Page:Leah Reed--Brenda's summer at Rockley.djvu/159

Rh “Oh, yes,” added Brenda. “We could have lots of fun out of it, I am sure.”

“Of course you know, Mrs. Barlow, that I simply know the things that are in books that I have read, or that my mother has read to me. I can tell Brenda where to find the same things. Perhaps she would rather read them for herself.”

“Oh, no, indeed; I’ve always noticed that people who write history manage to make their books frightfully  uninteresting. I’m afraid that I shouldn’t know much, if I had to dig it out of books myself.”

“Ah, Brenda, why will you make yourself out to be so much worse than you are. Amy will think that Boston school girls receive a strange education. Some of us do like history,” and Nora looked appealingly from Brenda to Amy.

The outcome of this suggestion of Mrs. Barlow’s was the appointing of a day for the four girls to spend together  at Marblehead. Brenda was delighted when she found that no older person was to accompany them.

“Marblehead is a quiet place,” said her mother, “and if I did not believe that you could be trusted, I should not  think of letting you go, older person or no older person  with you.”

“Why, Aunt Anna, am I not an older person?” asked Julia, “if you like, I will take charge of everything.”

“No, I thank you,” interposed Brenda, “you need n’t take charge of me. Mother’s plan of letting us take care of ourselves is the best one.”