“I think between us we can manage.  We’ll try it.”  And Prudence heroically endured the pain of being moved, for the sake of seeing Jerrold at the table with her parsonage family.  For to her surprise, she realized that she could not bear that even a few minutes should pass, when she could not see the manly young face with the boyish mouth and the tender eyes!

Prudence, at last, was aroused from her slumber.

CHAPTER XIII

SHE ORDERS HER LIFE

“Prudence, are you going to Aunt Grace’s early in the summer, or late?” demanded Fairy.

“Oh, let’s not talk of that now.  There’s plenty of time.”

“No, there isn’t.  School will be out in a week, and Babbie wants to give a house party and have our little bunch at his home for a few days this summer.  He wants to set the date, and I can’t tell him when because I do not know when you are going to auntie’s.”

They sat around the breakfast table, Prudence and Fairy and their father, talking of the summer.  The twins and Connie had long since excused themselves, and even now could be heard shouting gaily in the field beyond the old red barn.

Prudence looked restlessly from one to the other, when her sister insisted upon an answer.

“Why,” she began, “I’ve about decided not to go to Aunt Grace’s this summer.”

Fairy rapped on the table with the spoon she held in her hand.  “Don’t be silly!  You have to go.  You’ve never had a vacation in your life, and father promised Aunt Grace on his reputation as a minister, didn’t you, papa?”

“Yes, I promised all right.”

“But, papa!  I do not have to go, do I?  A whole month,—­oh, honestly, I do not want to.”

“Why don’t you?  Last fall you were wild about it.  Don’t you remember dreaming——­”

“Oh, but that was last fall,” said Prudence, smiling softly, and unconsciously she lifted one hand to where a bulky letter nestled inside her dress.  “I didn’t know I was going to sprain my ankle, and be so useless.  It may be two weeks yet before I can walk on it.”

“What has that got to do with it?”

“Do you really prefer to stay at home, Prudence?” queried her father.  “The whole summer?”

Prudence blushed most gloriously.  “Oh, well,” she began slowly.  Then she took the plunge recklessly.  “Why, you see, father, Jerry lives with his aunt in Des Moines,—­he told you that, didn’t he?  And they have quite a big house, and—­he wants to take me and the twinnies to Des Moines in the car for a week or ten days.  And Fairy will take care of you and Connie.  And—­if I can do that—­I do not want any more vacation.  I couldn’t bear to stay at auntie’s a whole month, away from you and the parsonage.”  She felt very guilty, for she did not add, as she was thinking, “Besides, Jerry is coming every two weeks, and if I were away, we would miss a visit!”