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door in front of him, as if it was the house that was keeping them from being alone together on their wedding day.
    Harriett smiled up at him, brushing a kiss against his clean shaven cheek.  “It won’t be forever, and then we can go home and be alone.”   She couldn’t believe that part of her was truly looking forward to being alone with her husband.  She really did feel good about Max.
    “I can’t wait.”  He said nothing else as Fred opened the door for them, and they stepped into the huge house. 
    Harriett was surprised by all the noise going on around her.  She felt as if she’d stepped into chaos by going into the house.  There seemed to be girls everywhere.  She didn’t recognize any of the girls as having been at the wedding.  There was a girl in spectacles lying on the floor in the parlor that was off to the right of the entryway with her nose stuck in a book.  Another girl had tied her skirts at her waist and was obviously wearing pants underneath the skirt.  She was running through the house at breakneck speed, whooping like an Indian.  Another girl was sitting on the sofa looking into a hand mirror, making strange faces.  What kind of family had she married into?
    Max just shook his head.  “Don’t worry, insanity doesn’t run in the family.”   His lips were quirked at the corners, as if to tell her all was as normal as things got there.
    At the sound of his voice, the girl on the floor reading jumped up and squealed, running into his arms.  “Uncle Max!”   She left her book lying open on the floor, and Harriett wanted to run and move it out of the way in case the whooping Indian girl were to trip over it.
    He ruffled her hair.   “This is my favorite niece, Amaryllis,” he told Harriett with a grin.
    From the other room the girl making the faces in the mirror called out, “Last week you said I was your favorite, Uncle Max!”  She frowned into the mirror and immediately changed her face to a smile.
    “Haven’t you figured out yet that you’re all my favorites, Rose?”  Max smiled over at the girl on the sofa.
    Rose walked over and eyed Harriett.  “Are you our new aunt?”   She looked Harriett up and down as if trying to decide if she was good enough to be her aunt.
    Harriett nodded.  She hadn’t considered that she was becoming an instant aunt to eight girls.  “I guess I am.” She returned Rose’s inspection of her with a smile.
    Rose studied her for another moment before finally seeming to decide she’d do.  “What should we call you?”
    Harriett had rarely been around children but desperately wanted some of her own.  She shrugged, unsure how to answer that question.   The few children she’d known had simply called her, “Mrs. Long,” but that wasn’t her name any longer.
    Max rescued her by saying, “Aunt Harriett will do fine.”
    Rose nodded.  “I’m the oldest.  We’re all flowers.” 
    Harriett wasn’t sure what that meant so she nodded.  “I like flowers.”  What else could she say?
    Amaryllis sighed.  “What Rose means is we all have flower names.  She’s never very precise in what she says.  I think precision of speech is very important, don’t you, Aunt Harriett?”   Amaryllis enunciated each word carefully as if fearful someone would misunderstand her otherwise.
    “Umm, of course.”  Harriett wasn’t sure why she was having this conversation, but she went with it.
    “I’m Rose and I’m sixteen.  I’m the oldest.”  She indicated the girl with the pants on under her skirt.  “That’s Lily.  She’s fourteen and ought to have outgrown wearing pants by now.”
    “Fourteen and a half!” yelled Lily as she continued to run through the house ,dodging the people around her.
    “I’m thirteen,” Amaryllis told her.
    Harriett found herself hoping she wouldn’t be quizzed on this later, because she knew it would take her at least a month to get all their names straight.  She couldn’t even think of any