With what Meg called 'a great want of manners' Jo had saved some bonbons for the little girls, and they soon subsided, after hearing the most thrilling events of the evening.
There was ice cream, actually two dishes of it, pink and white, and cake and fruit and distracting french bonbons and, in the middle of the table, four great bouquets of hot house flowers.
They had a merry time over the bonbons and mottoes, and were in the midst of a quiet game of Buzz, with two or three other young people who had strayed in, when Hannah appeared.
If there were young girls in a house he visited he came armed with a pound of bonbons, a bunch of flowers, and tried to suit his conversation to their age, their tastes and their occupations.
" Poor little Penelope! She shall not be teased about her suitors but left in peace till her Ulysses comes home, " said Mac, sitting down to read the mottoes sticking out of certain fanciful bonbons on the table.
" My dear, that boy is either a fool or a genius, and I'm sure I should be glad to know which, " said Aunt Plenty, putting her bonbons to rights with a puzzled shake of her best cap.
She was a motherly young person, and when people fell down and scraped their knees, she ran and helped them up and patted them, or found in her pocket a bonbon or some other article of a soothing nature.