Phyllis | Page 4

and she had to go down to the basement to get in.
"Where's everybody?" she demanded of Lucy, the fat good-natured cook.
"Out, my dear," Lucy told her. "Your aunt is out calling, and Annie has gone to the grocery for me."
"What did you forget to-night?" Phyllis teased, as she swung herself up on the kitchen table.
"Now, Miss Phyllis, I couldn't help it this time, for how did I know that the can of mustard, standing there on the shelf as big as you please, was empty?"
It was chronic with Lucy to forget things, and it was usually Phyllis that went after them.
"Never mind, Lucy; it's hard luck. I don't see myself why those everlasting cans don't tell you when they are empty; it would save my steps, I know that."
"Cans speak! Go way with you," Lucy replied in a gust of laughter.
Phyllis swung down off the table.
"After two more days there'll be another me to go out and buy what you forget to order," she said as she ran up the back stairs.
Lucy watched her and then shook her head at the row of shining pans on the wall opposite.
"That, my dear, will never be," she said solemnly. "Look like you she may and lucky she is to be so blest, but be like you, I beg to differ. The dear Lord only made the one. Glory be," she added piously.
Phyllis, upstairs, was trying to think of something, no matter how small, to do to improve Janet's room.
CHAPTER III
FRIENDS
"Well, dear?" Auntie Mogs looked up from her paper the next morning at breakfast to greet her niece. Phyllis kissed her and sat down quietly at her place.
"Only one more morning to wait," she said happily, "and then--"
"And then the Page twins will have breakfast together for the rest of their lives, I hope," Auntie Mogs finished for her. "Or until one or the other of you get married."
"Married! Oh, what a perfectly silly idea!" Phyllis laughed. "I'm never going to get married, and I don't believe Janet wants to either."
Miss Carter did not contradict, but she picked up her newspaper to hide the amused smile that played on her firm red lips.
Phyllis looked around the dining-room and hummed contentedly. It was a charming room, and the fire blazing in the grate added to the warmth and coziness.
"No,"--Phyllis returned to the subject under discussion--"I'll never marry, but that doesn't mean I don't like boys. I do. I adore them. They are such fun and much more sensible than most girls, but I wouldn't admit that to any one but you, Auntie Mogs, because, nice as they are, they are fearfully conceited and that would keep me from ever being silly about them."
"I hope that's not the only reason," Auntie Mogs laughed. "Boys are--but there goes the telephone. Will you answer it, please, dear? Annie is busy."
Phyllis jumped up from the table and hurried to the hall.
"Suppose it's Tommy saying they're coming to-day!" she exclaimed. But a minute later her aunt heard her voice drop to its natural tone as she said:
"Oh, hello, Muriel; this is Phyllis--
"Why, how nice of you; of course I'll be in.
"Yes, isn't it too exciting for words!
"Oh, I think we'll both be there on Monday.
"Oh, wonderful; then I'll see you this afternoon, 'by 'till then."
"It was Muriel," she explained as she returned to the dining-room. "She and some of the girls from school are coming over this afternoon. They want to talk over some class plans and they want my advice. We have class officers this year, you know. Muriel says I've missed an awful lot. It's almost a month now since school started but it can't be helped.
"Oh, dear, I wonder what class Janet will be in. I hope it won't be too awfully low." She paused, and her pretty brows puckered into a tiny frown.
"I don't think I'd worry if I were you," her aunt said softly. "Janet may never have been to a school but she is very bright, and I don't think it will be very long before she will be even with you."
"Oh, but, Auntie Mogs," Phyllis exclaimed, "you didn't think I meant she was stupid. Of course she's bright, only she probably hasn't had the same kind of lessons that I have. Anyway, we will soon know, and even if she goes into the very baby class it won't make any difference to me. Only you see it might to some of the others," she added reluctantly.
"That won't bother Janet." Miss Carter smiled at the memory of her independent little niece who, for all her quiet ways, was thoroughly able to take care of herself.
"The only thing that worries me," she added, smiling, "is whether or not Janet will like the girls."
Phyllis looked at her in astonishment.
"But of course she will," she exclaimed.