Page:Aunt Jo's Scrap-Bag, Volume 2.djvu/87

Rh we fancy, being as free as air, and having all the world before us where to choose, as it were."

"The route you have laid out is a charming one, and I don't see how you can improve it," said Lavinia, who, though she was supposed to be the matron, guide, and protector of the younger girls, was in reality nothing but a dummy, used for Mrs. Grundy's sake, and let the girls do just as they pleased, only claiming the right to groan and moan as much as she liked when neuralgia, her familiar demon, claimed her for its own.

"One improvement remains to be made. Are these trunks a burden, a vexation of spirit, a curse?" demanded Amanda, tapping one with her carefully cherished finger-tips.

"They are! they are!" groaned the others, regarding the monsters with abhorrence.

"Then let us get rid of them, and set out with no luggage but a few necessaries in a shawl-strap."

"We will! we will!" returned the chorus.

"Shall we burn up our rubbish, or give it away?" asked Lavinia, who liked energetic measures, and was ready to cast her garments to the four winds of heaven, to save herself from the agonies of packing.