"
Again the audience laughed because of Polly's well-known devotion to the
drama and because if she were left alone to look after the cooking, her
mother and Mollie often returned to find her poring over her recitations
with the dinner burning on the stove.
"If mother is going to preach a sermon with me for a text, Betty's
candles will sputter and die out before ever she explains her word,"
Polly suggested.
"Oh, the word is 'work'; Mollie wasn't so far wrong, though work may
mean different things to different people. Wohelo means 'Work, Health
and Love'," Betty explained quickly, still keeping her eyes on the
candle flames.
But Polly rising from her place slipped over and took Betty by both
shoulders.
"Elizabeth Ashton, more commonly known as 'The Princess,' Bettina or
Betty, will you kindly explain yourself? No doubt those are three
estimable things you are recommending to us, but please tell me how
Work, Health and Love are going to solve our present difficulties and
help mother get the rest she needs. It seems to me she has given us too
much of the first and last of your watchword already and has too little
of the middle thing left in consequence."
Betty's long lashes swept her cheeks in a tantalizing fashion and her
color deepened as, clasping her hands over her knees, she began slowly
swaying back and forth, her eyes fastened on Polly.
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