The Inglenook
"And so ladylike!" added Julia triumphantly.
"How much?" asked Gilbert succinctly.
The girls whispered a minute or two, and appeared to be multiplying twenty-five first by fifteen, and then again by twenty.
"From three dollars and seventy-five cents to four dollars and a half a week according to circumstances!" answered Kathleen proudly.
"Will it take both of you?"
"Yes."
"All your time?"
More nods and whispers and calculation.
"No, indeed; only three hours a day."
"Any of my time?"
"Just a little."
"I thought so!" said Gilbert loftily. "You always want me and my hammer or my saw; but I'll be busy on my own account; you'll have to paddle your own canoe!"
"You'll be paid for what you do for us," said Julia slyly, giving Kathleen a poke, at which they both fell into laughter only possible to the very young.
Then suddenly there came a knock at the front door; a stamping of feet on the circular steps, and a noise of shaking off snow.
"Go to the door, Gilbert; who can that be on a night like this,—although it is only
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