"You can live in
Pennsylvania with me."

"That is great. I went to Philadelphia once when I was a girl." And she
told the eagerly listening Peggy all about the Quaker city with its
straight streets and its old buildings.

"I am afraid if your mother is in a hurry for those buttons and that
tape," said Miss Betsy, "you'd better be going home now, but some
afternoon when you can stay longer I'll read you a book about some of
the signers of the Declaration of Independence."

"What a lucky child I am to have my name begin with a P," Peggy said.
"There can't be any other State as interesting as Pennsylvania."

CHAPTER XII

HOW PEGGY SPENT HER MONEY

As Peggy was going out of Miss Betsy's kitchen door, some hens straggled
along the grass. Some were brown and some were white and some were
yellow. Peggy thought they were all fat, prosperous-looking hens. She
admired their red combs and their yellow legs.

"I wish we had some hens," she said to Miss Betsy. "Eggs cost such a lot
we can't ever have any cake."

"I'd give you some fresh eggs to take back to your mother, only I am
afraid you might slip and break them."

Peggy looked thoughtful. It would be nice to have the eggs, but it would
be hard to have to walk home with the eggs on her mind.

"Mother, I wish we kept hens," she said as she ran into the kitchen.
"Miss Betsy has such nice ones."

"How do you happen to know anything about Miss Betsy's hens?" her mother
asked. "Is calling on Miss Betsy your idea of coming straight home from
the village?"

"You didn't say to come straight home, truly, you didn't, mother. I
thought you wouldn't mind my making a short call on her and the cat."

Mrs. Owen found it as hard to find fault with Peggy as it had been to
find fault with Peggy's father.

"We've got a hen-house out in the yard," Peggy went on. "The people who
lived here before us must have kept hens, so it must be a good climate
for them."

"I have a few things to do besides taking care of hens," said Mrs. Owen
firmly.

"I'd take all the care of them."

"I should as soon trust them to Lady Janet's care."

"But Alice could help me. She'd remind me to feed them."

"And, besides, hens cost a great deal," said Mrs. Owen. She had been
thinking of the possibility of keeping hens.

"Do chickens cost a lot? Couldn't we begin with little chickens and let
them grow into hens?"

"If we want eggs this winter we'd have to buy hens."

"Maybe people will g