Daisy paused and tried to increase a distortion of her face, which was her conception of a businesslike concentration upon “shopping.” “What?” she inquired, affecting absent-mindedness. “Where you goin’?” “I haf to go shopping to-day, Elsie.” Elsie laughed. “No, you don’t.” “I do, too. I go shopping almost all the time lately. I haf to.” “You don’t, either,” Elsie said. “You don’t either haf to.” “I do, _too_, haf to!” Daisy retorted. “I’m almos’ worn out, I haf to go shopping so much.” “Where?” “Every single place,” Daisy informed her impressively. “I haf to go shopping all the way down-town. I’ll take you with me if you haf to go shopping, too. D’you want to?” Elsie glanced uneasily over her shoulder, but no one was visible at any of the windows of her house. Obviously, she was interested in her neighbour’s proposal, though she was a little timorous. “Well——” she said. “Of course I _ought_ to go shopping, because the truth is I got more shopping to do than ’most anybody. I haf to go shopping so _much_ I just have the backache all the time! I guess——” “Come on,” said Daisy. “I haf to go shopping in every single store down-town, and there’s lots o’ stores on the way we can go shopping in before we get there.” “All right,” her friend agreed. “I guess I rilly better.” She came out to the sidewalk, and the two turned toward the city’s central quarter of trade, walking quickly and talking with an accompaniment of many little gestures. “I rilly don’t know how I do it all,” said Elsie, assuming a care-worn air. “I got so much shopping to do an’ everything, my fam’ly all say they wonder I don’t break down an’ haf to go to a sanitanarian or somep’m because I _do_ so much.” “Oh, it’s worse’n that with _me_, my dear!” said Daisy. “I declare I doe’ know how I do live through it all! Every single day, it’s like this: I haf to go shopping all day _long_, my dear!” “Well, I haf to, too, my dear! I _never_ get time to even sit _down_, my dear!” Daisy shook her head ruefully. “Well, goodness knows the last time _I_ sat down, my dear!” she said. “My fam’ly say I got to take _some_ rest, but how can I, with all this terrable shopping to do?” “Oh, my dear!” Elsie exclaimed. “Why, my dear, _I_ haven’t sat down since Christmus!”