And now, will you help or will you not?"
"Well, I never!" said Mrs. Church.
When she had uttered these words she sank back in her chair. Her
knitting was forgotten; her old face looked pale with anxiety.
"Have a cup of tea; it will help you to think more than anything," said
Susy, and in a brisk and businesslike fashion she dived into the
cupboard, took out the cups and saucers, a little box of biscuits, a
tiny jug of milk, a caddy of tea, and proceeded to fill the little
teapot. By-and-by tea was ready, and Susy brought a cup to the old lady.
"There, now," she said. "You see what it means to have a nice little
girl like me to wait on you. You'd have taken an hour hobbling round all
by yourself. Now what will you do?"
"What shall I do?" said Mrs. Church. "Look round, Susan Hopkins, and ask
me what I am to do! How many of those forty can be squeezed into this
room?"
"Let me think," said Susy.
She looked round the room, which was really not more than twelve feet
square.
"We couldn't get many in here," she said. "Four might stand against the
wall there, and four there, and so on, but that wouldn't go far when
there are forty. We must have the backyard."
"What! and upset the pig?" said Mrs. Church.
"Oh, Aunt Church, you really can't think of Brownie at a moment like
this! They must all congregate in the yard, and you shall look on. Oh,
you'll enjoy it fine! But you ought to have tea for Miss O'Hara and Miss
Katie O'Flynn; you really ought.
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