Page:What Katy Did at School - Coolidge (1876).djvu/137

 "If that word had come to me, I should have fainted away on the spot,—I know I should!"

Next came—

Word.—Buttons. Question.—What is the best way to make home happy?

To me 'tis quite clear I can answer this right: Sew on the buttons, and sew them on tight.

"I suspect that is Amy's," said Esther: "she's such a model for mending and keeping things in order."

"It's not fair, guessing aloud in this way," said Sally Alsop. Sally always spoke for Amy, and Amy for Sally. "Voice and Echo" Rose called them: only, as she remarked, nobody could tell which was Echo and which Voice.

The next word was "Mrs. Nipson," and the question, "Do you like flowers?"

Do I like flowers? I will not write a sonnet,
 * Singing their beauty as a poet might do:

I just detest those on Aunt Nipson's bonnet,
 * Because they are like her,—all gray and blue,
 * Dusty and pinched, and fastened on askew!

And as for heaven's own buttercups and daisies, I am not good enough to sing their praises.

Nobody knew who wrote this verse. Katy suspected Louisa, and Rose suspected Katy.