he asks them that.

The Rowan twins--Alfaretta and Luanna May--are working a pair of
slippers for their pa, one apiece, because it is such slow work. Along
about suppertime they make Elmer Lonnie stay outside and watch for his
coming, and he has to say: "Hello, pa!" very loud, and romp with him
outside the gate so as to give the twins time to gather up the colored
zephyrs and things, and hide them in the lower bureau drawer in the
spare bedroom. At such a time their mother finds an errand that takes
her into the parlor so that she can see that they do not, by any chance,
look into the middle drawer in the farther left-hand corner, under the
pillow-slips.

One night, just at supper-time, Elmer Lonnie said: "Hello, pa!" and
then they heard pa whispering and Elmer Lonnie came in looking very
solemn--or trying to--and said: "Ma, Miss Waldo wants to know if you
won't please step over there a minute."

"Did she say what for? Because I'm right in the midst of getting
supper. I look for your pa any minute now, and I don't want to keep him
waiting."

"No 'm, she didn't say what for. She jist said: 'Ast yer ma won't she
please an' step over here a minute.' I wouldn't put anythin' on. 'T
ain't cold. You needn't stay long, only till... I guess she's in some of
a hurry."

"Well, if Harriet Waldo thinks 'at I haven't anythin' better to do 'n
trot around after her at her beck an'.... All right, I'll come."

The twins got their slippers hid, and Mrs. Rowan threw her shawl over
her head, and went next door to take Mrs. Waldo completely by surprise.
The good woman immediately invented an intricate problem in crochet
work demanding instant solution. Mr. Rowan had brought home a crayon
enlargement of a daguerreotype of Ma, taken before she was married, when
they wore their hair combed down over their ears, and wide lace collars
fastened with a big cameo pin, and puffed sleeves with the armholes
nearly at the elbows. They wore lace mitts then, too. The twins thought
it looked so funny, but Pa said: "It was all the style in them days.
Laws! I mind the first time I took her home from singin' school....
Tell you where less hide it. In between the straw tick, and the feather
tick." And Luanna May said: "What if company should come?" Elmer Lonnie
ran over to Mrs. Waldo's to tell Ma that Pa had come home, and wanted
his supper right quick, because he had to get back to the store, there
was so much trade in the evenings now.

"I declare,