You 'll have a holiday on New Year 's anyhow ; whether you 'll have anything to eat or not is a different question . '' `` I 've an invitation to dinner , '' said Bertie timidly , `` me and William John . It 's from Doctor Forbes 's little girls -- the ones that gave me the mittens . '' He handed her the little note , and Mrs. Ross stooped down and read it by the fitful gleam of light which came from the cracked stove . `` Well , you can please yourself , '' she said as she handed it back , `` but William John could n't go if he had ten invitations . He caught cold coasting yesterday . I told him he would , but he was bound to go , and now he 's laid up for a week . Listen to him barking in the bedroom there . '' `` Well , then , I wo n't go either , '' said Bertie with a sigh , it might be of relief , or it might be of disappointment . `` I would n't go there all alone . '' `` You 're a goose ! '' said his aunt . `` They would n't eat you . But as I said , please yourself . Anyhow , hold your tongue about it to William John , or you 'll have him crying and bawling to go too . '' The caution came too late . William John had already heard it , and when his mother went in to rub his chest with liniment , she found him with the ragged quilt over his head crying . `` Come , William John , I want to rub you . '' `` I do n't want to be rubbed -- g ` way , '' sobbed William John . `` I heard you out there -- you need n't think I did n't .
Bertie 's going XXXXX Doctor Forbes 's to dinner and I ca n't go . ''
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