The seamstress had left her sewing-chair out there the afternoon she finished Mary's dress, and it still stood there, with the lap-board beside it.

Taking the board on her knees, and opening her journal upon it, Betty perched her ink-bottle on the balcony railing and began to write.

She knew there would be no time later in the day for her to bring her record up-to-date, and she did not want to let the happenings pile up unrecorded.

She was afraid she might leave out something she wanted to include, and she had found that the trivial conversations and the trifles she noted were often the things which recalled a scene most vividly, and almost made it seem to live again.
She began her narrative just where she had left off, so that it made a continuous story.
"We didn't settle down to anything yesterday morning.

Phil went to town with Papa Jack directly after breakfast, and we girls just strolled up and down the avenue and talked.