Page:Carroll Rankin--Dandelion Cottage.djvu/194

 172  you? I'm half afraid to leave you two girls here alone."

"You needn't be," said Mabel. "I wouldn't associate with Laura if I were paid for it. She isn't my kind."

"No," said Marjory, "you needn't worry a mite. We're going to sit on the doorstep and read a perfectly lovely book that Aunty Jane found at the library—it's one that she liked when she was a little girl. We're going to take turns reading it aloud."

"Well, that certainly ought to keep you out of mischief. You'll be safe enough if you stick to your book. If anything should happen just remember that I'm at Bettie's."

"Yes, grandma," said Marjory, with a comical grimace.

Jean laughed, ran around the house and squeezed through the hole in the back fence.

Half an hour later, lonely Laura, discovering the girls on their doorstep, amused herself by "sicing" the dog at them. Towser, however, merely growled lazily for