"When will you make
my frock?"
"To-morrow," answered the mother, "and you can go to school again."
"Oh, goody!" she began, but her face fell. "If only Molly Parker could
go too!"
"You wait and see," answered Ann, with a knowing look. "Who knows what
Christmas will bring to Molly Parker?"
"Now here's a nice big roast," the happy woman went on, still
unpacking, "and potatoes and turnips and cabbage and bread and butter
and coffee and--"
"What in the world! You goin' to give a party?" asked the old man
between the puffs, staring at her in wonder.
"I'll tell you just what I am going to do," said Ann firmly, bracing
herself for opposition, "and it's as good as done, so you needn't say a
word about it. I'm going to have a Christmas dinner, and I'm going to
invite every blessed soul in this house to come. They shall be warm and
full for once in their lives, please God! And, Katey," she went on
breathlessly, before the old man had sufficiently recovered from his
astonishment to speak, "go right upstairs now, and invite every one of
'em from the fathers down to Mrs. Parker's baby to come to dinner at
three o'clock; we'll have to keep fashionable hours, it's so late now;
and mind, Katey, not a word about the money. And hurry back, child, I
want you to help me."
To her surprise, the opposition from her husband was less than she
expected.
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