But when the hostess returned from the house the second time, Hazel gave an exclamation. Miss Fletcher was carrying a tray, and upon it was laid out a large doll's tea-set. It was of white china with gold bands, and when Flossie saw Hazel's admiration, she exclaimed too.
"This was my tea-set when I was a little girl," said Miss Fletcher, "and I was always very choice of it. Twenty years ago I had a niece your age, Hazel, who used to think it was the best fun in the world to come to aunt Hazel's and have lunch off her doll's tea-set. I used to tell her I was going to give it to _her_ little girl if she ever had one."
Both children exclaimed admiringly over the quaint shape of the bowl and pitchers, as Miss Fletcher deposited the tray on her sewing-table.
"When I was a child we didn't smash up handsome toys the way children do nowadays. They weren't so easy to get."
"And didn't your niece ever have a little girl?" asked Flossie, beginning to think that in such a case perhaps these dear dishes might come to be her own.
"Yes, she did," replied Miss Fletcher kindly, and as she looked at the guest's interested little face her eyes were thoughtful. "I shall give them to her some day."
"Once. I thought you children must be hungry after your games, and you'd like a little lunch."
This idea was so pleasing to Hazel that Flossie caught her enthusiasm.
"You'll be the mistress and pour, Flossie, and I'll be the waitress," she said. "Won't it be the most _fun_! I suppose, ma'am, you'll like to have the children come to the table?" she added, with sudden respectfulness of tone.
"Yes," returned Flossie, with elegant languor. "I think it teaches them good manners."
And then the waitress forgot herself so far as to hop up and down; for Miss Fletcher, who had returned to the house, now reappeared bearing a tray of eatables and drinkables.
What a good time the children had, with the sewing-table for a sideboard, and the lap-table fixed firmly across Flossie's chair.
"Are you sure you aren't getting too tired, dear?" asked Miss Fletcher of her invalid, doubtfully. "Wouldn't you rather the waitress poured?"
But Flossie declared she was feeling well, and Hazel looked up eagerly into Miss Fletcher's eyes and said, "You know she can't get too tired unless we're doing wrong."