hurt and I'd have had to argue him into my plan like I did Roxanne. I
feel sure I would have failed with him. He is the first Idol I ever
had and I am new at managing either friends or idols. However, I have
got so I can get the best of Roxanne when it is urgently necessary.

"It's the funniest thing to me, Phyllis," Roxanne said the other
afternoon, as I went over to see her about my rhetoric lesson, "but
rich as you are, I don't at all mind your seeing my scrimps like I do
the other girls, even Mamie Sue. You are like finding a grandmother's
thimble that fits you exactly and is pure gold."

Oh, I wish I could learn to be gracious and say lovely things like
Roxanne, but I'm just a corked bottle and I can't get the stopper out.

"What are you doing?" I asked her instead of giving her a squeeze and
saying, "You are the dearest thing on earth to me, Roxanne," which was
what I really felt.

"I'm sitting here before this old dress I found in the trunk in the
attic and trying to think how I could make Lovey wear the flowered
aprons I can make out of it. I almost know he won't, for he has begun
to say what 'looks boy' and what 'looks girl.' I did hope I could keep
him ignorant of the difference this summer at least. Would you ask him
before you make the aprons or trust to his not noticing?"

The old dress was the full skirt of fifty years ago, with huge red
roses on a white-and-green dotted background, and, as aprons, would
have made the snake doctor look like a very young circus. I couldn't
stand the thought and cranked my mind as hard as I could for a half
minute. The idea came, and it is a good thing to be perfectly straight