Page:Leah Reed--Brenda's summer at Rockley.djvu/390

368 she saw that it meant a great deal to her to have this glimpse of the doings of more fortunate people. One of the best effects on Amy of her intimacy with Brenda  had been the broadening of her sympathy, so that she was  much less impatient with the little peculiarities of cousin  Joan, that sometimes were rather trying.

“Don’t forget,” said cousin Joan, as she started to go downstairs,—“don’t forget to see if Mrs. Murphy’s tidy  gets a prize; it’s real Irish lace, and she ’s been working  on it for a long time.”

“Yes, ’m,” said Amy, as she hastened down and out to the side of the house, where Fritz and Ben were already waiting for her.

They were not to ride all the way to the Fair, but at the station were to join Brenda and the others, and go by  train to Salem.

“Let me see,” cried Mr. Elston, as they got out of the cars, “are all my charges here?” and he proceeded to  count “one, two, three, four, five, six—why, with myself  we are seven. That will suit the poetic members of the party,” and, with a smile in Amy’s direction, Mr. Elston  mounted his wheel and led the way. They dismounted once or twice only, once merely to take breath, and once  to visit the building erected to the memory of the great  philanthropist, George Peabody, in which is a gold medal  and other testimonials that he received in England. Up the long street from Salem through Peabody they pressed,  and at last, before a large brick building, they halted.

“Here we are!” cried Mr. Elston.