Page:Ballinger Price--The Happy Venture.djvu/213

Rh cautious letters thrown aside; "there's been enough money, hasn't there?"

"Lots," Ken said hastily. "We've been living royally—wait till you see. Oh, it's really a duck of a place—and Phil's a perfect wonder."

"What's a duck of a place?"

"Applegate Farm. Oh law! Mother dear, I'll have to tell you. It's only that we decided the old house was too expensive for us to run just for ourselves, so we got a nice old place in the country and fixed it up."

"You decided—you got a place in the country? Do you mean to say that you poor, innocent children have had to manage things like that?"

"We didn't want you to bother. Please don't worry, now." Ken looked anxiously across the table at his mother, as though he rather expected her to go off in a collapse again.

"Nonsense, Ken, I'm perfectly all right! But—but—oh, please begin at the beginning and unravel all this."

"Wait till we get on the train," Ken said. "I want to arrange my topics. I didn't mean to spring it on you this way, at all,