"First class day, it looks like to me."
Come to think of it, Ina didn't know that there was anything to prevent,
but mercy, Herbert was so sudden. Lulu began to recite the resources of
the house for a lunch. Meanwhile, since the first mention of picnic, the
child Monona had been dancing stiffly about the room, knees stiff,
elbows stiff, shoulders immovable, her straight hair flapping about her
face. The sad dance of the child who cannot dance because she never has
danced. Di gave a conservative assent--she was at that age--and then
took advantage of the family softness incident to a guest and demanded
that Bobby go too. Ina hesitated, partly because she always hesitated,
partly because she was tribal in the extreme. "Just our little family
and Uncle Ninian would have been so nice," she sighed, with her consent.
When, at six o'clock, Ina and Dwight and Ninian assembled on the porch
and Lulu came out with the basket, it was seen that she was in a
blue-cotton house-gown.
"Look here," said Ninian, "aren't you going?"
"Me?" said Lulu. "Oh, no."
"Why not?"
"Oh, I haven't been to a picnic since I can remember."
"But why not?"
"Oh, I never think of such a thing."
Ninian waited for the family to speak. They did speak. Dwight said:
"Lulu's a regular home body."