human
My, it's nice out in the country now, said Bob.
gpt
Why can't Sunny Boy come out and see us, Mrs. Horton? Ma was saying yesterday she'd like to have him come any time. He's never really seen the place, and Judge Layton is fixing it up fine. Can't he come next Saturday? I'd meet him at the trolley station.
human
I'll tell you, Bob, what Sunny Boy has been teasing to be allowed to do, replied Mrs. Horton.
gpt
He and half a dozen of the boys he plays with want to take their lunches and spend a day exploring. Mr. Horton and I have suggested that they wait till it is warmer, but I am afraid they can't wait contentedly much longer, and your suggestion has really solved the problem for me.
human
Oh, Mother! cried Sunny Boy, who had been listening eagerly.
gpt
Next Saturday, Mother? Please!
human
You see how it is, don't you, Bob? she said.
gpt
Well, Mr. Horton and I are not willing to have Sunny Boy go to a strange place. But if your mother is willing to let them come out where you are, they can play around and have a beautiful time. They'll bring their own lunches, and she musn't let them track mud on her clean kitchen floor. Indeed, they'll be too busy with all outdoors, to think much about coming in the house, I suppose. But you and your father will be there, to keep an eye on them, and I shall feel so much easier. Some one will put them on the trolley car here in the morning, and if you will meet them at the corner of your lane and see that they are put on the half past four car in the afternoon, every mother will be much obliged to you.
human
And tell them to wear their rubber boots, Mrs. Horton, he said earnestly.
gpt
Such mud you never saw! Ma keeps a broom at the back door, and she won't let us come in till we change our shoes. She hands us out clean ones. But of course it is always soft when the frost is coming out of the ground.