boys.djvu/83

Rh “Is it still snowing?” asked Bess.

“Yes,” said Bert. “It will spoil all the skating. The snow has held off so long, but it has come to stay.”

“It will be just dandy coasting, though,” said Ted.

“Teddy,” interrupted Bess, “if you say ‘dandy’ again. I’ll take your candy away from you. I’ll tell you, boys, let’s form an anti-slang society; I really think you use too much for the parlor. It is well enough if you must have a little on the ball-field, but I don’t like it in the house, so much of it.”

“But, Miss Bess,” urged Phil, “if we use it in our games we can’t stop, and the first we know it just comes out, whatever we are doing.”

“Then drop it entirely, if it must be so. You boys don’t want to hear me say, ‘I’ll bet,’ and ‘dandy,’ and ‘bully,’ now do you?”

“I hain’t never used any of them words,” said Sam, raising his head with a proud consciousness of innocence.

Ted and Phil glanced at each other, and Rob's eyes looked wicked, but he never moved a muscle.