Page:Dorothy Canfield - Understood Betsy.djvu/38

24 has been the hub round which a whole household was revolving.

"You don't have to!" shouted old Mrs. Lathrop out of her second-story window. Although she did not add "You gump!" aloud, you could feel she was meaning just that. "You don't have to! You can just send her to the Putney cousins. All nonsense about her not going there in the first place. They invited her the minute they heard of Harriet's being so bad. They're the natural ones to take her in. Abigail is her mother's own aunt, and Ann is her own first-cousin-once-removed . . . just as close as Harriet and Frances are, and much closer than you! And on a farm and all . . . just the place for her!"

"But how under the sun, Mother!" shouted Cousin Molly back, "can I get her to the Putneys'? You can't send a child of nine a thousand miles without . . ."

Old Mrs. Lathrop looked again as though she were saying "You gump!" and said aloud, "Why, there's James, going to New York on