Allie sprang from her chair and rushed to her sister. She flung her arms affectionately about her.
“Oh, Grace, I shouldn’t have said what I did about needing money. I didn’t mean it! Truly, I didn’t.”
“But it’s the truth.”
“We’ll get along, Grace. If only my chicken money came in faster! Why can’t a hen lay more than one egg a day?”
Grace smiled faintly at Allie’s feeble attempt at a joke, and, to break an awkward silence, Nancy took up the conversation.
“I’ll bring the dress material with me the next time I come this way.”
She did not need a new dress, but she realized that there was no other way to help the Horner girls, for they were too proud to accept money.