“A garage!  Is Aunt Louise going to set up a car?”

“Just a small one that she can drive herself.  Back of the garage there’s plenty of space for a garden and she says she’ll turn that over to me.  I can do anything I want with it as long as I’ll be sure to have enough vegetables for the table and lots of flowers for the house.”

“O, my; O, my; what fun we’ll have,” ejaculated Della, who knew that Dorothy could have no pleasure that she would not share equally with the rest of the Club.

“I came over now to see if you people didn’t want to walk over there and see it.”

“This minute?”

“This minute.”

“Of course we do—­if Della doesn’t have to take the train back yet?”

“Not for a long time.  I’d take a later one anyway; I couldn’t wait until the Saturday Club meeting to see it.”

“How did you know I’d suggest a walk there for the Saturday Club meeting?”

“Could you help it?” retorted Della, laughing.

They timed themselves so that they might know just how far away from them Dorothy was going to be and they found that it was just about half way to Grandfather Emerson’s.  As somebody from the Mortons’ went there every day, and as the distance was, in reality, not long, they were reassured as to the Smiths being quite out in the country as the change had seemed to them at first.

“You won’t be able to live in the house this summer, will you?” asked Ethel Blue.

“Not until late in the summer or perhaps even later than that.  Mother says she isn’t in a hurry because she wants the work to be done well.”

“Then you won’t plant the garden this year?”

“Indeed I shall.  I’m going to plant the new garden and the garden where we are now.”

“Roger will strike on doing all the digging.”

“He’ll have to have a helper on the new garden, but I’ll plant his sweetpeas for him just the same.  At the new place I’m going to have a large garden.”

“Up here on the hill?”

The girls were climbing up the ascent that rose sharply from the road.

“The house will perch on top of this little hill.  Back of it, you see, on top of the ridge, it’s quite flat and the garden will be there.  I was talking about it with Mr. Emerson this morning—­”

“Oho, you’ve called Grandfather into consultation already!”

“He’s going to be our nearest neighbor on that side.  He said that a ridge like this was one of the best places for planting because it has several exposures to the sun and you can find a spot to suit the fancy of about every plant there is.”

“Your garden will be cut off from the house by the garage.  Shall you have another nearer the road?”

“Next summer there will have to be planting of trees and shrubs and vines around the house but this year I shall attend to the one up here in the field.”

“Brrrr!  It looks bleak enough now,” shivered Ethel Blue.