Couldn't they trust you for the coupons? Didn't you tell them we would give them the coupons to-morrow?"
"They are not allowed to sell things without the coupons."
"That's absurd when they've known you for years. They know you wouldn't cheat them."
"Well, they can't do that for anybody. Now, I'll go down and get something for the children to eat, and then you can tell me what you would like."
"Well, I can tell you now. I want a cup of decent coffee and a good, tender, juicy beefsteak."
"But, my dear, we can't get beefsteak or coffee without coupons, or any more butter!"
The little boy began to howl.
"I want some butter!" he protested. "I want some bread and a lot of butter!"
"There isn't any to-night, Gerald. But maybe I can find some jam down in the cellar. Won't that do?" asked Lexie brightly.
"No, it won't," he roared. "I won't eat your old jam! I want butter! A lot of it! You're a bad old aunt, you are, and I don't like you."
In despair Lexie went downstairs and concocted the nicest supper she could out of the supply she had bought.
The children came down presently, one at a time. Angelica first. Lexie, hurrying to get everything on the table, heard the child calling, "Hi, Elaine! There's hard-boiled egg-wheels on the spinach, and the potatoes have their overcoats on."
And then she heard a howl from Gerald: "I don't like old spinach! I won't eat it, even if it has got old egg-wheels on it. I hate spinach. I want beefsteak!"
Lexie took a deep breath. This was going to be an endurance test, it seemed. Oh why, why, why?
"Run up and call the other children, Angel," she said with a forced smile. "I'm just going to take the omelet up, and it needs to be eaten while it's piping hot."
The little girl gave one eager, hungry look at her aunt's bright face and hurried upstairs, calling the news about the omelet as she went.
But she came down again soon with a haughty imitation of her mother's tone.
"Elaine says it's no use for you to try to stuff spinach down us. We won't eat it. We never do! And she thinks that's pretty poor fare for the first meal when your relatives come home. She says we don't eat spinach nor omelet, and you can't make us!"
"Oh," said Lexie cheerfully, "that's too bad, isn't it, when we can't get anything else but what I've got here. But of course you don't have to eat it unless you like. I'm not going to try to stuff it down you. I only thought maybe you were hungry, and since these were the only things I could get for us to-night, you might be glad to have them. But if you don't want them, that's all right with me. As soon as I get the dishes washed and everything put away I'll try and fix a place for you to sleep. If you get to sleep soon I don't suppose you'll mind being hungry for to-night."
Angelica looked at her aunt aghast as she set the puffy brown omelet on the table, put the open dish of bright green spinach with its wheels of yellow and white egg beside it, and then sat down as if she were going to eat it all by herself. Deliberately she helped herself to some of each dish on the table and began to eat with slow, small bites, smiling at the little girl pleasantly. Suddenly Angelica set up a howl: "Come down here quick, Gerry! She's eating it all up! She's got a nice dinner all ready and she's eating it up herself! Hurry up and bring Bluebell down with you. Hurry, or it will all be gone!"
Lexie smiled to herself as she realized that she had conquered for once. Perhaps that was the way to manage them. Let them think you didn't care whether they ate or not. So she went steadily on eating slow mouthfuls while Angelica fairly danced up and down in a fury.
"Gerald! Ger-a-l-d! Come quick! She's eating it all up from us, and I'm h-o-n-g-r-y!"
"Oh," said Lexie pleasantly. "Would you like to have some dinner? Suppose you sit down here beside me. What would you like to have?"
"I want some of that puffy om-let!" announced Angelica, slamming herself into the chair indicated. "And I want some of that nice green stuff with yellow wheels on it."
Lexie put a small amount of spinach on the child's plate, with a slice of lovely hard-boiled egg on the top, and beside it a helping of beautifully browned omelet. The little girl lost no time in sampling the food.
"It's good!" she screamed. Gerald, who suddenly had appeared in the doorway with Bluebell by the hand, looked on jealously.
Lexie paid no attention to him until he came closer to the table.
"I want some!" he announced.
"Oh, do you?" said Lexie calmly. "Well, sit down on this other side, and I'll put a big book on a chair for the baby."
Amazingly, they were finally seated, eating with zest.
"I want some more," said Angelica, handing out her plate. "I want some milk, too. You've got milk."
"Why, of course. You can all have milk!" said Lexie, filling a glass for each one.
At last without any coaxing they ate, heartily, eagerly, and asked for more.
When the spinach and potatoes were all gone, except for the small portion she had kept in the warming oven for Elaine in case she would deign to eat it, Lexie brought out a generous plate of cookies and a pear apiece, and the children by this time were almost appreciative.
"Say, these cookies are good," said Angelica, setting the pace for the others. "They've got good raisins in them."
"I don't like cookies," said Gerald. "I'druther have chocolate cake."
"Well, that's too bad," said Lexie sympathetically. "Sorry we haven't any chocolate cake. You don't need to eat cookies if you don't like them," and she drew the plate back and did not pass it to him.
Gerald's reply was to rise up on his chair and reach out for the plate, knocking over Bluebell's glass of milk and sending a stream of milk over the table.
"I will so have some cookies! You can't keep me from having some!" declared the obstreperous child. "You just want to keep them all for yourself, but you shan't."
Lexie, rescuing the glass of milk before the entire contents were broadcast, said gently: "Oh, I'm sorry. Did you want some? I understood you to say you didn't like them." She lifted the cookie plate before Gerald succeeded in plunging a willful hand into its midst. "Sit down, Gerald, and I'll pass them to you."
Gerald settled back astonished, about to howl but thought better of it, and soon had his mouth stuffed full of so much cookie he couldn't speak.
When that meal was concluded Lexie felt as if she had fought a battle, but she felt reasonably satisfied with the result. The children were still munching cookies and demanding more pears, and Bluebell was nodding with sleep in her chair. Lexie hadn't eaten much except those first few decoy mouthfuls, but she drank a little milk and hurried upstairs with the tray for Elaine. She was greeted as she entered the room by sounds of heartrending sobs, and Elaine turned a woebegone face to meet her.
"So you did decide to bring me something at last, did you? Of course I am only an uninteresting invalid, and it doesn't matter if I starve, but you certainly might
