Uncle Bob’s new house was finished. It was built on the slope of a small hill and looked out across the lovely lake. Trees were on all sides. Uncle Bob had made a small flower garden on one side, for he knew Aunt Sue loved flowers, and they were just beginning to bloom.
The house had four rooms: a nice-sized kitchen, a larger room that was both dining room and living room, and two small bedrooms and a screened porch looking toward the lake. Some furniture had already come on the freight train from their home in the East. Curtains were up in some windows, but others needed shortening or changing in some way.
The girls had filled the wood boxes and filled glasses with wild flowers for every room. Mother had helped Uncle Bob to think of all the foods to have on hand to begin housekeeping and cooking. The garden was now providing lots of good fresh vegetables.
Finally the day of her arrival came! Uncle Bob and Father went to town in the Model T to meet her. The girls had coaxed to go along, but there would not be room for them with the trunks and suitcases she would bring with her.
Everyone wore clean clothes, and the girls had to put on shoes and stockings. “Will we always have to wear them now?” Peggy Jean wondered.
“No dear,” Mother said, laughing. “I guess we just dress up a bit to honor someone if we haven’t seen them for a long time. You can go barefoot again tomorrow.”
“Ahwoooogah! Awooogah!”
“Here they come — here she is!” Everyone ran as fast as they could to meet Aunt Sue.
Oh my! Was that stylish-looking lady really Aunt Sue? She looked so tall and slim in her “city clothes.” A big feather curled about her dark straw hat, and her trim travelling suit seemed most elegant to the girls. Suddenly they felt shy and awkward, but Aunt Sue’s hugs and kisses soon brought back their smiles.
“My, my! How you girls have grown!” Aunt Sue repeated several times. “Living in these north woods must agree with you all.”
Everyone helped to show her the wonders of her new home and all the surroundings. Then she had lots of news to share about the folks and many friends “back East.”
“Jean is coming out too, in just a few weeks,” she announced. “And she’s bringing a fourteen-year-old girl, Alice, with her to live with us and help me with the work. I’ve met her, and I think you will all like her. She’s an orphan and needs a home. She seems strong and has nice manners.”
The girls looked at each other. This really was news. It would be fun to have another girl, even if fourteen did sound awfully grown up!
“I’m glad for you that you will have help, Sue,” Mother said. “I’m glad for you that she will be coming, for I know what a big help my girls are for me. I just don’t know how I could manage without them.”
“And what about Harry and Edith, how are they?” someone asked.
“They’re both busy and well. Your Aunt Edith told me to be sure to give her love to you three girls and to tell you she really misses you.”
Naomi and Helen smiled with pleasure, but Peggy squirmed miserably. She could remember a visit with Aunt Edith shortly before coming west that had ended very unhappily for her.
It had been Easter time, and Aunt Edith, who loved to plan nice surprises for the girls, had invited them to her house to hunt for Easter baskets.
Naomi and Helen found theirs quite quickly.
Then Peggy found hers tucked almost out of sight between the folds of some dark red velvet curtains. The basket was a lovely little sewing basket that she could still use after the eggs were gone.
In the center of a nest of jelly beans was a big chocolate Easter egg. Even Peggy could read her own name written in crinkly, white frosting across the top.
Naomi and Helen each took a little bite from their big, delicious chocolate egg, but Peggy had eaten every bit of hers!
After thanking Aunt Edith, the girls had taken them home carefully to show Mother and Father. How much nicer Naomi’s and Helen’s looked than Peggy’s! The others could share a bit with Mother and Father, but of course Peggy could not.
The next day, they still had most of their big eggs. While they were out playing, Peggy stood looking enviously at the eggs, and she was doing what the Bible calls the sin of coveting. Suddenly, she decided to steal their eggs. Taking them quickly from their baskets, she ran upstairs, looking for a good place to hide them.
Under Mother’s bureau! That would be just the place! The other girls would never think to look for them there. She took a nibble of both, and then ran quickly out to play.
There were tears when Naomi and Helen discovered their eggs were gone. When they asked her, Peggy lied and said she didn’t know where they were. Every once in a while after that, when the girls were not watching, Peggy would slip into Mother’s room and under the bureau for a quick bite.
It seemed to be a mystery to everyone, but God has said, “Be sure your sin will find you out.” He also said, “He that [hides] his sins shall not prosper.” When Saturday came and Mother was cleaning house, she swept under her bureau and found the bits of the chocolate eggs that were still there.
A very unhappy time followed! Peggy had to be punished, and Naomi and Helen were very disappointed in her to think that she would do such a thing.
Peggy was beginning to learn that Satan is a deceiver and a liar! He made her feel she couldn’t be happy without those Easter eggs, but they had brought her nothing but unhappiness! Now she heard Aunt Sue saying, “Edith and Harry hope to make a trip and get up to see us all next summer. They want to see how we live up here in these big north woods.”
Everyone else was happy about their coming to visit, but Peggy hoped she would not remember about the Easter eggs.