"If you could trust me," Joan said, "I'll go."
"Of course we trust you!" Elspeth said, "but I shouldn't think of asking you to go. It's a dreadful bore."
"But I'd like to," said Joan, "if you'd really let me. I mean it."
"What a blessing you are!" sighed Elspeth, her hands pressed to her throbbing head.
"We'll have to hurry, then," said Jim, when Joan sought him out in the service-room and told him of the new plan. "There's no breakfast in view yet; you see, I thought everything was off. And has anybody thought about some civilized clothes for Garth?"
"I must find some for myself," said Joan, who wore a very salty blue skirt and a borrowed jumper. "I'll see what he's doing."
She found Garth sitting on the floor in his room, struggling with an unfamiliar tan shoe.
"These things are lots uncomfortabler than sneakers," he observed, as Joan came in, "and I can't find any good clothes. There's a sailor-suit somewhere. It's a very nice one; it has long trousers."
Joan proceeded to search.
"Perhaps you'd better ask Mudder to find
