know how we have always longed to have her in Burnet; and if she could
come now it would make everything twice as pleasant."

"Katy, what an enchanting thought!" cried Clover, who had not seen Rose
since they all left Hillsover. "It would be the greatest lark that ever
was to have the Roses. When do you suppose we shall hear? I can hardly
wait, I am in such a hurry to have her say 'Yes.'"

"But suppose she says 'No'?"

"I won't think of such a possibility. Now go on. I suppose your principles
don't preclude a wedding-cake?"

"On the contrary, they include a great deal of wedding-cake. I want to
send a box to everybody in Burnet,--all the poor people, I mean, and the
old people and the children at the Home and those forlorn creatures at the
poor-house and all papa's patients."

"But, Katy, that will cost a lot," objected the thrifty Clover.

"I know it; so we must do it in the cheapest way, and make the cake
ourselves. I have Aunt Izzy's recipe, which is a very good one; and if we
all take hold, it won't be such an immense piece of work. Debby has
quantities of raisins stoned already. She has been doing them in the
evenings a few at a time for the last month. Mrs. Ashe knows a factory
where you can get the little white boxes for ten dollars a thousand, and I
have commissioned her to send for five hundred."

"Five hundred! What an immense quantity!"