"Well, yes--I suppose that is all right," said Fanchon; but she began, as she said afterwards, to see some method in her sister's present madness. "Now," continued Nina, "I want to cast up a sum. Five--and seven--and eight. Fanchon, do tell me how much five and seven and eight make." "Twenty," was Fanchon's immediate reply. "Dear, dear! now I can't find my thimble!" "Oh, Fanchon--it's rolled away into that corner." "Pick it up, Nina." "No," said Nina--"not yet. How much, please, does twenty yards of muslin, at sixpence halfpenny a yard, come to?" The sum was made up by Fanchon, who was quite quick at arithmetic. "Ten shillings and ten-pence," she replied. "Yes, I thought so--and there were no linings of any kind got; for dear Brenda said that we could use up some of the frocks we had outgrown, for that purpose. So our three muslin frocks cost exactly ten shillings and ten-pence. It doesn't seem much for three girls, does it, Fanchon?" "I don't know," said Fanchon, crossly. "Why will you bother us in this queer way, Nina?" "Well--I am thinking," said Nina; "you will see my meaning after a bit. After Brenda had got the frocks and paid for them--only she did it so quickly, I can't make out how much money she put down--she bought the hats. The hats untrimmed were one shilling each, she bought a yard of white muslin to trim each and the white muslin was eight-pence a yard. She grumbled at the price. Three times eight is--" "Oh--two shillings, two shillings!" said Josephine. "Well, yes--that is quite right," said Nina. "Our three hats, trimmed, came to five shillings. Add five shillings to ten and ten-pence--that makes fifteen and ten-pence. Then there were our sand shoes--one and eleven-pence each--_they_ came to five and nine-pence; and our gloves;-- white washing gloves--don't you remember what a fuss Brenda made about them, and said that she would wash them herself for us at night, so that they would be clean every day? and I know they were only sixpence. Now then--let us count up the whole sum." The other two girls were now immensely interested. They did count the sum, doing it wrong once or twice, but finally producing a total which could not be gainsaid, and which came out precisely at one pound, three shillings, and a penny. Nina's little white face was flushed when this great task had been accomplished. "Can you remember any other single thing?" she asked of her sisters. "No, there was nothing else," said Josephine. "And did Brenda say, or did she not, that she had spent a lot of money on us, and that we must do with it, whether we liked it or not, because there was not a farthing more that could be produced?" "Well, yes, she did," said Fanchon, "and it seemed a lot at the time--at least, I thought so."