Page:Carroll Rankin--Dandelion Cottage.djvu/294

 268  twinkle in his eye, "is nine points of the law. You'd better go to work at once and move in and get to cooking; you see there's a vacancy under my vest that nothing but that promised dinner party can fill. The sooner you get settled, the sooner I get that good square meal. Besides, if you don't work, you won't have an appetite for a great big box of candy that I have in my trunk."

"Oh," sighed Bettie, rubbing her cheek against Mr. Black's sleeve, "it seems too good to be true."

"What, the candy?" teased Mr. Black.

"No, the cottage," explained Bettie, earnestly. "Oh, I do hope winter will be about six months late this year to make up for this."

"Perhaps it'll forget to come at all," breathed Mabel, hopefully. "I'd almost be willing to skip Christmas if there was any way of stretching this summer out to February, Somebody please pinch me—I'm afraid I'm dreaming—Oh! ouch! I didn't say everybody."