But at least it would be
well to let her know what you think of doing, and hear what she says."
"I don't know that what she says need affect the question much. The fact
is, Maria, something will have to be done. We are exceeding what we can
afford even now, and the children will be growing more expensive instead
of less so. For my own part, I can only feel glad of Rachel's offer. I
must go now; but you can tell Edith, if you like; and tell her, too, to
hold herself in readiness, for the sooner the matter is settled the
better."
Edith Harley, called indifferently by her brothers and sisters the
Middle One and the Odd One, was the third daughter and the fifth child
of this family of nine. She was a rather tall, awkward girl, who grew
out of her frocks, and tumbled her hair, and scandalised her elder
sisters, in their pretty prim young ladyhood, by playing with the boys
and clinging obstinately, in spite of her fifteen years, to her hoop and
skipping-rope. An unfortunate child was this chosen one, always getting
into scrapes, and being credited with more mischief than she ever really
did.
It was Edith who had caught the whooping-cough through playing with some
of the village children, and had brought it home, to be the plague of
all the nine for a whole winter and spring.
It was Edith who took Johnnie and Francie down to the pondside to play,
and let them both tumble in.
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