"What'll you do next year?" Bert questioned sometimes dubiously.

"Oh, we'll manage!" And with a sleepy smile, and a sleepy kiss,
Nancy would trail away, only too grateful to reach her bed after
the hard hours.

Bert had carefully calculated upon her spring wardrobe, and she
became quite her animated self over the excitement of selecting
new clothes. They left Esmeralda in charge of Junior, and made an
afternoon of it, and dined down town in the old way. Over the meal
Bert told her that he had made exactly three hundred dollars at a
blow, in a commission, and that she and the boy were going to the
country for six weeks.

This led to a wonderful hour, when they compared feelings, and
reviewed their adventure. Nancy marvelled at the good fortune that
followed them, "we are marvellously lucky, aren't we, Bert?" she
asked, appreciatively. She had just spent almost a hundred dollars
for her summer clothes and the boy's! And now they were really
going to the blessed country, to be free for six weeks from
planning meals and scraping vegetables and stirring cereals.
Radiantly, they discussed mountains and beaches, even buying a
newspaper, on the hot walk home, to pore over in search of the
right place.




Chapter Eight