or two or
three years, and after supper preferred to stay close to her sister
Celia and Ben, though her brothers were soon hob-nobbing with Allen and
Ted, and were planning expeditions for the morrow. Ben told such a funny
story about the lady by the willow tree, that Edna could never look at
the picture again without laughing, but he had scarcely finished it
before some one called out: "Bedtime for little folks!" and all the
younger ones trooped off upstairs, grandma herself leading the way to
see that each one was tucked in comfortably.

CHAPTER IV

A HEARTY DINNER

It would be quite a task if one were to try to compute the number of
buckwheat cakes consumed at the long tables the next morning, and there
might have been more but that Charlie stopped Frank in the act of
helping himself to a further supply by saying: "Look here, son, if you
keep on eating cakes you won't give your Thanksgiving dinner any show at
all. I'm thinking about that turkey."

This remark was passed down the table and had the effect of bringing the
breakfast to a conclusion. The boys scampered off out of doors to scour
the place for nuts or to dive into unfrequented woodsy places, while the
girls gathered around the crowing baby, in high good-humor with herself
and the world at large. Then the nurse bore baby off and Edna turned to
her mother for advice.

"What can I do, mother?" she asked.

"Why, let me see. Your Aunt Alice and I are going to help your grandma
to arrange the tables, after a while. We shall want a lot of decorations
besides the roses your Uncle Bert brought. Suppose you little girls
constitute yourselves an order of flower girls with Celia at your head,
and go out to find whatever may do for the tables."

"There are some chrysanthemums, little yellow ones, and there are a few
white ones, too; I saw them yesterday down by the fence."

"They will do nicely; we will have those and anything else that will be
pretty for the table or the rooms."

"Shall we ask Lulie to go with us?" whispered Edna.

"Certainly I would. She isn't quite so old as you, but she is the only
other little girl here, and it would be very rude and unkind to leave
her out."

"You ask her," continued Edna in a low tone.

For answer Mrs. Conway smiled over at Lulie. "Don't you want to be a
flower girl?" she asked; "Celia, I propose that you take these two
little girls in tow and go on an expedition to gather flowers to deck
the tables and th