Page:Milady at Arms (1937).pdf/313

 was quite superfluous, for Indian summer had come upon New Jersey.

Presently, a noise in the room outside the built-in bed seemed to indicate that Sally had overslept. She sat up and, pushing open the door, laughingly thrust out her nightcapped head. It was Rachel Ball, busily mopping up the wide, uneven floor boards, who greeted her.

"Overslept?" repeated Rachel, in answer to Sally's sleepy question. "Well, not much, my dear. 'Tis six o'clock, of course; but Mother and Uzal got up extra early—four o'clock—for Uzal be going to Morris Town this day."

"Aye?" Sally sprang out and began to dress, shivering a little when the morning breeze struck her through a window Rachel had opened to air the room.

"Aye," returned Rachel idly, eying the glorious mop of curls Sally kept thrusting impatiently up beneath her nightcap. "What hair ye have! 'Tis really a most unusual shade, Sally!"

"The Holden red!" quoted Sally ironically.

"What?" Rachel glanced at her, wrung out her wet floor cloth, and swished it briskly over the floor.

"Nothing!" exclaimed Sally hastily. "I was but jesting! Go on, Ray!"

"H'm, where was I?" Rachel bent her brow.

"Ye said Uzal was going to Morris Town," Sally reminded her.