"No, you're not, I am," Peter declared.
George looked up hastily.
"I am going to bring Miss Rose out," he said firmly.
Then they laughed.
"Father," Nellie said gravely, "just to save trouble
among the boys, will you do it?"
"With the greatest of pleasure," her father said, smiling.
Under Pearl's ready sympathy Tom began to feel the part
of the stricken lover, and to become as eager to meet
Nellie as Egbert had been to meet the beautiful Edythe.
He moped around the field that afternoon and let Arthur
do the heavy share of the work.
The next morning before Mrs. Motherwell appeared Pearl
and Tom decided upon the plan of campaign. Pearl was to
get his Sunday clothes taken to the bluff in the pasture
field, sometime during the day. Then in the evening Tom
would retire early, watch his chance, slip out the front
door, make his toilet on the bluff, and then, oh bliss!
away to Edythe. Pearl had thought of having him make a
rope of the sheets; but she remembered that this plan of
escape was only used when people were leaving a place
for good--such as a prison; but for coming back again,
perhaps after all, it was better to use the front door.
Egbert had used the sheets, though.
Fortune favoured Pearl's plans that afternoon. A book
agent called at the back door with the prospectus of a
book entitled, "Woman's Influence in the Home." While he
was busy explaining to Mrs. Motherwell the great advantages
of possessing a copy of this book, and she was equally
busy explaining to him her views on bookselling as an
occupation for an able-bodied man, Pearl secured Tom's
suit, ran down the front stairs, out the front door and
away to the bluff.
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