Laughing Last

, but it's my turn

w seat from which vantage-ground Sidney Roml

ou

y,

urns!" laughed Victoria Romley, w

lm firmness. The better to impress her point she uncurled her

answered, carefully ignoring Vicky's laughing eyes. "Each one

was my last turn and you enjoy that as m

the privacy of her attic retreat and she could not be deflected by

other and give and take and all that, and I think it'd be a blot on our honor if you refu

interrupted Vicky, quite unimpressed by her sister's serious

withering look in

ing to show for it!" she retorted. Then: "And what I'd do with it is m

eathed the tor

was carrying to the kitchen down upon the old sideboard and turned to face

me but I'm sick of being different. I-I want

sober. In a twinkling this lanky, pigtailed little sister seemed to have become an individual with whom they mus

est sister, fro

ncerned I don't think you have any complaint. Certainly you do not

bothering you, why, take it

he was not unaware of certain dissatisfactions that smoldered in her own breast. The knowled

up, Sid," she laughed softly. "Now brace u

was fifteen. It hadn't been the Egg itself she had wanted-it had been to have them reckon her in on

r! I want to wear clothes like the other girls and go to a boarding school and neve

he outpour with

her's memory! He has left us something that is far greater than wealth. A great man

eat a few meals without hearing you and Trude talk about how much flour costs and how we're going to pay the milk bill. Yes, a fine heritage! Poor Dad, he couldn't help being a poet, but I'll bet he wishes now he'd been a plasterer or something like that-for our sakes, of course. I'

s. Never had any family council taken such a tone. Sidney thrilled to the knowledge that she was now a vital part of it. Her eyes, so recently we

ho answered Vicky-

up our assets. We're not quite as poor as church mice; we have this old house that isn't half bad, even if the roof does leak, and the government bonds and the royalties and living the way we had to live with Dad taught us to have fun among ourselves which is something! We're not dependent upon outsiders for that. You, Issy, have your

rd enough to merit that distinction. Sid had the promise of the Egg, which, be it known, was the royalty accruing each year from a collection of whimsical verse

suggest that we agree to use it this time to fix the

ing that fur coat Godmother Jocelyn sent me made over. But let the roof leak and the coat go-little

a question. Her point won she found herself emb

't tel

urself in your youthful extravagance. Now that this momentous affair

way I'm going to trim that vine on the

an't! You forget

look at the old house from every angle. They would say to the strangers who were visiting the shrine for the first time: "No, the house wasn't in his family but Joseph Romley made it peculiarly his; it's as though his ancestors had lived there for generations-nothing has been changed-that west room with the bay window was his study

the floor looking dustier for the new rug, and the two faded, deep chairs near the old piano. They would see the dust and the bareness but they wouldn't know how gloriously, at sunset time, the flame of the sky lighted every corner of the spacious room or what jolly fires could crackle on the deep hearth or what fun it was to cuddle in the old chairs-they could hold four-while Vicky's clever fingers raced over the cracked ivory keys in her improvisations that sometimes set them roaring with laughter and sometimes brought mist to their eyes. The intruders would fin

onged to be active out-of-doors. She had planned to plant another row of beans, too. The girls wouldn't poke fun at her when they ate fresh vegetab

s. I forgot it was Saturday

de a little frightenedly and Vicky jumped with a low whistle. "Good gracious! What if

ne another. Sidney grew awkwardly aware of a constraint in her sister's

know just how you can escape it-any more than the rest of us can. Look at me-look at Trude-" Then she

imming with her though I don't

ps you'd better receive the League visitors this morning. I have some letters to wri

the room leaving Sidney with a baffled sense of-in spite