Cake and
sandwiches, lemonade and coffee, would do very well, Linnet said, who had
no thought of feasting, and the dining room at home was the only
banqueting hall she had permitted herself to dream of.
Marjorie counted the chairs as Hollis brought them across the field from
home, and then her eyes filled as he drew from his pocket, to show her,
the deed of the house and ten acres of land, the wedding present from his
father to the bride.
"Oh, he's too good," she cried. "Linnet will break down, I know she
will."
"I asked him if he would be as good to my wife," answered Hollis, "and he
said he would, if I would please him as well as Will had done."
"There's only one Linnet," said Marjorie.
"But bride's have sisters," said Morris. "Marjorie, where shall I put all
this jelly? And I haven't missed one plate with a bouquet, have I? Now
count everybody up again and see if we are all right."
"Marjorie and I," began Hollis, audaciously, pushing a chair into its
place.
"Two," counted Morris, but his blue eyes flashed and his lip trembled.
"And Will and Linnet, four," began Marjorie, in needless haste, and
father and mother, six, and Will's father and mother, eight, and the
minister and his wife, ten, and Herbert and his wife, twelve, and Mr.
Holmes and Miss Prudence, fourteen, and Sam and Harold, sixteen, and
Morris, seventeen. That is all. Oh, and grandfather and grandmother,
nineteen."
"Seventeen plates! You and I are to be waiters, Marjorie," said Morris.
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