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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Princess Polly's Playmates, by Amy Brooks
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Princess Polly's Playmates
+
+Author: Amy Brooks
+
+Posting Date: June 4, 2012 [EBook #5426]
+Release Date: April, 2004
+First Posted: July 16, 2002
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PRINCESS POLLY'S PLAYMATES ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+PRINCESS POLLY'S PLAYMATES
+
+By AMY BROOKS
+
+AUTHOR OF
+
+"Princess Polly," "Princess Polly at School," "Princess
+Polly by the Sea," "Princess Polly's Gay Winter,"
+"Princess Polly at Play."
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+CHAPTER
+
+   I.   IN THE GARDEN
+
+  II.   A LITTLE HERO
+
+ III.   POLLY VISITS ROSE
+
+  IV.   THE VILLAGE NUISANCE
+
+   V.   THE LITTLE GREEN DOOR
+
+  VI.   AT THE STUDIO
+
+ VII.   AN UNEXPECTED GUEST
+
+VIII.   AT THE SHORE
+
+  IX.   PRINCESS POLLY RETURNS
+
+   X.   GWEN CALLS UPON POLLY
+
+  XI.   GWEN TELLS A STORY
+
+ XII.   GYP RUNS AWAY
+
+
+
+
+PRINCESS POLLY'S PLAYMATES
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+IN THE GARDEN
+
+"IF it was only true that castles COULD be enchanted, then I'd surely
+think Sherwood Hall was one," said the little girl with soft, dreamy
+eyes.
+
+"You'd think Sherwood Hall was what?" questioned the other little girl,
+who had paused to rest her foot upon a stone, while she tied the ribbons
+of her shoe.
+
+"An enchanted castle!"
+
+"Why Vivian Osborne! You're always thinking of fairy tales," was the
+quick reply, and she laughed as if the idea were impossible.
+
+"Now Leslie Grafton," Vivian replied, "you just come here, and look
+where Sherwood Hall shows between the trees. See the sun on the red
+roofs, and on those lovely windows! Can't you almost SEE the captive
+princess looking from her casement?"
+
+"Well there she is!" cried Leslie laughing, "and we don't have to ALMOST
+see her. We can TRULY see her."
+
+"Oh, wasn't it fine that just as we were talking, Princess Polly opened
+her window, and looked out," said Vivian, as together they ran up the
+avenue, and in at the gateway of Sherwood Hall.
+
+"It was Lena Lindsey who first thought of calling her 'Princess Polly,'
+and she's always so sweet that the name seems to belong to her," said
+Leslie.
+
+Polly had seen them, and when they reached the house, she was waiting to
+greet them.
+
+"The postman is coming!" they cried, "the postman is coming, and we ran
+ahead to tell you!"
+
+"Oh, perhaps there's a letter from Rose!" said Polly.
+
+"That's what we thought," said Leslie, "and if there is, DO tell us some
+of it. We love Rose Atherton as much as you do."
+
+Polly Sherwood shaded her eyes with her hand, and looked along the broad
+avenue.
+
+"Oh, now I see him!" she cried, "and he's taking out a handful of
+letters as he comes along."
+
+The postman laughed at Polly's eagerness.
+
+"Three for you, Miss Polly," he said, as he placed them in her hands.
+
+Polly looked at the envelopes. "That one is from my cousin," she said.
+"She always uses pink paper, and that one is from a little girl I used
+to play with before we came to live at Sherwood Hall. I know, because
+her paper is always pale green, but THIS one--" she held up the envelope
+with a little cry of delight, "THIS one is from Rose!"
+
+With Leslie and Vivian looking over her shoulder, Polly opened the
+letter.
+
+"Read it with me," she said.
+
+"Oh, read it aloud while we listen," said Leslie.
+
+Rose had been a dear little playmate when she had lived with her Aunt
+Judith in a little cottage, near Sherwood Hall. Now that she had gone to
+live with her Great-Aunt Rose, for whom she had been named, and some
+miles distant, her little friends remembered her, and wished that she
+were with them.
+
+Now, as Polly read the letter, it seemed as if little Rose Atherton were
+talking to them.
+
+"Dear Princess Polly:--" the letter began, and then followed loving
+assurance of her true affection for her "own Polly," very tender
+inquiries for Sir Mortimer, the beautiful cat, and tales of little
+happenings in the new home.
+
+"Great-Aunt Rose is kind, and Aunt Lois is gentle and sweet, but I'm
+LONSUM.
+
+"The rooms are large, and cool and dark, and sometimes when the garden
+is hot and sunny, I go to the parlor, and try to amuse myself, but oh, I
+wish I had someone to play with. When I try to pick out a tune on the
+piano, the notes sound so loud, I turn around to see if Aunt Rose is
+provokt, but she never folows me. There's a portrate of a funny old man
+that hangs at the end of the parlor, and I always think he's watching
+me. When I smile, he seems to smile, and when I'm lonsum, he doesn't
+look jolly at all. There's five people in this house beside me. There's
+my two aunts, and three servants, but no one makes any noise, and oh,
+sometimes I WISH they would.
+
+"Aunt Rose says sometime she'll give a party for me, but she says there
+must be no romping, and that it must be dig-ni-fide. I don't believe I
+spelled that right, and I'm not sure what it means, but it doesn't sound
+nice. I don't believe the children that come to it, will like a party
+that's digni--, I can't write that long word again.
+
+"Aunt Lois is to have her portrate painted, and I'm to go with her to
+the artist's studyo.
+
+"Aunt Rose just came in, and said, 'That is a long letter. Shall I help
+you with the spelling?' I didn't let her. I know some of the words are
+funny, but I don't want her to see this letter.
+
+"I haven't said anything norty in it, only about how quiet and lonsum it
+is, but she mite not like that. I just had to tell you. Aunt Rose is
+going to ask you to visit me, and I'll be so glad when you come.
+
+Your loving little friend,
+
+ROSE.
+
+P.S.--Aunt Rose said this morning that I ort to sine my name, Rose
+Jerusha Atherton, because that's her name, and I was named for her. How
+can I? Isn't JERUSHA orful?"
+
+Of course the three little friends sympathized with Rose.
+
+They felt as if they had seen the quaint, beautiful old house, with its
+dark, cool rooms.
+
+They seemed to see bright, merry little Rose, now quiet, and lonely,
+wandering through the great hall to the parlor, to find a companion in
+the piano, or looking up into the friendly face of the old gentleman
+whose portrait she had described.
+
+"And she says she is to go with her aunt to the artist's studio," said
+Leslie, "and wouldn't I like to do that? Just think what fun it would be
+to see him painting."
+
+"I wonder if he'll let Rose watch him?" said Polly.
+
+"There'd be no fun in going if she couldn't see him paint," declared
+Leslie "and if I were Rose, I WOULD watch him, if I had to peep when he
+wasn't looking."
+
+"Oh you WOULDN'T!" said Vivian.
+
+"I WOULD," said Leslie firmly, and Vivian did not reply.
+
+"I wonder what her Aunt Lois will wear?" said Polly. "All of the
+portraits in our drawing room are young ladies in lovely gowns, with
+flowers in their hair, and jewels, many, many jewels, and plumes, and
+fans. Her Aunt Lois wouldn't wear such things as that!"
+
+They wondered much about the portrait, and decided to question Rose
+regarding it.
+
+"And now," said Polly, "I'll lay these letters on the table in the hall.
+I can read them later. We'll play."
+
+It was easy to choose a game. The first choice, when the little
+playmates were at Sherwood Hall, was always "Hide-and-Seek."
+
+There were such fine places for hiding, so many odd nooks where no one
+would ever think of looking that the game seemed always new, and
+interesting.
+
+They had been playing but a short time, when Inez Varney ran up the
+driveway.
+
+"What are you playing?" she asked.
+
+"Hide-and-Seek," said Polly, "and it's Lena's turn to blind. Come! I
+know a fine place, big enough for three."
+
+Usually Inez objected to whatever game her friends chose, but she was in
+a pleasant mood, and said that she would rather play "Hide-and-Seek"
+than anything else.
+
+She clasped Polly's hand, and while Lena counted, the three ran off to
+the place that should be large enough to keep them from sight.
+
+One fact made Inez easy to please; Rose was not with them.
+
+Rose Atherton had been a bright, merry little playmate, beloved by all
+save Inez, and yet the only fault that Inez could find in Rose was her
+popularity.
+
+Naturally jealous, Inez did not like to see that everyone loved Rose,
+and to know that Polly Sherwood, or Princess Polly, as everyone called
+her, cared more for Rose than for any of her friends, seemed really too
+provoking.
+
+"NOW, Princess Polly must choose another BEST friend, and I wish it
+might be ME!" thought Inez.
+
+She knew that Rose was sweet tempered. She knew that her own temper was
+hasty.
+
+Could she keep from saying the sharp things that so often came from her
+red lips? She MUST, if she would win Polly's love!
+
+Inez was pleasing to look at, but she was wrong in thinking herself more
+attractive than the other playmates.
+
+Vivian and Leslie were much prettier than Inez, and they were pleasant
+and good tempered, always ready for a merry time, while Blanche Burton,
+and her little sister, Dollie, were ever welcome at Sherwood Hall.
+
+It surely would seem as if Inez were foolish to think Princess Polly
+might prefer her silly little self, to all the others.
+
+Indeed, she would have been far happier to have been willing to be one
+of her many playmates. Inez was not at all content, however. She wished
+to be PREFERRED.
+
+The game went on merrily, and Inez seemed gayer than usual.
+
+"Tag" followed "Hide-and-Seek," and the music of their merry laughter
+echoed through the garden, as they chased each other around the clumps
+of shrubbery, across the brook, and through the grove.
+
+It was Vivian, who innocently caused the first sharp word to be spoken.
+
+They were resting in the shade of some flowering shrubs. Princess Polly
+had taken off her large hat, and wielding it as a fan, blew the bright
+curls back from her pink cheeks.
+
+"If Rose were here, she'd say:
+
+"'Now while we're resting, Princess Polly, tell us a fairy tale,'" said
+Vivian.
+
+"That's just what she'd say," said Polly, "and one afternoon we sat
+beside the brook, near the fountain, and took turns telling them."
+
+Inez looked at Polly's eyes, and saw the regret that they so plainly
+expressed.
+
+She would have been pleased if her little playmates had never mentioned
+Rose.
+
+"And once," continued Polly, "we played that we were fairy queens, and
+we made flower crowns. It was early morning, and we tried to pick the
+flowers with the dew on them, but the dewdrops fell off. Then we
+sprinkled them with water from the brook, and they sparkled like
+diamonds."
+
+Inez moved uneasily.
+
+"We have fine times together," said Vivian, "but it was still brighter
+when Rose was here."
+
+"Anybody'd think we couldn't play without her!" snapped Inez, springing
+to her feet, and running across the lawn.
+
+Then realizing that she had been rude, and not wishing to offend Polly,
+she turned, and looking over her shoulder, she said:
+
+"I must go home now, so I'll just hurry."
+
+"Why, a minute a go she was sitting as still as if she intended to stay
+here all night!" said Vivian.
+
+"It was what you said, Vivian, that made her run off," said Leslie.
+
+"What did I say?" questioned Vivian.
+
+"Oh, you said it was nicer to have Rose with us," explained Leslie.
+
+"She's likely to hear us talk of Rose whenever she comes here," said
+Polly.
+
+"Then she'll stay away," said Leslie.
+
+Polly would not say what was in her mind, but Leslie was less careful.
+
+"Let her just stay away then!" she said, stoutly, "we love Rose, and
+we're wondering how long it will be before we'll see her. She's sweeter
+than Inez."
+
+Sweet Princess Polly! She would not say anything unpleasant even of
+Inez.
+
+"Rose is just dear," she said, but of Inez she said nothing.
+
+"Inez says mean things," said Vivian, "and it would be real hard to
+forgive her, so it's lucky she doesn't ever ask us to."
+
+"Why Vivian!" cried Polly, "you would if she asked you to, wouldn't
+you?"
+
+Vivian did not like to answer, so she only said:
+
+"She wouldn't ask me."
+
+Just at that moment Harry Grafton sprang over the wall, and joined the
+group.
+
+"Inez Varney is waiting for you and Vivian," he said. "I was going over
+to call for Rob Lindsey, and just as I was passing, she asked me to tell
+you. I asked her why she didn't come in and wait for you here, but she
+only shook her head, and said; 'Oh, because.' That's a girl's reason,
+and it's a funny one."
+
+Harry laughed, and then, having delivered his message, he ran down the
+driveway, and up the avenue to call for his chum, Rob.
+
+He nodded to Inez as he passed her, whistling gaily as he hurried along.
+
+"Girls are queer," he said, pausing in his whistling solo, to speak his
+thoughts.
+
+"Even nice girls are queer SOMETIMES," he murmured. "Of course Princess
+Polly is always pleasant, and my sister Leslie isn't even odd, but Inez
+is freaky, and Vivian, well,--she's something like Inez."
+
+In the garden the three little girls stood where Harry had left them.
+
+"What shall we do?" said Leslie. "We came to play with you, Polly, what
+ought we to do?"
+
+Polly's eyes had looked troubled, but now she smiled.
+
+"Oh, go, please, and see Inez. Perhaps she truly wishes she'd been
+pleasant. You can come ANY time to play with me, but it's NOW that Inez
+feels good."
+
+Polly's words were wise. She knew Inez to be hasty, and she thought that
+if, for the moment, she was sorry for her rudeness, she should have the
+chance to say so, before she could change her mind.
+
+Leslie would not say so, but in truth, she did not care what Inez had to
+say.
+
+Vivian was curious, and eager to know why Inez had waited so long to see
+them.
+
+Inez stood at the gateway waiting for her two playmates.
+
+Leslie said something about having to hurry home, but Vivian pausing
+beside Inez, waited for her to speak.
+
+It was not pleasant to stand talking on the sunny sidewalk, and turning,
+they walked a little way up the driveway.
+
+Polly questioned if Inez really might be sorry for her hasty words.
+Nothing could have tempted her to listen, nor was she near enough to
+have heard a word that they were saying, but from where she was
+standing, she could see Inez and Vivian. She wondered why Leslie had not
+remained. The shrubbery hid her, but she could see them plainly.
+
+She saw Inez lay her hand upon Vivian's arm.
+
+"Oh, I WISH they'd make up," whispered Princess Polly.
+
+Then something soft rubbed against her ankles.
+
+"Oh, darling Sir Mortimer!" she whispered, "they are ALMOST making up!"
+
+She peeped again, daintily holding back her skirts.
+
+"They're not smiling yet," she said softly.
+
+"I guess we won't wait," she whispered, as she stooped to take the big
+cat in her arms.
+
+"Keep still, Mortimer," she said, "I'm going to whisper right in your
+ear. I LIKE them all, but I LOVE Rose."
+
+Sir Mortimer rubbed his soft head against Polly's pink cheek.
+
+"That means that you do, too," said Polly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+A LITTLE HERO
+
+"Tell us a story," said Lena Lindsey, and her brother echoed her words.
+"Oh, Rob, what shall I tell? Lena wants a fairy tale, and you wouldn't
+like that; boys never do," said Polly.
+
+"Oh, yes he would," Lena said quickly, "if it's about knights, and
+princes, like the one you told the other day."
+
+"That's it," agreed Rob, "tell us one about somebody who goes out to
+seek his fortune."
+
+Princess Polly dearly loved fairy tales, and on stormy days, with Sir
+Mortimer purring in her lap, would sit for hours reading stories of
+elves, and dwarfs, of splendor and enchantment.
+
+Then, on sunny days she would tell them to her playmates, and often she
+spun them from her own imaginings.
+
+"Tell us one you made up!" the children often said.
+
+Now, while with Rob, and Lena, she sat upon the grass, and watched their
+eager faces, she decided to tell a new, and charming tale that would
+delight them. "Once upon a time," said Polly--
+
+"That's right!" cried Rob.
+
+Polly shook her finger to silence him, and began again.
+
+"Once upon a time there lived a prince who was very, VERY handsome, but
+very poor.
+
+"One day he found that his money was almost gone, so he took his pet
+horse, and started out to seek his fortune.
+
+"He rode, and rode 'til he came to a dark forest. He was a brave prince,
+so he was not afraid, and rode right into the woods, and when he reached
+a pool, he stopped to let his horse drink,--"
+
+"Oh, this is the interesting part where something happens, but it's so
+warm, I'll have to run up to the house, and get my little sunshade,"
+said Polly.
+
+"Wait just a minute," cried Rob, "stay just where you are, and I'll
+bring you one."
+
+"Why, Rob, where'll you get it?" said Lena.
+
+"Just you wait, and you'll see!" cried Rob, turning as he ran to say,
+"don't tell any more 'til I come."
+
+"What DID he mean?" Polly asked, but Lena could not guess, and they
+wondered if Rob had been joking.
+
+They had not long to wait, however, for in a few moments he came running
+back to them, waving a huge leaf over his head.
+
+It proved to be a rhubarb leaf, with a red stalk.
+
+"There!" he cried, "I went over home on purpose to get this for you."
+
+"Oh it's a big green sunshade, with a fine red handle," cried Polly,
+"how pretty! Now I can tell the story."
+
+"Yes, and you can tell it all before your sunshade WILTS!" said Lena,
+with a laugh.
+
+"That's a fine sunshade," said Rob, as he handed her the leaf.
+
+"And Polly looks like a princess under it," said Lena.
+
+"Now, tell the story," said Rob.
+
+"And while his horse was drinking, a mist floated over the pool, and out
+of the mist sprang a little, old witch," continued Polly, leaning
+forward, and lowering her voice, to make the tale sound mysterious.
+
+Lena and Rob bent toward her, that not a word might be lost.
+
+"What happened?" whispered Rob.
+
+Polly's eyes were bright.
+
+She raised her forefinger, as she spoke.
+
+"'Take the path to the right,' said the little, old witch, 'and KEEP to
+the right, no matter how thick the forest, and you'll come to a
+fountain. At the fountain you'll find a beautiful nymph, and SHE'LL tell
+you what to do next.'"
+
+"And did he?" questioned Rob, eagerly.
+
+"Be still, Rob. Let Polly tell it," whispered Lena, laying her hand on
+his arm.
+
+"The Prince mounted his horse," continued Polly, "and just then he
+noticed the little path at the right of the pool. He'd not seen it
+before. He turned his horse into the path, and the horse acted as if he
+knew the way, and trotted along at a fine gait.
+
+"At last he reached the fountain, but the nymph wasn't anywhere in
+sight.
+
+"'What DID the witch tell me to say?' said the prince.
+
+"Then a voice said:
+
+"'Cymbrel! Cymbrel!
+ By a fountain or a well,
+ Whistle thrice, and you shall see,
+ A lovely nymph will come to thee!'
+
+"Then the prince called out: 'Cymbrel! Cymbrel!' and whistled three
+times, and out of the fountain rose a lovely nymph. There were pearls
+and diamonds in her hair, and her robe was of rainbow colored mist.
+
+"She held out her hand, and the prince sprang from his horse, and bowed
+low before her.
+
+"'There never was anyone so lovely as you,' said the prince, and he
+was--"
+
+"Just WILD to win her," said Rob, who had been silent a long time.
+
+"That's it," agreed Polly, "he was wild to win her, and he didn't say a
+word, for fear that the mist would melt, and she'd disappear.
+
+"Then she spoke, and her voice sounded like music.
+
+"'I am enchanted,'" she said.
+
+"And the prince said 'So am _I_,'" said Rob.
+
+"Oh, no he DIDN'T," laughed Polly.
+
+"You mustn't interrupt," said Lena.
+
+"I'm not interrupting," said Rob, "I'm only helping Princess Polly with
+the story, and telling how I'd have felt, if I'd been the prince."
+
+"Well, you aren't the prince," Lena replied, "so you listen."
+
+"When the prince looked up, and saw that the lovely nymph was smiling,
+he felt so strong and brave that he told her that he wanted to win her,
+and he asked what would--would undo, oh that ISN'T the word, but that's
+what he meant," said Polly, "so never mind, I'll use it. He wanted to
+know what would undo the enchantment.
+
+"'You can not win me until I am disenchanted. Free me, and I am yours.
+My enchantment must last until the ogre who dwells in this forest is
+killed,' whispered the nymph.
+
+"The prince drew his sword.
+
+"'With this I will free you, and you shall be mine,' he said, and
+mounting his horse he rode through the forest, looking this way, and
+that, in search of the ogre.
+
+"Every evening he rode back to the fountain, and there he wearily told
+the nymph that he had not yet found the ogre.
+
+"She always told him to be brave, and continue the search.
+
+"At last came a day when there was a fearful battle in the woods!"
+Polly's eyes were bright, and she leaned forward in her excitement.
+
+Her rhubarb leaf parasol had wilted, and she cast it aside.
+
+"There was a gale that broke the great branches of the trees, and pulled
+up shrubs by the roots, and when the wind was blowing hardest, the ogre
+rushed out from his cave, right into the pathway in front of the
+prince's horse.
+
+"The horse pranced, and pawed the dirt, because he was scared, but the
+prince was brave.
+
+"He thought only of the beautiful nymph, and he slashed at the big ogre,
+and with the third blow from his sword the ogre fell dead.
+
+"Then the prince rode back to the fountain, and there stood the nymph,
+only she wasn't a nymph any more, but a real, truly princess.
+
+"She ran to meet him, and he swung her up into his saddle, and they rode
+back to his castle.
+
+"There she told him that he need never leave her to seek his fortune,
+because she had more gold than they could ever spend, and so they lived
+happy ever after."
+
+"Oh, I love to have the fairy tales end like that," said Lena, with a
+happy sigh.
+
+"And when a fellow hears of a prince who is daring, he wants to start
+right out, and do something just as brave," said Rob, his brown eyes
+looking out across to the distant hills. "There isn't the chance to save
+nymphs, and princesses, now!"
+
+"Oh, Rob, it doesn't matter," said Polly, "for if there was a nymph to
+fight for, I just KNOW you'd be brave!"
+
+"I'm SURE I would mean to be, but I haven't had the chance to try!" said
+Rob, with a sudden fit of shyness, "but if it was YOU, Polly, I'd--I'd
+do most anything!"
+
+"I know you would," Polly answered gently.
+
+"That was a lovely story," said Lena, "did you make it up?"
+
+"Yes, and I got so excited when the ogre came out, and rushed at the
+prince, that I was all out of breath just TELLING it," said Polly.
+
+"And when you told about the gale you frightened me," said Lena,
+"because I was SURE that the ogre was coming!"
+
+Polly had a charming way of telling her stories, and those who listened,
+remembered them, and thought of them again and again.
+
+Perhaps Rob thought oftener of them, than did any other of her friends.
+He was very fond of Polly, and never thought of her as Polly Sherwood,
+but always as Princess Polly.
+
+He would not have told his thoughts to anyone, but in his heart he
+longed to do something brave that she might know that he had not boasted
+idly, when he had said that her fairy tales had made him long to do
+valiant deeds.
+
+For days after the morning spent at Sherwood Hall, Rob dreamed of the
+story that Polly had told.
+
+"Oh, pshaw! Those things don't happen nowadays," he muttered, in
+disgust. "Not that fairy things EVER happened," he added, "but knights
+really lived, and they did things that proved their courage."
+
+While Rob dreamed, and pondered over the valiant knights of old, Polly,
+blowing huge soap bubbles, stood in the sunlight, making them larger and
+larger, and laughing when they floated away on the soft breeze.
+
+She, too, was dreaming.
+
+The scent of the garden flowers made the air sweet, the yellow
+butterflies, at play in the sunshine, fluttered too near a bubble.
+
+It burst with the touch of their soft wings, and they flew away,
+frightened that a clear, beautiful globe had chased them, and then so
+mysteriously disappeared.
+
+Vivian Osborne watched her, and so still had she been, that Polly had
+almost forgotten that she was there.
+
+Again she dipped her pipe into the bowl of suds, and gently she blew,
+determined to make a larger bubble than she had yet made.
+
+How beautiful it was! The trees, the blue sky mirrored on its glossy
+surface, and--yes, there were the holly-hocks reflected on it, and
+curving to fit its globe-like form.
+
+"Oh!" cried Vivian, "see the colors on it, blue, and pink, and green,
+and your house, Polly. Don't it look like a tiny castle?'
+
+"M--m," agreed Polly, for the pipe stem between her red lips would not
+permit her to talk. When the bubble was as large as she dared to make
+it, she swung it from the pipe and they saw it sail away.
+
+Sir Mortimer, who had been watching Polly, scampered off after the
+bubble. He often chased a bright, colored ball, and this he thought was
+the finest ball he'd ever seen.
+
+It dropped to the grass, and just as puss reached it, it burst. Sir
+Mortimer stared at the place where it had vanished.
+
+Polly and Vivian laughed at his surprise. He touched the spot with his
+soft paw, then, turning, trotted away, as if to let them see that the
+matter was beneath noticing.
+
+"Oh, he's the dearest kitty!" cried Vivian, "blow another bubble, Polly,
+and blow it right at him."
+
+Laughing at the thought of surprising Sir Mortimer, Polly blew a fine
+bubble, and swung it toward him.
+
+He blinked at it, as it came nearer, and then,--oh, how they laughed, he
+began to back away from it.
+
+It overtook him, however, and landed squarely on his upturned nose.
+
+He sneezed in disgust, and rubbed his nose violently with his paw.
+
+"Oh, Mortimer darling, I won't do it again. If you don't like soap
+bubbles, you needn't have them," said Polly, picking him up, and
+caressing him.
+
+It was evident that he forgave her, for he at once commenced to purr.
+
+When Vivian said that she must go, Polly walked part of the way with her
+for company.
+
+"Are you truly going to visit Rose Atherton, soon? Inez Varney said you
+were," said Vivian.
+
+"Oh, yes," Polly replied, "I have the invitation, and I'm to go the
+first week mama will let me. I may go next week. When I KNOW what day I
+can go, I'm to write, and tell Rose, and Rose, with her Aunt, will call
+for me at the station."
+
+"Aren't you wild to go?" asked Vivian.
+
+"Wild?" repeated Polly, "why I can hardly wait for the day. I want to
+see the lovely, old house, and all the fine things, but most of all, I
+long to see Rose."
+
+"Well, Inez said--no, I guess I won't tell you what Inez said," Vivian
+paused.
+
+Did she dislike to repeat Inez' words, or was she waiting for Polly to
+coax her to tell them? No one could have guessed.
+
+Polly, thinking that Inez often spoke unpleasantly, turned toward
+Vivian, and laying her little hand on her arm, said:
+
+"I guess you'd better not tell what Inez said. I won't feel any
+different toward Rose, if you do. I love Rose, and I'm going to visit
+her, and I know I'll have a fine time."
+
+"Oh, I'm sure you will," said Vivian, and she said it as if she meant
+it.
+
+"And Rose is coming to visit me," said Polly, "and when she comes, most
+of the girls will be glad to see her. I wish they ALL would."
+
+"_I_ will," said Vivian, "and you'll see that I am. I'll help to make
+her glad that she came."
+
+Some one came running swiftly behind them, and they turned to see who it
+might be.
+
+It was Harry Grafton, breathless and excited.
+
+"Oh, what do you think?" he cried. "Dollie Burton got almost run over,
+and would have, if it hadn't been for Rob Lindsey. I tell you, he's a
+splendid fellow, and my father saw it all, and he says it was the
+bravest thing he ever saw done, and he shook hands with Rob, and little
+Dollie is only frightened, but she's almost--"
+
+"Why, Harry Grafton! What ARE you saying?" cried Polly.
+
+"What has happened to Dollie?" said Vivian.
+
+At that moment Leslie came running to tell the news.
+
+"Only think!" she cried, "dear little Dollie Burton was almost--"
+
+"That's what I just told them!" declared Harry, "and I'm proud just to
+be Rob's friend."
+
+Polly and Vivian were as excited as Harry and his sister were, and for a
+few moments the four little playmates talked at the same time, and Polly
+at last realized that she was not getting a clear idea of what Rob had
+done, or what had happened to wee Dollie Burton.
+
+At last Harry grew calmer, and, with Leslie's help, told the story.
+
+Little Dollie had been playing in her own garden, where surely one might
+think that she was safe. A horse from a neighbor's stable had escaped,
+and went plunging down the street.
+
+The tiny girl ran down the driveway to look after the flying horse, and
+just as Dollie reached the road, the horse turned, and ran wildly back
+in the direction whence he had come.
+
+The little girl seemed too frightened to run, and stood still in the
+path of the madly racing horse.
+
+Rob Lindsey seeing her danger, sprang out into the street, snatched her
+up when the animal was about to trample upon her, and bore her to safety
+setting her down once more in her own garden.
+
+"My father was just coming along," said Harry, "and he saw Rob rush out
+into the street, and grab Dollie just in time to save her, and he says
+Rob stood an awful chance of being run over.
+
+"Rob declares it wasn't much to do. He says he didn't have time to
+think, and be scared.
+
+"Father took his hand, and just told him that that was the brave part of
+it. He told Rob that a coward would have thought only of himself.
+
+"I tell you, he's a hero, as much as those we read of.
+
+"Mrs. Burton says that she can not say enough to tell how she feels,
+when she thinks that little Dollie is alive, and unhurt, and all because
+of Rob!"
+
+"There he is now," cried Leslie.
+
+"Oh, everyone run along. I want to speak to him just a minute myself,"
+said Polly, and, as usual, they obeyed.
+
+Very shyly Rob approached. He felt that he was receiving too much praise
+from everyone, and yet--a word of approval from Princess Polly, ah, that
+would be worth much!
+
+"Rob," she said, when the others had walked along, "Rob, don't ever say
+again that you'd LIKE to be brave. You ARE brave!"
+
+"She wasn't a nymph, and I wasn't a prince," said the boy, blushing.
+
+"You're as brave as any prince in any fairy tale I ever read," said
+Polly, and Rob wondered who would care for greater reward than that.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+POLLY VISITS ROSE
+
+At last the day came when Polly was to make the little trip that would
+begin at the station in her own town, and end at a place, some miles
+distant, where, when the train stopped, she would see Rose waiting for
+her.
+
+She thought it would seem finer to go quite alone, but Mrs. Sherwood
+would not permit that.
+
+"The maid must ride with you, and remain beside you until Rose and her
+aunt meet you. Then, she can return on the next train," she had said,
+and Polly knew it was useless to object.
+
+And when, at last, the excitement of saying "good-bye" was over, and the
+train had already left the little town far behind, Polly settled back in
+her seat, and fell to dreaming.
+
+The thought of little Dollie, frightened, but unhurt, of Rob who had so
+bravely saved her, of Lena's pride in Rob, flitted through her mind. It
+would be a pleasant bit of news to tell Rose.
+
+Then she began to think of Great-Aunt Rose, and to wonder how she
+looked.
+
+"Rose has told me in her letter that she's a handsome old lady, but that
+isn't like seeing her. How ever SHALL I know her? Oh, of course, I will.
+She'll be with Rose."
+
+The maid, who had taken the seat behind Polly, reached forward, and
+touched her shoulder.
+
+"You're not getting drowsy, are you, Miss Polly?" she asked, "we're
+almost there."
+
+A gay little laugh answered her question.
+
+"How COULD I go to sleep on the way to see Rose?" she asked, "and how
+near are we now?"
+
+"The next station, but one," said the maid, "and I'll begin to gather up
+the bag, and suit case."
+
+"The next but one!" cried Polly, and she sat up very straight, and
+looked from the window. Was the town where Rose lived as pretty as this?
+
+There were great trees that cast long shadows, and here, and there a
+glimpse of a river that reflected the blue sky, and the floating clouds.
+There were fine houses with spacious lawns, and lovely gardens, and over
+all the sunlight playing, and Polly felt that she was riding into an
+enchanted country, over which Rose, and Great-Aunt Rose presided.
+
+Polly did not notice what the brakeman said, but the maid did, and she
+spoke quickly.
+
+"Come, Miss Polly, here we are, and we'll do well to get off right now
+before folks crowd toward the door. By the looks I think everyone means
+to stop here!"
+
+It certainly looked as if the maid had spoken truly, for men reached for
+parcels that had been stowed in bundle racks, and women commenced to
+gather up hand bags, and wraps.
+
+Polly wondered if anyone intended to remain in the car.
+
+She slipped from the seat to the floor, and then, just as they stopped
+at the station, she turned and peeped from the window.
+
+"Oh, there she is! There she is!" she cried, "and she's in a fine
+carriage with an old lady that looks like a portrait in our drawing
+room. Look! Look!"
+
+"We can't stop to look," said the maid, "or we'll be left on the train."
+
+"Oh, we CAN'T stay!" cried Polly, as she hurried toward the door.
+
+She could not imagine anything more dreadful than to be detained on the
+train, and ride on, and on, while Rose would find no little friend to
+welcome.
+
+She alarmed the maid by rushing down the steps, and across the platform,
+and she almost took Great-Aunt Rose's breath away, when she flew at
+Rose, and the two little girls embraced laughing, and yes, crying just a
+little at the same time.
+
+A slender figure, a huge picturesque hat, and a mass of curling, flaxen
+hair, were all that Aunt Rose had seen, but now hand in hand, they were
+coming toward the carriage.
+
+"A lovely face, surely," murmured Great-Aunt Rose, "a sweet, and lovely
+face."
+
+"This is Princess Polly," said Rose, "and Polly, dear, this is my
+Great-Aunt Rose."
+
+Aunt Rose, as she preferred to be called, offered her hand to Polly, who
+now stood beside the carriage. "I am so glad to see you, my dear," said
+the gentle old voice, and so cordially was it said, that Polly blushed,
+and smiled with delight.
+
+She afterward told Lena Lindsey that she felt as if Aunt Rose were her
+own aunt, and that she had ALWAYS known her.
+
+The ride to the house was along an avenue shaded with huge, old elm
+trees, and when they drew up at the house, Polly looked with round eyes
+at its grand, old portico, its great pillars, its terraces, and masses
+of lovely flowers.
+
+Rose had said that the house was fine, but that had not told half the
+beauty of the grand, old mansion.
+
+They sprang from the carriage, and Rose begged that she might run
+upstairs with Polly just a moment before lunch.
+
+"I want to show her my room," she said, and Aunt Rose smiled, and nodded
+assent.
+
+"Oh, Polly, Princess Polly!" she said, when they reached the pretty
+chamber, "it is so long since we've played together, and now--now I have
+you, all to myself. See the queer bed, with the canopy over it. The
+first night I came, I was afraid to sleep in it. Now, I like it, and
+to-night we'll cuddle close together in it, and draw the curtains."
+
+"Oh, what fun!" cried Polly, "and we can play we're in a castle, and no
+one can enter, unless we let them!"
+
+"Oh, yes, and we'll stay awake, oh, ever so long, just to talk," said
+Rose.
+
+And when Polly had seen everything in the chamber that Rose wished to
+show, they ran down to the parlor to see the portraits.
+
+"I'd like to see them all," said Polly, "but most of all I want to see
+the picture of the old gentleman that sometimes smiles at you."
+
+Together they ran down the stairway to the parlor.
+
+How cool it was! Vines that hung upon the piazza shaded the windows, and
+flickering sunbeams danced upon the polished floor, and brightened the
+color of the Persian rug.
+
+The portraits seemed to look with interest at Polly, and she smiled back
+at them, and nodded as she passed them.
+
+"They look like real people," she said, "and it doesn't seem polite to
+pass them without nodding."
+
+"I know it," agreed Rose, "and I nod and smile at them, but the picture
+at the end of the room smiles more than the others do. Come, and see
+him."
+
+Together they stood looking at the little old gentleman.
+
+Polly admired his flowered satin waistcoat, his powdered wig, and rosy
+cheeks, but most of all she liked his merry, twinkling eyes.
+
+"He DOES smile," said Polly.
+
+"Yes, he does," agreed Rose, "but now, just for a moment, frown, and
+then he doesn't SEEM to smile."
+
+It was an odd sight, the two merry little faces puckered into an attempt
+at a frown, and the old portrait looking down at them, as if in surprise
+that their smiles had vanished.
+
+"Now, let's both smile together!" cried Rose.
+
+Immediately two pairs of merry eyes looked up at him, and two red mouths
+smiled, and showed rows of pearly teeth.
+
+"There!" said Polly, "he ALMOST laughed, and that dimple in his chin
+looked DIMPLER than before."
+
+"That's what I told you," said Rose, "and sometimes, when I'm lonesome,
+he's a comfort."
+
+At lunch Aunt Rose talked much with Polly, and gentle Aunt Lois seemed
+charmed with the little guest.
+
+When lunch was over, Aunt Rose left the little playmates to amuse
+themselves, because she felt sure that Polly must have a budget of news
+to tell, and they certainly would enjoy their bit of gossip better, if
+no older person listened.
+
+They spent the afternoon in the garden, walking along, their arms about
+each other's waists.
+
+Later they would care for games, but this first day was delightful just
+to talk together.
+
+They passed a little arbor, and Polly stopped to admire it.
+
+Just as she looked up at the vine that blossomed on its roof, a strange
+little face peeped over the hedge, then dodged out of sight.
+
+"Who was that?" Polly asked.
+
+"Who? Where?"
+
+"Just behind the hedge," whispered Polly.
+
+Rose looked, and in an opening at the lower part of the hedge she saw a
+bit of a dark gray frock.
+
+"Oh, it's Evangeline Longfellow Jenks, the little girl that's going to
+be a poet," whispered Rose.
+
+"But you said her poetry was funny," said Polly, as softly as Rose had
+spoken.
+
+"It IS" declared Rose, "but she keeps writing it all the time."
+
+Just then Evangeline's round, white face again appeared above the hedge,
+and at that moment Aunt Rose came out on the porch.
+
+"Come over here, Evangeline," she said kindly, "and meet our little
+guest."
+
+"I'm not dressed up," said the voice behind the hedge, "but I've just
+made a poem, and I can read it from here!"
+
+Without waiting to be urged, and in a thin, high-pitched voice, she read
+these lines, which she earnestly believed were beautiful:
+
+  "Oh, the sun is shining,
+  And the moon is near by;
+  I can't see the moon,
+  But it's in the sky--
+  Somewhere.
+
+  "I need no sun or moon;
+  I'll be a poet soon.
+  I write every day
+  Some kind of a lay--
+  Somewhere."
+
+"What DOES she mean?" whispered Polly.
+
+"I don't think it means ANYTHING, but she enjoys making up verses
+whether they mean anything or not," Rose whispered in reply.
+
+Polly was anxious to see what the little girl looked like who felt that
+she was to be a poet, but Evangeline Longfellow Jenks did not intend to
+be seen in an ordinary frock.
+
+She felt that her position as a future poet demanded that she be finely
+dressed.
+
+On this especial morning she had been doing a very unpoetic thing--she
+had been trying to drink from the hose!
+
+Her skirts were completely soaked, and her shoes were covered with mud
+that the dripping hose had splashed up from the garden bed.
+
+"A person like ME ought not to drink from a horrid old hose. My mama
+read about some one, I've forgotten who, who drank from a crystal
+chalice. I don't know what that is, but it sounds grand, and I wish I
+had one," murmured the small girl behind the hedge.
+
+Aunt Rose repeated her invitation, but the poetic child seldom thought
+it necessary to be polite, and never replied unless she chose to. This
+time she remained silent, and Aunt Rose, with an odd little smile
+returned to the house.
+
+Then a strange thing happened.
+
+Another face peeped over the hedge, but this time it was a saucy one,
+with bright, brown eyes that fairly danced with merriment.
+
+"Reg'lar ninny, ain't she?" he asked, with a chuckle.
+
+"Oh, Lester, you MUSTN'T!" cried Rose.
+
+"Yes, I must!" said the boy. "She sneaked off into the house when you
+weren't looking, so she can't hear me, and when she's too far off to
+hear, I have to call her some kind of a horrid name, 'cause it helps me
+some!"
+
+"But she's your own cousin, and you oughtn't, you know. If it isn't
+wicked, it MUST be naughty to call her a ninny," said Rose.
+
+"I wish she wasn't my cousin, I ain't fond of her," said the boy, with a
+frown on his handsome face.
+
+"She did a mean thing this morning, and I'll get even with her," he
+continued, "and when she wrote one of her everlasting old poems about
+me, it was more than I could stand. Just read it and I guess you won't
+blame me."
+
+He thrust a crumpled bit of paper over the hedge.
+
+Rose ran to the hedge, and took the paper. She was curious to know what
+kind of a poem Lester had inspired.
+
+Who could blame her that she laughed when she read the ridiculous lines?
+
+  "Lester's a boy, but he's not brave;
+  The cat scratched him, and he cried.
+  He's not the kind of a boy I like
+  Although I've often tried.
+
+  His eyes are brown, but I don't care;
+  His freckles are yellow, and so is his hair.
+  He teases, so he has no heart,
+  And he runs after the old ice-cart."
+
+"Could a fellow stand THAT? said Lester, his cheeks very red.
+
+"It wasn't nice," said Rose, "and Lester, wait a moment," as the boy
+turned to go.
+
+"This is Polly Sherwood, my best friend. Polly, this is Lester Jenks.
+He's a nice boy, only he's provoked this morning."
+
+Polly offered her little hand over the hedge, and Lester blushed, and
+took it.
+
+"Are you the little princess?" he asked bluntly.
+
+"Just a make-believe one," said Polly.
+
+"We all call her 'Princess Polly' at home," Rose explained.
+
+"You look right to be called that anywhere," said Lester, and it was
+Polly's turn to blush.
+
+"I'd like to come over some day," he said.
+
+"Come NOW," said Rose.
+
+"I wish I could, but I can't," said the boy. "I've an errand to do for
+my aunt, and I ought to go now. I'll come some other day, perhaps
+to-morrow. I've some money, and I'd like to treat."
+
+He looked admiringly at Polly, and Rose was delighted.
+
+"He's ever so much fun," she said, when Lester had gone to do the errand
+that he had spoken of.
+
+"He lives the next house to Evangeline," she continued, "and he's
+awfully tired of her poetry."
+
+Polly did not wonder at that.
+
+"And I DO hope, when he comes, Evangeline won't come with him," said
+Rose.
+
+"So do I," agreed Polly, "only it may be that she's nice SOMETIMES."
+
+Rose came closer, and looking straight into Polly's blue eyes, she said:
+
+"She brings her old poetry book EVERY time!"
+
+"Oh, dear, can't she leave it at home?" said Polly.
+
+"She WON'T," said Rose, "and she's either writing in it, or reading it
+all the time, so there's not a minute for play."
+
+"Doesn't she care for 'Tag' or 'Hide-and-Seek?'" questioned Polly.
+
+"She doesn't EVER like anything but that poetry," declared Rose.
+
+"Oh, dear," sighed Polly, for she felt that if Evangeline were to come
+often, she would spoil much of the visit that, without her, would be so
+pleasant.
+
+"We'll be out sometimes," said Rose, "for Aunt Rose will take us about,
+and we're to go to the studio some day when Aunt Lois goes. I've been
+there, and the pictures are lovely, and some days we shall drive, and
+then if she comes she won't find us."
+
+"If she'll come on the days that we're OUT, and stay away the days that
+we're at home, it will be just FINE!"
+
+"Oh, Rose, I believed it's naughty, but I would be glad if it happened,
+just HAPPENED that way," Polly said.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE VILLAGE NUISANCE
+
+At Sherwood Hall Polly was greatly missed, and her playmates felt less
+interest in their games now that she was not with them.
+
+In all the village there was no one so lonely as Aunt Judith. She missed
+the merry chatter of happy, cheery Rose. Bright, and merry she had been,
+even although there were many things that she longed for, and could not
+have, most of all, some one to love her.
+
+Now, as Aunt Judith busied herself about the cottage, or out in the tiny
+garden, she realized how much the child's hands had helped.
+
+"She used to dust for me," she would say to herself, as she moved about
+the tiny sitting room, putting it in order.
+
+"She always fed the chickens," she murmured, one morning, on her way out
+to the coop.
+
+She stooped to open the door, when a shrill voice shouted at her.
+
+"Look out! Look out! The ol' rooster's mad!"
+
+Aunt Judith was startled, and Gyp was delighted.
+
+"Why were you meddling with the hens?" she asked, in quick wrath.
+
+"Don't hurt 'em to be watched, does it?" was the saucy answer.
+
+Aunt Judith looked at the imp-like figure astride the fence.
+
+"You're a nuisance!" she cried, "I wish the town was rid of you!"
+
+"Ding-te-ding-te-dingle-te-ding!" sang Gyp, in an almost ear-splitting
+solo.
+
+"Ding-te-ding--I tell ye what, if ye put jest the tip of yer finger
+between them slats, that 'ere ol' rooster 'll bite it almost off'n yer!"
+he remarked, "I know, 'cause I TRIED it."
+
+"You keep your fingers away from the coop, and yourself out of my yard,"
+cried Aunt Judith, "or I'll have you arrested."
+
+"Wow!" shrieked Gyp, and slipping from the fence, he ran to the woods,
+lest Aunt Judith should immediately put her threat into effect.
+
+The one, and only thing that Gyp feared was a policeman.
+
+A wild little ragamuffin, living in an old hut that was home only in
+name, with parents as ignorant as himself, he was viewed with contempt
+by every child in the town, and feared by them, as well.
+
+There was nothing that he dared not do--if no policeman were in sight.
+
+It was well known by everyone that when Gyp once became interested in
+anything, he would not let it alone until something occurred that he
+thought more attractive.
+
+Aunt Judith, shading her eyes with her hand, waited until she felt sure
+that Gyp did not intend to return. Then locking the door, and closing
+the windows, she made her way down the avenue toward the parsonage.
+
+She felt unusually lonely, and the parson's wife was always glad to see
+her.
+
+The walk was a long one, and when Aunt Judith had reached the parsonage,
+she paused for a moment to enjoy the light breeze before opening the
+little gate. "I saw you coming," said a pleasant voice, "and I guess you
+felt the heat on the way. Come in, and sit down under the big maple
+trees. It's cooler than it is in the house."
+
+As she spoke, the parson's wife took Aunt Judith's arm, and led her to a
+rustic seat, and seating herself beside her, commenced to talk of bits
+of parish news.
+
+Aunt Judith's mind was far away with Rose, and her answers became more,
+and more wide of the mark.
+
+"I think the boys of the choir sing BEAUTIFULLY," chirped the little
+woman, "but they really should have new cotta's, but the society feels
+that it really can't afford it."
+
+"Yes'm," said Aunt Judith.
+
+"And there are some that think we ought to have an organist. Mrs.
+Bingley volunteers to play until we're able to hire some one, but she
+isn't much of a player. She says she can't play any music unless it's
+written in ONE flat. She says it's the only key she knows. She says two
+flats make her uneasy, but THREE flats makes her simply WILD!"
+
+"Well, if I DON'T let them out of the coop they'll be sick, and if I DO
+let them out, they're likely to get lost."
+
+The parson's wife stared uneasily at Aunt Judith. Then thinking that she
+must have been needlessly startled, she again spoke.
+
+"As I said before, what makes her WILD is three flats," she said.
+
+"But the chicken-coop is ALL slats," said Aunt Judith, "what DO you mean
+by THREE?"
+
+"Don't you feel well?" the little woman asked anxiously, leaning toward
+Aunt Judith, and looking up into her shrewd face.
+
+"Why, yes," Aunt Judith replied, "only I'm lonesome without Rose, and
+some anxious about the hens."
+
+A sigh of relief escaped the other woman's lips, but she did not
+explain.
+
+"She's so worried about her own affairs that she simply didn't notice
+what I was talking about," she thought.
+
+Realizing that Aunt Judith's mind was so full of her own interests that,
+for the time, she could think of nothing else, she dropped church
+matters, and asked when she had heard from Rose.
+
+And while in the cool shade of the large trees, they talked of the tiny
+cottage, its garden, the chickens, and most of all, Rose, matters near
+the hen-coop were becoming rather lively.
+
+Aunt Judith watching to see if Gyp intended to return, did not dream
+that he was watching her.
+
+He saw her enter the cottage, and waited until she left the house to
+saunter down the avenue.
+
+Then he ran across the little open field from the wood, and, crouching
+behind the back fence, near the coop, again waited until he felt sure
+that she was not simply in the house of some neighbor, but, instead, had
+gone to the "square."
+
+Then springing over the fence like a monkey, he told a few facts to the
+old rooster.
+
+"Ye're a mean ol' thing!" he cried, "jest a mean ol' critter ter bite a
+feller's finger like ye did mine. I'll pay yer fer what ye done! Look at
+this, an' see how ye like it!"
+
+At that moment, and to the utter astonishment of the rooster, and his
+family, Gyp sprang up and down in a series of wild jumps, shouting, and
+yelling to the limit of his strength.
+
+"Yow-ow! Hoope-high-jinks!" shrieked Gyp, his wiry arms, and legs flying
+in more directions than seemed possible, his shoes, that were many sizes
+too large for him, clattering on the hard-trodden earth of the hen-yard.
+
+"How-re-ow-re-owl!" he roared, dodging this way, and that, in order to
+keep directly in front of the frightened rooster.
+
+The rooster ducked, and dodged in vain, for Gyp managed to do his
+outrageous dance exactly in front of him, wherever he might be.
+
+The hens kept up a perpetual squawking, and ran wildly about, while the
+downy chicks huddled in fear under the huge leaves of a burdock plant,
+and uttered little frightened peeps that, however, were unheard in the
+din that Gyp and the hens created.
+
+Then suddenly something happened.
+
+With a wild whoop, and an extra high jump, he lost his balance, and fell
+against the little gate.
+
+He was not hurt, but he was surprised, and, for a moment, sat absolutely
+still, while the hens, led by the big rooster, ran over him, and out
+into the field beyond.
+
+"I s'pose she'll say I let 'em out. I DID, an' I DIDN'T!" he said with a
+chuckle.
+
+"Long's they're out, they might as well have a good run for once," he
+cried, and shouting "Shoo! Shoo!" and brandishing his arms, he rushed
+after them.
+
+When he had tired of chasing the hens, he hurried away to the other end
+of the avenue, with the bright idea of learning if there might be a
+chance for mischief there.
+
+A fine kite disappeared from Harry Grafton's lawn, a ball that Rob
+Lindsey had been playing with could not be found, while at Sherwood Hall
+the lawn mower was searched for, and discovered in the brook.
+
+Old Martin dragged it forth, remarking as he did so:
+
+"It looks like the work of old Nick, or that wild lad, Gyp."
+
+No one had seen Gyp around the place, but, for the matter of that, no
+one had seen him flying a kite, or playing with a ball.
+
+The articles had disappeared, however, and, as usual, everyone thought
+Gyp the culprit.
+
+"It took work, and time to make that kite," said Harry, "I wouldn't
+think any one would be mean enough to take it."
+
+"Unless it was Gyp," said Rob, "he's mean enough for anything, and I
+wouldn't wonder if the same chap that went off with your kite, took my
+ball along at the same time."
+
+Both boys were urged to hunt carefully before accusing any one, but
+thorough search failed to bring forth either kite or ball.
+
+Then Leslie missed a book that she had left on the piazza, and Dollie
+Burton lost her loviest doll.
+
+Poor little Dollie! She could not be comforted, and promises of a new
+doll caused a fresh outburst of tears. It wouldn't be the same one that
+she had loved so, and she refused to have a new one until later, when
+her grief would be less fresh.
+
+It was in vain that Blanche told her that a new doll would be as dear as
+the old one, the little girl refused to play, and her cherub face looked
+very sad, the dimples failing to show, because the smiles would not
+appear.
+
+"That bad boy, Gyp, has took it," she wailed.
+
+"Oh, Dollie, he might take a kite, or a ball from Harry, and Rob, but he
+wouldn't want a doll! Just think! What would HE do with a doll?"
+
+"He's got little sisters, you said he had," Dollie replied, "p'raps he
+stole it for them. I wouldn't care if he'd just took my old one, but he
+was a bad boy to take my best one. I'll tell him so! You'll see!"
+
+It was a baby's threat, and Blanche did not dream that her wee sister
+would do anything of the sort.
+
+Dollie had a good memory, however, and Gyp sometimes passed the house.
+
+She was as determined as any older child might have been, to give Gyp
+the scolding that she thought he deserved.
+
+Oddly enough, he passed the house the next morning.
+
+His restless black eyes were looking furtively about as if in search of
+something that he might snatch. Little Dollie, for the moment, had
+forgotten the lost doll.
+
+With a long, flowering branch in her hand, she was walking up and down
+the driveway, looking more like a doll than anything else, in her dainty
+frock, her white socks, and bronze slippers.
+
+"Sing a song o' sixpence, A pocket full of rye,--"
+
+"Oh, YOU, YOU--wait for me!" In her wrath, the wee girl had forgotten
+his name.
+
+Gyp stood still, and waited, open mouthed, while Dollie ran toward him.
+
+He thought her the loveliest thing he had ever seen, and wondered that
+she wished to speak to him.
+
+"You naughty, BAD boy!" she cried, striking at him with the flowering
+branch. "Naughty, BAD boy! You bring it back to me!"
+
+Again the flowers hit him, but they gave nothing worse than a love pat.
+
+"What'll I bring ye?" he asked awkwardly, "I ain't got anything you'd
+want. Ye look like them fairies I've read 'bout."
+
+ [Illustration with caption: "Ye've lost yer dolly, hev ye?"]
+
+"DIDN'T you take my best doll?" she asked, her anger gone, and her red
+lips trembling.
+
+Two big tears ran down the pink cheeks.
+
+Then the strangest thing happened. Gyp, the imp, the one who apparently
+had no feeling, stooped, and peeping into the lovely little face, spoke
+very gently:
+
+"Ye've lost yer dolly, hev ye? I ain't seen it, but I'll try ter find it
+for yer."
+
+"Oh, WILL you?" she cried, smiling through her tears, "then I'm sorry I
+whipped you with this branch, and come! Let's bofe of us hunt together."
+
+She offered him her little hand, and very carefully he took it.
+
+He walked as if on air. Who else had ever offered him a hand? Who had
+ever spoken kindly? This lovely little girl had smiled at him, and had
+wished to be with him while he searched.
+
+How he worked!
+
+Like a little wild creature he crawled under shrubs, and, using his
+fingers like claws, tugged at grass, and twigs, as if his only interest
+were to find the doll.
+
+"Was yer near the brook when ye was playin' with it?" asked Gyp.
+
+"Oh, oh, I WAS, but I'd forgotten it. Didn't anyone hunt there! Let's
+go, quick, maybe we'll find her!"
+
+She gave him a sunny smile, and in delight, he again took the wee hand
+she offered him, and together the ragged boy, and the wee, dainty girl
+hurried away to the brook.
+
+It was a bit of the same brook that ran through the garden at Sherwood
+Hall.
+
+Just as they reached the brook something backed up from the water's
+edge.
+
+"Oh, Beauty! Beauty! What ARE you doing?" cried Dollie.
+
+The puppy growled, and continued dragging something up the little bank.
+
+"Here Mr. Puppy! Gim me that!" cried Gyp.
+
+"Why, it's my lovely Aurora!" cried Dollie, dancing wildly about.
+
+Gyp, fearless because the little dog was only a pup, tugged at the body
+of the doll, while Beauty held firmly to its pink skirt.
+
+The muslin frock gave way under the strain, and the puppy, with a bit of
+the muslin in his mouth, rolled over on the grass, while Gyp, doubting
+if the bedraggled doll would be accepted, held it out, dripping, for
+Dollie to look at.
+
+"IS it the doll what ye lost?" he asked.
+
+"Oh, yes; yes it is," cried Dollie, "and I love her just as much as I
+did before she was drownded!"
+
+Regardless of her own dainty frock, she hugged the dripping doll to her
+breast.
+
+"You're a GOOD boy to help me," she said, "I said I was sorry I hit you,
+and I am. I just WISH I hadn't."
+
+"I'd rather ye'd hit me, than any other person touch me," Gyp muttered,
+and then, for fear that someone at the house might SEND him off, he
+turned, and ran away. Little Dollie looked after him.
+
+"I wonder if he heard me SAY he was good," she whispered.
+
+Then with soft eyes she looked at the vanishing figure.
+
+"He 'most always ISN'T good, but this time he was," she said.
+
+Beauty, like most little dogs, had a habit of running off with any
+article that he could snatch, and hiding it.
+
+Tiring of the doll he had dropped it in the brook, and then, when he
+happened to remember it, had dragged it forth, intending, doubtless, to
+give it another good shaking.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE LITTLE GREEN DOOR
+
+Dear little Dollie Burton's warm, loving heart had been touched, and she
+eagerly told everyone how Gyp had helped to find her dear Aurora.
+
+"You see, Rob," she said, one day, "he's SOME naughty, but he ISN'T all
+naughty. Mama always says: 'Wait 'fore you 'cuse anyone,' but I didn't
+wait. I just 'cused him as hard as I could, and NOW I'm sorry."
+
+"Oh, you're a trump, Dollie," said Rob.
+
+"Is a 'trump' a nice thing to be?" questioned the wee girl.
+
+"The best thing in the world," Rob declared laughing.
+
+"Well, I didn't know," the little girl replied, "'cause when Nora's
+cleaning closets, and finds old things, mama says: 'Take that trumpery
+out to the waste barrel,' and you say trump isn't same as trumpery."
+
+"Guess not! Dollie, you're the best little girl I know," said Rob, to
+which Dollie replied: "And you're the bestest boy _I_ know."
+
+The news flew through the neighborhood that Gyp had found the doll.
+
+"Well, that's one decent thing he did," said Rob Lindsey, "and I s'pose
+there's just a chance that he didn't take my ball, or your kite, but who
+else would do it?"
+
+"Sure enough," said Harry Grafton, "who else would?"
+
+Vivian and Blanche, with Lena Lindsey, were walking with their arms
+about each other's waists. It was really too warm to play, but it was
+never too warm to talk.
+
+"Just think," said Vivian, "when Polly is here, we play no matter how
+hot it is."
+
+"Yes, except when we coax her to tell us some stories," said Lena.
+"She's fun to play with, because when we're tired of the old games, she
+can always make up a new one," said Vivian.
+
+And while Polly's friends were talking lovingly of her, she had been
+telling Rose many pleasant things of the playmates that both so well
+knew.
+
+It was only for a moment that they talked of their little friends,
+however, because both were anticipating a trip to an artist's studio,
+where they would see beautiful pictures, and where Aunt Lois was to sit
+for her portrait.
+
+Aunt Rose had gone to spend the day with a friend, and Aunt Lois,
+thinking it hardly kind to leave the two little girls at home, had
+decided to take them with her.
+
+"He's a fine artist, and one who has painted portraits of many
+distinguished people. I hardly know if he is greatly interested in
+children, but he surely will be willing that you should enjoy his
+pictures, if you make no noise, and do not talk to disturb him," she had
+said.
+
+"Oh, if we may see the pictures, we'll promise not to make the least bit
+of noise," said Rose, speaking very loudly that Aunt Lois, who was quite
+deaf, might hear.
+
+"Guess what he looks like," said Rose, as they walked along beside Aunt
+Lois.
+
+"Oh, I think he will be tall, and slender, with dark eyes, and wavy
+hair, and he'll bow like this, when he lets us in," Polly said, pausing
+on the sidewalk to make a very low bow.
+
+"I don't believe he'll bow like that," said Rose, "because he's such a
+GREAT artist. He'll feel pretty big. I guess he's not very light, or
+very dark, but I think he'll be tall and SOME stout. Don't you know how
+the lawyer that lives on our street looks? Just as if he owned all the
+houses on the avenue. _I_ think he'll give us a teenty little bow like
+this," and she gave a jerky little nod, "but I think he'll be quite nice
+to us after we are in."
+
+"This way," said Aunt Lois, and they crossed the street, and stopped
+before a quaint looking building. The massive oak door boasted a huge
+knocker, in the form of a frowning lion's head that held a huge brass
+ring.
+
+Aunt Lois lifted the ring, and let it fall clattering against the door.
+
+The little girls wondered if the artist would be angry. COULD that
+knocker have made less noise?
+
+Aunt Lois was so very deaf that she did not realize what a din she had
+made, and smiled serenely as she stood waiting.
+
+Polly was just wondering if the artist were too offended to respond,
+when the door opened, and a tall, sturdy man, with his palette and
+brushes in his hand, welcomed them.
+
+"Ah, you have come for your sitting, and you are prompt," he said.
+
+"I endeavored to be on time," said Aunt Lois, "and, because my sister is
+away I've brought Rose and our little guest with me. I can promise that
+they will not in any way disturb you. Rose has often been here with me,
+but this is her little friend, Polly Sherwood."
+
+Mr. Arthur Kirtland welcomed her very graciously, and urged her to
+enjoy, with Rose, the pictures that hung upon the studio walls, stood
+upon easels, and around the room.
+
+"We'll walk about very softly, and may we go into the little room where
+the lovely children are, Mr. Kirtland?" Rose asked.
+
+"Oh, surely," he answered quickly, "you may like the child studies
+best."
+
+He meant what he said, and he also thought that if they were pleased
+with the pictures in the little room that led from the main studio, it
+would be quite as well.
+
+True, a large screen kept both artist and sitter apart from the rest of
+the studio, but Arthur Kirtland liked to be wholly alone, and
+undisturbed while painting a portrait, and he was very glad when the
+children tired of the pictures in the large studio, and went out into
+the small room.
+
+"He didn't look like what you guessed, did he?" said Rose, when together
+they seated themselves in the little room.
+
+"No, not a bit, and the reason you could guess what he was like was
+because you'd seen him," said Polly, "and when he made the funny little
+bow just as you did, I almost laughed."
+
+"I don't wonder he struts when he walks. Just think who he's painted!
+Two dukes, one is that man with the red hair, and the eyes that laugh at
+you. It's out in the big room," said Rose, "don't you remember it?"
+
+"Yes, but I like the big lady in velvet, and lace, that hangs next to
+him," said Polly.
+
+"That's his wife, Mr. Kirtland said so," said Rose.
+
+"Oh, would you think a lovely lady like that would marry a man with red
+hair?" said Polly.
+
+"P'raps she liked red hair," Rose said, "and Polly, did you ever see
+anything so cunning as that picture of a little girl with her hands full
+of roses?"
+
+Polly thought the picture charming, and together they walked around the
+little room enjoying flower studies, sketches, and finished pictures of
+children, until Polly espied a small door.
+
+"Oh, see that funny little door!" she whispered, "where does that lead
+to? Is it a closet door, do you suppose?"
+
+"Oh, no, that's not a closet," Rose replied, "I've often seen it open.
+Just outside it is a wee little garden just big enough to hold some fine
+holly-hocks. I'll show you. 'Most always the door is open."
+
+"Open it softly. He wouldn't like it if we made a noise," whispered
+Polly.
+
+Rose turned the latch very gently, and opened the door a few inches. A
+flood of golden sunlight swept in, and just outside the tall holly-hocks
+in gorgeous coloring swayed in the soft breeze.
+
+"Hear them rustle just as if they were paper flowers," whispered Polly.
+"Oh, it's lovely out there."
+
+"Let's go out just a little way."
+
+"All right," agreed Rose, "come out, and I'll shut the door," and Polly
+followed her out into the sunlight.
+
+"Oh, you didn't latch the door," said Polly.
+
+"Oh, dear! I meant to," said Rose, "but it isn't MUCH open. If I go
+back, and pull it real hard to make it latch it'll make a noise, and Mr.
+Kirtland won't like it. We won't stay out long, so it doesn't matter."
+
+"When we DO go back, let's sit on that little sofa in the corner. That's
+a cosy place."
+
+"All right," agreed Rose, and together they walked up and down the
+little path that led from the tiny, side door to the street.
+
+"The studio is grand, and the people he's painted look as if they could
+speak, if they chose," said Polly, "but somehow it made me feel queer to
+see them all looking at me."
+
+"And once I peeped over my shoulder and that man in the hunting costume
+had his eyes right on me," said Rose, "and I turned my head away. When I
+turned again, he looked as if he'd speak, and if he DID, I just know
+he'd say: 'I'm still looking at you, Rose Atherton; you can't dodge
+ME!'"
+
+"I do truly love the pictures," Polly said, "but I never saw so many all
+at once, and I didn't feel queer about them, until we'd been with them
+quite a while. I guess we'd feel different if somebody had been talking.
+It was still and cool in there, and did you notice? The corners in the
+little room were shady and almost dark."
+
+"He doesn't speak, after he really begins to paint," said Rose. "He
+says: 'Turn a bit this way Miss Lois. No, not quite so much, that's it.
+Now hold that pose, please,' and then he doesn't speak again until he
+stops painting.
+
+"At first he said Aunt Lois could rest often, but she doesn't care to.
+She says it's easy to sit in the big carved chair. I'd be wild to sit
+still so long!"
+
+"Hello!" a merry voice shouted, and they turned toward the street.
+
+It was Lester Jenks. He was beckoning to them, and they ran out to the
+sidewalk.
+
+"What ye' doing here?" he asked.
+
+"Aunt Lois is having her portrait painted, and we came with her, and
+we're just waiting 'til she's ready to go home."
+
+"Oh, then I'll tell you what let's do. Let's have some ice cream! I said
+I'd treat some day, and I know a nice place. Come!" urged the boy, but
+they hesitated.
+
+"Don't you want to?" he asked.
+
+"Oh, yes!" they cried, "but we ought to ask Aunt Lois," said Rose, "and
+we can't. Mr. Kirtland is painting, and he hasn't said a single word for
+ever so long. It's so still in there that it makes you feel as if you
+ALMOST mustn't breathe. I wouldn't dare to run right in and ask Aunt
+Lois!"
+
+"Why, you don't have to. We'll just skip over to the ice cream parlor,
+and we'll be back long before he's done painting. Come along! If you
+don't, I'll think you don't want to, and that isn't nice when I've asked
+you," said Lester. "Oh, dear, it isn't polite to let him think that when
+I'm wild to go, and I just KNOW Polly is," thought Rose.
+
+"Are you SURE it won't take us long to go, and get back?" Polly asked.
+
+"Oh, it's just a step!" said Lester.
+
+"There's a nice little old lady keeps the place, and she gives you awful
+big ice creams for five cents. You have 'em on a marble table in her
+little parlor. There's a green carpet on the floor, and the room is
+awful cool. Oh, come on! I wish you would."
+
+The invitation was not elegantly expressed, but it certainly was
+CORDIAL.
+
+"I guess we'll have to go," said Rose, "would you, Polly?"
+
+"I'd like to," was the reply.
+
+"Then come!" said Lester, "we'll be there and back here before anyone
+would guess you'd been even outside that door."
+
+They waited for no more urging, and together the three little friends
+ran across the street, through a side street, and down a broad avenue.
+
+"It's just a little farther down this way," said Lester.
+
+"Why it's ever so far from the studio, Lester Jenks, and you SAID we'd
+just skip to it," said Rose, breathlessly.
+
+"Well, aren't we skipping?" he said with a laugh, "we run a few steps,
+and then you and Polly skip along a little way, and then you run again."
+
+Rose was just wondering if they ought to turn back without the little
+treat, when Lester caught her hand, saying:
+
+"Here we are," and he boldly opened the door.
+
+A tiny bell tinkled as the door closed behind them, and a little, white
+haired old lady came out to greet them.
+
+"We want some ice cream, these ladies and me," said Lester, trying to
+look as tall as possible, and hoping that she did not notice that he was
+wearing knee breeches. He thought that no one would dream that he was a
+small boy if only they could not see those knee breeches that he so
+heartily despised.
+
+The old lady served the cream in dainty glasses, and heaped it high in a
+tiny pile that really amounted to little, but looked great--for five
+cents.
+
+"How cool and dark it is in here," said Rose.
+
+"It is a lovely place to eat ice cream in," said Polly.
+
+The strawberry ice cream was very, very pink, and they thought it
+delicious.
+
+"Do you think we've been gone long, YET, Lester?" questioned Rose.
+
+"Of course not," said Lester, but Rose wished that he would eat his
+cream a little faster.
+
+When the tiny glasses were quite empty Lester bought a package of candy
+for his friends, and having paid for the treat, opened the door for them
+to pass out onto the sidewalk.
+
+"Why it looks different," said Polly, "is it cloudy, since we went in
+there?" But the sky showed no clouds. Then where had the bright sunlight
+gone?
+
+"Oh, I b'lieve it's late!" cried Rose, "do you s'pose it is? It was long
+after lunch when we started for the studio, oh, ever so long after. We
+staid there looking at the pictures for hours, I guess, and then we came
+with you, Lester."
+
+"It CAN'T be late," the boy replied, although he truly believed that it
+was.
+
+"We could go back a shorter way than the one we came. Shall we?" he
+asked.
+
+"Oh, yes, yes!" cried Rose, "we must get there before Aunt Lois is ready
+to go. If Mr. Kirtland is still painting we can go in softly by the
+little side door, and wait until it is time to go."
+
+Lester led the way, and the three children ran down one street, and up
+another, until at last they paused for breath.
+
+"This short way seems longer than the way we came!" ventured Polly.
+
+"We AREN'T lost, are we?" cried Rose.
+
+"I turned into the wrong street when we started," admitted Lester, "but
+it's only a little way now."
+
+"Then let's hurry just that little way," said Rose.
+
+She clasped Polly's hand, and again they ran on, and after a few
+moments, Lester cried: "There it is!"
+
+Sure enough! There was the clump of holly-hocks, and close beside it,
+the little green door.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+AT THE STUDIO
+
+"Good-bye, good-bye!" they cried to Lester, "and thank you, oh thank
+you, but we must hurry!"
+
+Lester waved his cap to them, and then raced down the avenue.
+
+Then, treading softly, they ran along the little path, past the
+holly-hocks, and--the little green door was closed.
+
+"Oh, Rose!" gasped Polly, but Rose had grasped the knob, and found that
+while the door looked to be closed, it had only been swung to with the
+breeze.
+
+She pushed it open, and noiselessly they entered.
+
+Softly they crept across the floor, Polly clinging to Rose's hand, and
+when they had reached the little divan, they sat down, and for a moment,
+neither spoke.
+
+They still clasped hands, and when Polly looked toward the doorway that
+led into the large studio, Rose looked that way too.
+
+From where they sat, they could not see either the painter or his model.
+
+Polly leaned toward Rose.
+
+"Doesn't he EVER talk when he's painting?" she whispered.
+
+Rose shook her head.
+
+"I 'most always bring a book with me, and while Aunt Lois is posing, I
+read stories," she whispered in reply.
+
+Then for a time neither spoke.
+
+The old clock out in that other room ticked to prove that all was not
+silent, but it made the waiting children more lonely.
+
+They could not see its face, but after what seemed a long time, it
+chimed a single note.
+
+"Oh, dear! That's only a half hour. I thought it was going to strike,"
+whispered Rose, "and then we'd have known what time it was."
+
+"Don't you dare to go in there, just a little way, and peep at the
+clock? It's just around the corner," whispered Polly.
+
+"I promised we wouldn't disturb him while he was painting," whispered
+Rose, "but I do b'lieve I'll have to soon. I'm just wild to see if he's
+beginning to put away his paints."
+
+"There isn't the least sound as if he was putting away ANYTHING," said
+Polly.
+
+"I'll just HAVE to look," said Rose, whispering as softly as before.
+"We're awfully tired waiting, and keeping so still. It will help some to
+know what time it is, and if he sees me looking at the clock, perhaps
+he'll say he's 'MOST ready to stop painting."
+
+She slipped from the divan, and tip-toed to the doorway, pushed the
+heavy hanging aside just enough to permit her to pass through. The
+portiere dropped heavily behind her, and Polly listened--listened.
+
+"Oh, I hope he won't be angry. He ought not to after we've waited so
+long, but he's a great artist, and I s'pose Rose is disturbing him. I
+hope he won't scold. I didn't really tell her to go in and look at the
+clock, but I didn't tell her NOT to," thought Polly.
+
+"Why DOESN'T she come back?" she whispered, a second after, when, as if
+in answer, the portiere was pushed aside, and Rose, a very frightened
+little Rose, hurried to Polly, her eyes startled, and her cheeks pale.
+
+"He isn't there! Aunt Lois isn't there! We're alone in this studio, and
+I'd rather be alone ANYWHERE than here!" she cried, and they shuddered
+when the vacant rooms echoed her voice.
+
+"But we don't have to STAY here!" cried Polly, "come! It's getting late,
+and we must hurry, or we'll be afraid to go down the streets alone."
+
+"We CAN'T go!" cried Rose, "that's just the horrid part of it!"
+
+"WHY can't we?"
+
+As she asked the question Polly sprang to her feet, and clasping Rose's
+hand, drew her toward the door.
+
+"It's no use, Polly," said Rose, "We CAN'T go home, because I don't know
+the way!"
+
+Polly stared at her for a second in surprise.
+
+"Why you've been here before with your Aunt Lois," she said.
+
+"I know I have," Rose replied, "but I haven't noticed just how we came.
+It's a long walk, and don't you remember how many different streets we
+turned into, before we got here? I tell you truly, Polly, I don't know
+the FIRST THING about going home!"
+
+"Then we must wait here 'til they come for us," said Polly, "Oh hark!
+What was that?"
+
+Together they sank upon the little divan, and now they spoke only in
+whispers.
+
+"I don't know what the noise was, but it was in that other room. When I
+had looked at the clock, and I turned to come back, I HAD to pass the
+big suit of armor. Polly, I knew there wasn't anyone in it, but all the
+same I thought its eyeholes looked at me!"
+
+"Oh--o--o! Didn't that sound as if his iron glove rattled against his
+shield?" was Polly's startled whisper.
+
+"It's that, or--he's--WALKING!" gasped Rose.
+
+The two terrified children clung to each other. They stared toward the
+large doorway, and their breath came faster.
+
+Did the portiere sway?
+
+No, it hung straight from its pole, but beyond, in that other room; was
+anyone moving about in there?
+
+They hardly dared breathe.
+
+At last Rose whispered, turning that her words might reach Polly's ear.
+
+"It's still in there now," she said, "and don't you think--"
+
+She did not finish the question, for, at that moment, something creaked,
+and slipped to the floor, rolling evidently until it must have met
+another object that stopped it.
+
+"There wasn't a single sound here when it was bright daylight, and Mr.
+Kirtland was busy painting. Why DO the things in his studio ACT so when
+he's away?" said Polly.
+
+"It's as if they knew we were here, and just wanted to scare us,"
+whispered Rose.
+
+Frightened, hungry, weary, and nervously staring into that shadowy
+doorway, they waited--waited hoping that someone might come before
+anything happened to make their terror greater.
+
+At the great house on the avenue, there was wild excitement. At the end
+of the sitting, Aunt Lois had gone to the little room, expecting to find
+two tired children who would be eager to go home. The sitting had been
+longer than usual, and she would reward them for their patience by
+stopping at the confectioner's on the way home and purchasing some fine
+candy for them.
+
+"I am to come to you again on Thursday," she said. "Very well, I will
+try to be prompt. The children must be tired of waiting. If you are
+willing, I'll bid you 'Good afternoon' here, and go out by the side door
+with them."
+
+Without waiting for him to reply, she had hastened to the smaller room,
+only to find that it was empty.
+
+She was not at all frightened.
+
+Her first thought was that the long afternoon had been tedious, and they
+had gone home.
+
+"I shall find them on the piazza waiting for me," she said. "Rose would
+have asked if she might go, but I had told her not to interrupt while he
+was painting."
+
+Gentle Aunt Lois had no thought of being angry. Instead, she was sorry
+that the hours had dragged so heavily for Rose and Polly.
+
+She purchased two fine boxes of candy, smiling as she walked along with
+her parcel, that was to be a surprise.
+
+She walked slowly because she was very tired. She wondered that Rose did
+not run to greet her.
+
+"Where are the children?" she asked, as the maid opened the door.
+
+"Sure, they've not been home since they went out with you," said the
+maid.
+
+Aunt Lois sank on the great hall chair, and the frightened maid thought
+that she was ill.
+
+"Are ye faint, mum?" she asked, "an' will I be gettin' ye a glass o'
+water?"
+
+"Call the coachman," said Aunt Lois.
+
+"Sure, I don't want to be bold with advice, but I'd not like ter see ye
+goin' out fer a ride feelin' like ye do now. I'd think--"
+
+"GET the coachman!" said Aunt Lois, and the girl, now thoroughly
+frightened, did as she was bid.
+
+Nora ran at top speed to the stable, crying, as she reached the door:
+
+"Oh, John, John! Miss Lois is come home, an' she's talkin' o' goin'
+right out ter ride, an' her sick, an' she wants ye ter come to her in
+the hall now, an' me not knowin' what ter do, at all!"
+
+"Hi! Now calm down like a good lass, and tell a man what you need. I
+can't make sense out of what you said. Now, then?"
+
+"Oh, come in, come in!" cried Nora, and turning, she ran toward the
+house, the coachman following, muttering something about girls never
+having their wits about them.
+
+But when he reached the house, and heard that Rose and charming little
+Princess Polly were missing, his kindly face looked very serious, and he
+promised to get help and make a thorough search of the town.
+
+He called the gardener and a boy who had been helping him, and then came
+the question as to where to look first.
+
+In the street some boys were playing ball, among them, Lester Jenks.
+
+"It might be that they were around the neighborhood, but haven't yet
+come home," ventured the gardener.
+
+"That's not likely," said the coachman, "but we might ask a few
+questions of those boys.
+
+"Hi, there, boys! Have you seen Rose, or her friend Polly around here
+this afternoon?'
+
+"They went down town with Rose's aunt to Mr. Kirtland's studio," shouted
+Lester. "Here, Jack, pitch decently, will you?"
+
+"Look here, young feller! This ain't no joke. Quit playin' ball long
+'nough ter hear what I say. They're lost, those two little girls are.
+They haven't come home!"
+
+"I saw 'em down there, when I was there, and I left them there, in the
+little yard when I came home."
+
+"When was that?" said John.
+
+"Oh, 'bout six, I guess," said Lester. "I don't know exactly."
+
+The coachman hurried to the house.
+
+"If ye please, 'm, the Jenks boy says he saw them out in the little
+garden that joins the studio at about six. It's about half past six, or
+so, now, 'm, an' ye've just reached home. I can't make out how ye missed
+them, but I think I'll go over ter Mr. Kirtland's house, and if he isn't
+out ter some reception, like he often is, I'll ask the loan of his key,
+and with the gardener, I'll hunt there first. I believe they're there."
+
+Aunt Lois, now really wild with anxiety, could only say: "Go, at once.
+Go somewhere, do something, to find them. See! It is getting dusky.
+Wherever they are, they are frightened, I know, and surely I am almost
+sick with fear for their safety."
+
+Mr. Kirtland was at home, and while he could not believe the children
+were in his studio, he felt that no place should be neglected in the
+effort to find them, and he insisted upon joining the searching party.
+
+Meanwhile, in the studio the dusky shadows had grown deeper. The two
+terrified little girls had begun to wonder if anyone would ever come for
+them.
+
+They still clung to each other, and for some time not a sound had broken
+the stillness. Naught save the ticking of the clock, and that did not
+startle them, but, rather, by its monotonous tune, seemed like a friend
+that sought to cheer them.
+
+Not even a team passed, and no footstep upon the sidewalk told of a
+pedestrian who walked by the building.
+
+"If you heard someone walk past this place would you wish he'd stop, or
+would you wish he wouldn't?" whispered Rose.
+
+"I'd hate to hear him go right by without stopping, because I'd know he
+wasn't coming to take us home, but if he stopped I'd be scared!"
+whispered Polly.
+
+"Hark!"
+
+Rose grasped Polly's arm.
+
+"It's in THERE! It's in THERE!" they shrieked, as if with one voice,
+then in a frightened little heap they slipped to the floor and tried to
+draw the rug over them to hide and shield them from they knew not what!
+
+Suddenly both rooms were flooded with light, and a familiar voice spoke.
+
+"They're not here, you see; I felt sure that they could not be in the
+studio. We must search elsewhere, and lose no time about it."
+
+It was Arthur Kirtland's voice, and scrambling to their feet, they ran
+to greet him, all fear left behind.
+
+"Oh, Mr. Kirtland, we ARE here," cried Rose.
+
+"And we've been here just almost FOREVER," Polly added.
+
+"And, oh, here's John!" cried Rose. "Now we can go home!"
+
+"I think ye can, bein's yer Aunt Lois thinks ye're both lost, and no
+knowin' whether we'll find ye or not. Ye better be tellin' Mr. Kirtland
+how it is ye are here after he'd thought the place empty, and he'd
+locked it up, an' gone home."
+
+Quickly they told the story of their trip to the ice cream parlor, and
+of their late return, finding entrance by the little green door.
+
+Of the lonely waiting, of the noises that had frightened them.
+
+"Oh, Mr. Kirtland! That armor is standing just as it did when it was
+daylight here, but truly we heard his sword rattle against his shield,
+and once--" Rose's voice faltered.
+
+"Once," said Polly, taking up the story, "we thought he walked across
+the floor!"
+
+"I have heard the same thing," was the quick reply, "and I am not at all
+surprised that you were terrified."
+
+Rose and Polly were grateful that he did not laugh or even look amused.
+
+"But he COULDN'T walk," said Rose; "it's only an iron suit."
+
+"Oh, he surely doesn't move," Arthur Kirtland said, and he smiled kindly
+at the children, "but sometimes I think a tiny mouse mistakes it for a
+huge cage and runs around in it, and as to his walking, the cars on the
+railroad that runs back of the studio jar the building and shake the
+suit of armor. I think that may be what you heard."
+
+"Well, it sounds harmless enough when ye know what made the noise," John
+said, with a laugh, "and now I guess ye'll be some willin' ter go home
+ter Aunt Lois. The carriage is at the door."
+
+"Oh, yes, yes!" they cried.
+
+"A studio is a lovely place in the day-time," said Polly, "and the
+pictures are beautiful then, but when it begins to be dark it's
+DIFFERENT."
+
+"Different! I guess that's so," said the coachman; "and now, come! We'll
+drive home at a lively pace."
+
+"Oh, doesn't it seem good to be safe!" cried Polly when, snugly seated
+in the carriage, they saw that they were on their own familiar avenue.
+
+"Yes, and we always like to be GOING somewhere, and now we're glad that
+we're almost home," said Rose.
+
+"I guess anybody would be glad to get away from that studio, if they'd
+ever been in there alone when it gets darker and darker every minute,"
+said Polly.
+
+"Do you b'lieve Mr. Kirtland would dare to be there at night?"
+questioned Rose.
+
+"Why, he came there after us!" cried Polly, in surprise.
+
+"Well, he had our coachman with him," Rose replied; "he didn't come
+alone!"
+
+"That's so," agreed Polly; "he couldn't be afraid with the coachman for
+company!"
+
+Aunt Lois was just beginning to think that she could not bear waiting to
+hear from the searching party, when she heard little feet upon the
+piazza, the music of merry voices, and when the maid opened the door,
+Rose ran in, followed by Polly.
+
+"Oh, please may I stay, 'm, to hear what happened to the two dears?"
+pleaded Nora.
+
+Aunt Lois smiled assent, and then Rose, with Polly's help, told the
+story of the afternoon, of their return to the studio, of the terror
+that seemed to fill shadowy corners when twilight came.
+
+"And the noises! Oh, Aunt Lois, you don't know what strange sounds there
+were in that studio! I love the pictures, and it's beautiful there in
+the daylight, but I can't forget the fright we had, and I won't want to
+go there again for, oh, a LONG time!" said Rose.
+
+"We've told you how dark and lonely it was," added Polly, "but you'd
+have to HEAR that armor clank to know how it sounded."
+
+"I'm so deaf that some of the lesser noises would not have reached me,
+and really that is the only mercy I know of in being deaf," Aunt Lois
+said. "You've both been so completely frightened there, that I, too,
+think you would better not go there for some time. Indeed, I wish
+something very bright and cheery might occur that would turn your
+thoughts from the studio."
+
+"Ye'll not let the children go there, but if I might make so bold as to
+advise ye, 'm, I'd ask ye ter let the portrait go an' stay away from
+there. The place is jist haunted, and the demons might get ye, even in
+daylight!" Nora had shrieked that Aunt Lois might hear.
+
+"Nora! Nora! Not a word of demons or haunting! You well know that I do
+not approve of any such foolish notions," Aunt Lois replied.
+
+Nora went back to the kitchen and there expressed her belief to the
+cook, that studio place was "just full of old spooks!"
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+AN UNEXPECTED GUEST
+
+ON the day after the one at the studio, Rose and Polly sat on the
+terrace, their laps filled with flowers. Each was weaving a wreath for
+the other, and each was intent upon making a very beautiful one.
+
+"Mine will be syringas and pink geraniums," said Rose, "and, Polly
+Sherwood, would you ever think shadows could be so horrid as they were
+last night?"
+
+"No, I wouldn't," said Polly, "specially when we're out here in the
+sunlight. Now, just see what I'm doing. I'm making this wreath of pink
+rosebuds and mignonette. You'll look fine in it when it's done."
+
+"So will you, Princess Polly, when you wear the wreath I'm making. You
+always look like a TRULY princess, but you'll look more like one than
+ever when you have this on. I put syringas in it because they're so
+sweet," said Rose.
+
+"That's why I used mignonette," said Polly. "Look! Mine is half done."
+
+"Oh, it's lovely!" cried Rose.
+
+They surely were having a fine time. The gay colored boxes filled with
+bonbons that Aunt Lois had given them lay on the grass between them, and
+they were almost empty boxes, because busy little hands had paused so
+often to dip into them.
+
+"Six left," said Rose; "three for you and three for me. Let's keep the
+boxes for paper dolls, they're such pretty ones."
+
+"We will," agreed Polly, "and now, Rose, try on the wreath."
+
+"Oh, it looks fine on your brown curls," she cried, as she placed the
+pretty wreath on Rose's head.
+
+"And here's yours," said Rose, as she laid it lightly upon Polly's
+flaxen curls.
+
+"Oh, my, it's just the right kind of a wreath for you!" she cried.
+"Let's go in and show them to Aunt Lois."
+
+They sprang from the grass and turned toward the house just in time to
+meet Nora, the maid, as she was coming toward them.
+
+"Yer Aunt Lois wants yer ter come right in, Miss Rose, an' bring Miss
+Polly with yer," she said.
+
+"That's funny," said Rose, with a merry laugh in which Polly joined,
+"for we were just going to run in and let her see our wreaths."
+
+"Well, now, ye look like fairies with the bright flowers on yer hair,
+an' do ye go right in, because there's someone has come that's wantin'
+ter see yer. Keep the flowers on yer heads an' go right in," said Nora.
+
+"Who is it, Nora?" Rose asked, her eyes bright with excitement.
+
+"Well, I do'no whether she'd want yer ter be surprised or let me tell
+yer, but--it's yer Uncle John!"
+
+The smiles fled from their faces.
+
+"Uncle John!" gasped Rose. "Oh, Nora, is he very old? Does he carry a
+cane? Is he deaf? Is he going to take me away from here?"
+
+She had clasped her hands nervously, and stood waiting for Nora to
+answer her questions.
+
+"Now, Miss Rose," said Nora, her eyes twinkling, "I think ye better go
+right in an' see him."
+
+"But should you think he's over NINETY?" persisted Rose.
+
+"Well I shouldn't say he was OVER that," Nora replied dryly.
+
+"Come Polly," said Rose. "There's nothing else to do but to go in."
+
+With lagging steps they walked along the path and turned toward the
+house. Then for the first time they saw the automobile in which the
+guest had arrived.
+
+"Why, who drove him here?" said Rose. "Look! There's no man waiting in
+it, and if he's NINETY he wouldn't drive alone, would he?"
+
+Polly shook her head.
+
+"Perhaps he isn't QUITE that," she said.
+
+It was the only bit of encouragement that she could offer.
+
+"I think I'll wait here on the piazza," she said when they had reached
+the door.
+
+"Why, don't you want to meet him?" Rose asked.
+
+"Oh, yes," Polly answered, "but if he's--if he, oh, I don't quite know
+how I mean it. I just thought perhaps you'd like to know him a little,
+and then I'll come in, and _I'_LL know him, too."
+
+Nora, just behind them, reached forward and touched Rose's shoulder.
+
+"Run right in," she said, "the gentleman's waiting to see you."
+
+For the moment she forgot Polly, and hastening across the great hall,
+lest Uncle John might guess that she did not wish to meet him, little
+Rose Atherton entered the long, cool parlor, and found herself face to
+face with a tall, handsome man, who rose to greet her. His waving hair
+was touched with gray, his brown eyes were merry.
+
+"So this is little Rose," he said, "will you come and let me look at
+you? Why, who made the dainty wreath for you?"
+
+He offered not one, but both his hands to her, and with a happy cry, she
+laid her little hands in his.
+
+"Will you come for a few days and make me a visit?" he asked. "You will
+have a pleasant time, and we shall get acquainted. I think I can make
+you like me, little Rose."
+
+"Oh, I do, I DO like you NOW!" she cried, and her little heart was
+filled with delight.
+
+Here was a cheery, handsome young uncle, in place of the unattractive
+old uncle that she had supposed awaited her.
+
+"Don't remove your wreath," he said, as she raised her hands toward the
+flowers, "because it is really very becoming. Were you playing alone
+when I arrived?"
+
+"Oh, no," said Rose, "I was so glad when I saw you, because--" she
+hesitated.
+
+"Because?" he said, his eyes twinkling.
+
+"Because you aren't OLD. I thought my Uncle John MUST be 'most ninety,"
+she said softly, so that Aunt Lois might not hear.
+
+"And Polly, Princess Polly, was with me. She's my little guest. May I
+bring her now? She's so beautiful you'll just love to look at her."
+
+"Oh, then, bring Miss Polly at once," he said.
+
+Rose ran to the hall.
+
+"Oh, come, come!" she said, in a whisper so loud that it reached Uncle
+John's ear and caused him to laugh softly.
+
+"Come!" she repeated. "He's as handsome as a prince," and clasping
+Polly's hand, she returned to the parlor.
+
+He greeted Polly as cordially as he had Rose, and Polly at once decided
+that Rose's Uncle John was the handsomest man, next to her dear papa,
+that she had ever seen.
+
+"I have been asking Lois to loan Rose to me for a few days, and she has
+consented. Rose seems to think it might be enjoyable. I would not think,
+however, of taking her from you while you are her guest, Miss Polly, but
+if you will come with her, I shall be doubly happy. I have a lovely
+place at the shore. Will you come?"
+
+"Oh, I'd love to," said Polly, "there's nothing finer than the shore."
+
+"MAY we?" Rose asked, running to Aunt Lois.
+
+"Why, certainly. I think the change will be pleasant for you. Nora must
+pack whatever you will need in your suit cases. Uncle John never did
+like to wait for anything, and he wishes to take you back with him."
+
+Uncle John took a package from his pocket.
+
+"I stopped on my way and purchased two veils. Men don't know much about
+such things, and when the clerk showed me a box full of them, I didn't
+know which to choose. I looked at a pink and a blue one, and because I'd
+no idea which you'd like best, I brought them both to you, Rose. You can
+loan one to Polly. You'll need your hats tied on securely on your ride
+to the shore."
+
+"Oh, see the lovely, LOVELY VEILS!" cried Rose, when, having opened the
+parcel, the soft blue and pink gauze lay before them.
+
+"No one could have found prettier ones," said Rose. "On, thank you for
+bringing them to me. I like to have gifts, but, oh, I LOVE to know folks
+care to give them to me. That's BEST of all."
+
+"Dear little girl, you are right about that," Uncle John said heartily,
+"and now run and get your wraps, and we'll spin away to the shore."
+
+"Oh, Polly, Princess Polly, Princess Polly! ISN'T he dear?" whispered
+Rose, when together they climbed the stairway to help Nora to choose
+what they would need for the visit.
+
+"Oh, Nora!" cried Rose, "why didn't you tell me he wasn't old at all?"
+
+"Sure, now," replied Nora, "if I'd said what I thought, I'd have said he
+looked like a noble lord, so he does."
+
+"And I'm to go, too, Nora!" cried Polly, "and wasn't he kind to seem
+just as glad to have me as he was to have Rose. Of course, he wasn't
+TRULY, but he was SOME glad, and I wish he was my Uncle John, too."
+
+"Well, now," said Nora, "do ye just PLAY he's yer own uncle, and go
+along with Rose, and himself ter have a fine visit."
+
+Nora found it something of a task to pack the two suit cases, because
+the two little girls were so excited that they could hardly keep still
+long enough to choose what they wished to carry.
+
+"Put my pink dress in, Nora, and Polly, you take your pink one, too,"
+said Rose, "and, oh, come over here to the window and see how lovely the
+automobile looks from here!"
+
+Away they ran to the window.
+
+"It's a beauty," said Polly, "and I'd rather ride in a red one than--"
+
+"Miss Polly, will I be puttin' yer pink frock in?" questioned Nora,
+"sure, he's waitin', an' we ought ter hurry the packin'!"
+
+"Well we ought to hurry!" agreed Polly, "and, Rose, didn't his eyes just
+twinkle when he asked us to come!"
+
+"And to think I EVER believed he was old!" said Rose.
+
+"Hold still till I tie yer hats on with a veil. Now, which will ye wear,
+Miss Rose?"
+
+"Pink, because it's ROSE color," cried Rose.
+
+"No, no!" said Polly; "the blue is prettier!"
+
+At last they were ready. They ran down the stairway, Nora following with
+the suit cases, and laughing because they hopped on every other stair.
+
+"All ready? Why, what charming little ladies I have to take home! Those
+veils are really all right, and hugely becoming. Would you like to start
+now, or wait an hour or two?" As he asked the question his brown eyes
+were dancing.
+
+"Oh, now, NOW!" they cried.
+
+He laughed, and stooping, lifted little Rose so that he could look
+straight into her eyes, eyes as brown as his own.
+
+"Little Rose Atherton," he said softly, "you are like your father, and
+your mother, too, but most of all you are every inch an Atherton."
+
+He kissed her gently and set her down, but the look in his eyes and the
+kiss had won her little heart, and she clung to his hand.
+
+Aunt Rose and Aunt Lois had been all that was kind, but Uncle John! Ah,
+he would LOVE her!
+
+She had always wanted someone to love her.
+
+"Do be careful, John," said Aunt Lois "I can't seem to think those
+automobiles are as safe as my carriage is."
+
+"I'll take the best of care of my precious little passengers," he said,
+"and Lois!" speaking loudly, that she might hear, "I remember a ride
+that I took with you years ago. The horse shied at a piece of old paper
+in the road, at a girl with a red parasol, and a half dozen other
+equally harmless things. I'll promise you the automobile won't act like
+that! If it does, I'll sell it and get another!"
+
+At last they were off. They had waved their hands to Aunt Lois, and now,
+side by side, they were spinning over the road, Uncle John feeling very
+proud of his lovely little guests.
+
+They laughed and chattered all the way, and Uncle John thought he never
+had heard merrier music.
+
+It was when they had left the country town behind and caught the first
+glimpse of the sea that their cries of delight charmed him.
+
+"See the sails! The sails way out there against the sky!" cried Rose.
+
+"And the big gulls!" cried Polly. "See them fly way, way up high, and
+then down, down again to the waves."
+
+It had been a long, sunny road, with seldom a turn, and only
+occasionally a glimpse of the sea, but suddenly the road curved, winding
+around behind a high bluff, and there, blue and glistening in the
+sunlight, lay the sea, the big blue sea!
+
+"We're here at the shore!" cried Rose, "and oh, I've never been there
+before. I didn't know it was so lovely!"
+
+"You're a real little sailor's lass, or rather, a sea-captain's lass, if
+you love the sea so well!" said Uncle John, well pleased with her
+excitement and delight.
+
+He stopped that they might watch the incoming tide for a few moments,
+then off over the road they sped.
+
+"Here we are!" he cried, when after a half hour's more ride, they turned
+in at the driveway of a fine shore villa.
+
+"Welcome to 'The Cliffs'!" said Uncle John.
+
+He lifted them down, and taking each by the hand, turned toward the
+broad piazza.
+
+"Ah, Mrs. Wilton, you were looking for us!" he said, greeting the
+housekeeper, a stout, cheery looking woman, who took the suit cases and
+smiled, as if caring for two small girls were the one thing that
+delighted her.
+
+"Yes, I was watching for you, and when you drove up to the house I said
+to myself:
+
+"'Well, he's TWICE lucky, for he wanted Rose for a visitor, and he's
+found another child to bring with her!'"
+
+She greeted the children cordially as they were introduced.
+
+"Her name could be nothing but Atherton," she said, "why, sir, she looks
+like you enough to be your own child."
+
+"She is my BORROWED little girl," Uncle John replied, "she's MINE while
+here."
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+AT THE SHORE
+
+Three days had passed, and Uncle John Atherton had filled them full of
+pleasure.
+
+They had bathed in the surf, they had taken long tramps along the beach
+when the tide was out, they had sailed in his yacht, "The Dolphin," they
+had been up at the great hotel, where a fine hop was enjoyed.
+
+Was there any pleasure that he had not given them?
+
+One morning he looked into the two bright little faces, as they sat at
+breakfast, and wondered what he would best choose for the day's chief
+event.
+
+"I believe I'll ask you two little friends to choose your amusement for
+to-day. What shall we do first?" he asked.
+
+"'The Dolphin!' A sail on 'The Dolphin!'" they cried without a moment's
+hesitation.
+
+"Then get on those sailor frocks that you wore yesterday, and your big
+sailor hats, and we'll sail on the 'briny deep,' right after breakfast,"
+was the quick reply.
+
+He was well pleased, for they had chosen just that which he so loved to
+do.
+
+They hurriedly finished their breakfast and ran up to their room to put
+on the pretty sailor suits that he had so admired.
+
+"Rose!" called Uncle John.
+
+"I'm almost ready," she answered.
+
+"No hurry," he replied, "only when you, and Polly are ready, run right
+down to the boat. I've told Donald to take you for a row, and just as
+soon as I have finished some letters, I'll go with you for a sail."
+
+"Oh, that will be fine!" cried Rose, "because while we are waiting for
+you we'll be on the water."
+
+Uncle John returned to his letters, and soon Rose and Polly hurried down
+to the piazza and out onto the driveway.
+
+It was a short run to the beach, where they found Donald, the little
+Scotch lad, waiting for them.
+
+With a new knife he was whittling a bit of wood into the rude semblance
+of a boat.
+
+He had intended to go fishing with another boy, and he was not pleased
+to be rowing two small girls, so much younger than himself; therefore he
+was sullen. True, he was well paid for rowing them, and he was glad of
+the money, but, ungrateful little lad that he was, he most unwillingly
+waited for Rose and Polly.
+
+"I'd 'nough rather be fishing," he grumbled, but aloud he said:
+
+"Come on!"
+
+They followed him, clambered into the boat, and soon were out on the
+water, singing a pretty boating song that Uncle John had taught them:
+
+     "Floating, floating over the sea,
+      Blithe of heart and gay are we.
+      Riding lightly over the foam,
+      O'er the sea 'tis joy to roam."
+
+"I b'lieve I could row," said Rose.
+
+"Huh! Girls can't do much," said Donald  roughly.
+
+"Girls CAN!" cried Polly, vexed that the boy should annoy Rose.
+
+"Huh! Not MUCH!" he replied.
+
+He was not in the least interested in their merry chatter. He felt sure
+that small girls were of no use.
+
+He talked very loudly of lines, spars, windlass and davits. To be sure,
+he did not know one from the other, but then he knew that the little
+girls did not know, and he hoped to impress them.
+
+"What ARE those things?" Polly asked, when he had been talking for some
+time, and constantly using names that they did not know.
+
+"Oh, a man couldn't tell girls so they'd understand," said Donald,
+squaring his shoulders and trying to look as large as possible.
+
+"A MAN!" cried Polly, and although neither had meant to do it, both
+laughed merrily.
+
+Donald was angry, too angry to reply, but under his breath he muttered:
+
+"Laugh if ye want ter, but I'll get even!"
+
+It was in vain that Rose and Polly tried to talk with him.
+
+He only glowered, and was too sullen to answer the questions that they
+asked, and for a time they were silent. Rose spoke first.
+
+"Why are you rowing us back?" she cried. "We don't want to go back yet!"
+
+"Got ter go back a minute," said the boy, "just for a arrant."
+
+He rowed close to a short pile that was near the shore and in very
+shallow water. There was a huge iron ring attached to the pile, used for
+mooring small boats.
+
+Donald, who had been watching the shore very closely, now, to hide his
+interest, bent all his energy in fastening the chain of the boat to the
+ring.
+
+"There!" he said, "that's fast, an' you girls are safe if you sit still
+till I come back."
+
+He sprang from the boat, and waded through the shallow water, then ran
+up on the beach, shouting:
+
+"Jock! Jock! Wait a minute!"
+
+"Donald! Don't stay long!" cried Rose, and Polly echoed her words, but
+Donald either did not, or would not hear!
+
+They watched the two boys as they stood for a moment talking, then ran
+down the beach.
+
+"I don't think he was very nice to go off and leave us here while he
+does errands," said Polly.
+
+"He wasn't nice at all," said Rose, "and I'll tell Uncle John, if he
+gets here first."
+
+"Is this chain VERY long?" Polly asked a moment later.
+
+"I don't know," said Rose, looking over the side of the boat and down
+into the water.
+
+"I don't see it," she said a moment later, "why did you ask that,
+Polly?"
+
+"Oh, I was only wondering how far we could float before the chain would
+look tight. We've gone ever so far, and the boat doesn't tug at it yet!"
+Polly said.
+
+"It will, though!" said Rose.
+
+Still they floated, and for a time they were silent, contented to be out
+in the sunshine.
+
+Then suddenly Rose looked up at Polly, quick terror in her eyes.
+
+"Polly, Princess Polly!" she cried, "is there ANY chain on this boat?"
+
+"Why of course!" said Polly, "didn't you see Donald fasten it to that
+big iron ring on the post?"
+
+Rose leaned forward and looked into Polly's eyes.
+
+"I saw him fasten ONE END of it, Polly, and so did you, but was the
+OTHER end fastened to this boat?'
+
+"Why, yes, I--oh, Rose, you DON'T think we're--DRIFTING?" gasped Polly.
+
+"You can't get up, and turn round," said Rose, "because Uncle John told
+us always to keep our seats in a boat, but can't you just twist round
+enough to see?"
+
+With great care Polly turned, and saw just what she feared--the ring on
+the boat and NO CHAIN CONNECTED!
+
+With a white little face Polly turned, and with parted lips looked at
+Rose.
+
+"We ARE drifting--JUST DRIFTING!" she whispered hoarsely.
+
+"Drifting!" cried Rose. "Oh, Polly, what SHALL we do?"
+
+"Sit still," whispered Polly, "and wait--just WAIT!"
+
+"What WILL Uncle John do? And where will he think we are?" said Rose.
+
+"Oh, I don't know!" wailed Polly, "but I'm SURE we ought to do
+something. Just look how far we are from the shore, and we're going all
+the time!"
+
+They looked in despair toward the beach. No one was in sight, and the
+dancing waves glistened in the sunlight, as if they laughed, feeling no
+pity for the two frightened children in the boat.
+
+"Do you s'pose we could row?" questioned Polly.
+
+"I don't know how," said Rose, "but it didn't look hard when Donald did
+it."
+
+They reached for the oars, but found that neither was strong enough to
+lift one, and Rose's eyes filled with tears when she looked at Polly,
+while Polly's brave effort to cheer Rose with a smile failed, because
+her own lips were quivering.
+
+"Let's sit down in the bottom of the boat, it seems safer," said Rose.
+
+They slipped from their seats, and each clung to the other.
+
+"If only Uncle John knew!" wailed Rose.
+
+"If only he knew!" echoed Polly, with a sob.
+
+Still the little boat rocked lightly on the waves, and now they no
+longer tried to hide their fear, but cried, because they could not help
+it.
+
+Out on a high bluff a tall, square-shouldered man leveled a powerful
+glass and looked out across the waves.
+
+Evidently he saw what he was looking for, and hastily slinging the
+leather strap that held the glass over his shoulder, he strode down to
+the shore.
+
+Completely tired, the two children lay sobbing and clinging to each
+other, no longer looking toward the shore, because now they were too far
+out to clearly see it.
+
+A white gull circled near them, and the whirring of its wings made Polly
+open her eyes.
+
+"A great gull!" she whispered, then, oh, the joy in her cry:
+
+"'The Dolphin!' 'The Dolphin!'"
+
+Rose scrambled to her knees.
+
+"Oh, it is! It is! DEAR Uncle John!" she cried.
+
+It was a quick turn from terror in the little boat to joy and safety in
+the big yacht, with Uncle John, big, brave Uncle John, to care for them.
+
+"You must tell me all about this," he said, when they were once aboard
+the yacht, "but not a word until after we've had a wee lunch."
+
+The steward brought dainty sandwiches, cakes, fruit and hot chocolate,
+and the happy little trio enjoyed it heartily, partly because it was a
+delicious spread, but far more because of their feeling of safety after
+their terror.
+
+The children had been frightened, but bright, cheery Uncle John had
+suffered more than he would have admitted when, through his powerful
+glass, he had seen the two little occupants of the rowboat crouching
+close together, rocked at the will of the waves and going steadily out
+to the open sea.
+
+He knew that it would take but a short time to reach them, but would
+they remember what he had so often told them?
+
+If they should change places in the boat and thus capsize it, no yacht
+could reach them in time to save them!
+
+Now, with Polly and Rose beside him, safe and sound, he felt as if a
+heavy cloud had lifted.
+
+After the lunch had been enjoyed, Uncle John asked for the story of
+their plight, and together they told it, telling of the start with
+Donald, of his sullenness, his anger, and his muttered threat.
+
+"I don't know SURELY, TRULY, what he said, but I thought he said:
+
+"'I'll get even with them,' and Polly thought so, too," concluded Rose.
+
+"And after he'd said that, he wouldn't talk at all," said Polly.
+
+"And we thought he'd fastened the boat when we saw him hitching one end
+of the chain to the big ring," said Rose, "and he waded out to the
+shore, and ran off up the beach with another boy."
+
+"We shouted to him, and told him not to stay long, but he didn't answer,
+and didn't look back, but just kept on running until he met another boy,
+and then they ran away together," said Polly.
+
+"The other boy had a fishing pole," added Rose.
+
+"Oh, he did, did he?" said Uncle John, "well, I wouldn't be surprised if
+young Donald had a fishing outfit tucked snugly away in some cranny in
+the rocks, where he doubtless found it after he left you."
+
+"What WOULD have happened to us if you hadn't found us?" said Rose.
+
+Uncle John Atherton's brown eyes were not twinkling as he turned to
+reply, and Polly thought she saw a tear on his lashes.
+
+His arm tightened about Rose, and he drew her closer.
+
+"I don't like to think what MIGHT have happened to you two little
+friends, alone on the open sea. I shall settle with Donald later," he
+said.
+
+"What will you do?" questioned Rose, looking up into his face with
+eager, yet anxious eyes.
+
+"Why do you ask?" he questioned.
+
+"I wouldn't think to ask if you were smiling," said Rose, "but you look
+so stern--oh, I don't care if you scold him some, but 'tho he was mean,
+and naughty, don't make him feel TOO bad."
+
+"You've a loving heart," was the quick reply, "and like all the
+Athertons, you are generous."
+
+"Generous?" said Rose, in quick surprise, "I didn't say give him
+anything. I only said: 'Don't make him feel TOO bad!'"
+
+"My dear little girl, there are other ways of being generous beside
+bestowing gifts. It is VERY generous of you, when Donald has treated you
+so cruelly, to ask mercy for him. I'll remember your tender pleading in
+his behalf, but Donald must be made to know, and fully understand that
+what he did was far worse than merely naughty, it was wicked!
+
+"And now, for the time, we'll talk no more about Donald. You and Polly
+are safe and sound, the little boat is floating just behind us, all the
+sky is blue and cloudless. We are bounding over the sparkling waves,
+without a thought or care.
+
+"I am master of the Dolphin, and you and Polly are two lovely little sea
+fairies that I have invited aboard to keep me company."
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+PRINCESS POLLY RETURNS
+
+THE days spent at the shore sped as if on golden wings, and Uncle John
+declared that the sunlight seemed brighter while Rose remained under the
+red roof of "The Cliffs."
+
+He had given his little guests every pleasure, he had bought them a
+beautiful collection of shells, and a tiny ship for each to sail in the
+brook at Sherwood Hall. Was there anything that he had not done for
+their happiness, their delight while with him at the shore?
+
+Now the day for their departure had arrived, and his genial face looked
+strangely quiet, and he forgot to laugh and joke with them.
+
+He watched Rose closely, and once, when she looked up at him, she
+thought his eyes looked grieved.
+
+She laid her hand on his arm, and spoke the thought that was troubling
+her.
+
+"You don't want me to go?" she questioned. "You wish I was not going
+back to Aunt Rose?"
+
+Uncle John sat down in his great arm chair, and lifted Rose to his knee.
+
+Looking into her brown eyes that were so like his own, he gazed for a
+moment, then he spoke, and his voice was very gentle.
+
+"I wanted you to come to me for this little visit, but I did not dream
+how hard it would be to let you go. I shall miss you, I think you know
+that, little Rose."
+
+"I do, oh, I do, and I don't want to go. I wouldn't EVER be ready to
+leave you Uncle John!" she cried.
+
+Quickly two strong arms were around her, holding her fast, as he
+whispered:
+
+"WHY, little girl? Tell me WHY?"
+
+"Because you love me," sobbed Rose. "Aunt Judith took care of me because
+she HAD to, but she always said it was a nuisance, and now Aunt Rose and
+Aunt Lois are kind and good to me, and they like to have me with them,
+but they never--"
+
+The soft little voice paused.
+
+"They'd never think to hold me if I felt badly, and sometimes I'm so
+lonely. Other little girls have mamas to care for them, and big, tall
+papas who love them, and truly aunts, real GOOD aunts aren't the same."
+
+"How about uncles? Are THEY worth while?" questioned Uncle John.
+
+She lifted her head, and seeing the twinkle in his fine eyes, she smiled
+through her tears.
+
+"I've only one uncle," she said, "but he's the best one in the world!"
+
+"He's scheming now to find a way to be with you at least a part of each
+year," was the quick reply.
+
+"Oh, WILL you, CAN you do that?" cried Rose.
+
+"I think so," he said, "and I cannot now tell you just how I shall
+manage it, but I am quite sure that I can do it, and until I am ready to
+talk with your Aunt Rose regarding it, you must promise to keep it for a
+little secret, a pleasant thing to think of when days are a bit dull."
+
+"Oh, I will, I will!" cried Rose. "I won't say a word about it, but I'll
+think of it every day!"
+
+Her tears had vanished, and when Polly came running in she did not dream
+that Rose had been crying.
+
+"Only think," said Polly, "I have to say 'Good-bye' twice to-day, for
+I'm to leave here, and then I'm to leave Rose's house to go back to
+Sherwood Hall!"
+
+"And we both knew that this was the day that Polly was to go home, but
+last night she got a letter," said Rose, "and her mama says that she's
+glad she's having such a lovely time, but that Sherwood Hall is so
+lonely without her, she can't spare her any longer.
+
+"I do think it must be dreadful there with Princess Polly away, but I
+wish I didn't have to give her up."
+
+"Well, now, suppose we make the trip as cheerful as possible," said
+Uncle John. "You have your suit cases, your boxes of shells, your little
+boats and two hand bags. Really, I think the automobile will be far more
+comfortable than the cars."
+
+"Oh, yes, yes!" they cried in delight.
+
+"And I'll drive you over to Aunt Rose's house. I'll stay while we lunch
+with her, and later in the afternoon we'll take Polly to Sherwood Hall,
+where I shall take the opportunity to tell Mrs. Sherwood how greatly I
+have enjoyed her little daughter as my guest."
+
+"Oh, what fun!" cried Polly, "and mama will see you. I told her you were
+ALMOST as handsome as papa!"
+
+"Oh, spare my blushes!" said Uncle John, "but all the same, I thank you,
+little Princess Polly, for your good opinion of me. I trust that Rose,
+and I may borrow you again some day."
+
+ [Illustration with caption: "Look!" she cried, "the waves never danced
+prettier."]
+
+"And I'll love to be borrowed!" cried Polly, "for this has been a fine
+visit. Just think how much I have to tell when I am at home, and Lena
+and Rob and Leslie and Harry come up and ask:
+
+"'Did you have a nice time Polly? Where did you go? What did you do
+while you were away,' and I'll hardly know where to begin, because
+there's so much to tell."
+
+They ran down to the beach "Just to say 'Good-bye' to the waves," Rose
+said.
+
+"Look!" she cried. "The waves never danced prettier."
+
+It was with a light heart that Rose let Uncle John help her into the
+automobile beside Polly. She was to have two long rides with him, and,
+oh, the secret that she had promised loyally to keep!
+
+"He will fix it so he can be with me PART of the time, SOME of the
+time!" sang her happy little heart, and her eyes brightened and her
+cheeks grew pinker with the thought.
+
+She laughed and chattered with Polly all the way, and the long ride
+seemed all too short, for before she dreamed that they were near the old
+Atherton house, they turned in at the driveway, and Nora, who had seen
+them coming, stood smiling a welcome from the doorway.
+
+They made a happy party at lunch, and Aunt Rose was so evidently glad
+that Rose had returned that the little girl felt almost guilty when she
+thought of the secret that Uncle John had given her to keep.
+
+"It isn't that I don't want to stay here; I mean it isn't JUST that.
+It's that I can stay here, and be happier because I have Uncle John now,
+and he loves me, and, oh, he's planning, just simply planning to--"
+
+Just as she reached that point Uncle John commenced to tell a very funny
+story, and in the laughter that greeted it she, for the moment, forgot
+the secret.
+
+Uncle John said nothing of his plan to Aunt Rose. Indeed, he was not
+quite ready to do that. He knew Aunt Rose Jerusha Atherton too well to
+tell a part of any plan to her. He knew that she wished her little
+namesake to be always with her, and he wisely intended to say nothing of
+his wish regarding Rose until his scheme was complete.
+
+"Then," thought Uncle John, "I'll have my way. I usually do!" and he
+smiled as if the thought amused him.
+
+Rose felt that the house seemed less gloomy than she had thought, but
+she knew that it was Uncle John and Princess Polly who helped to make it
+cheery.
+
+And when, in the afternoon, they were once more speeding over the shady
+roads toward Sherwood Hall, it seemed as if every day since she had
+first met Uncle John had been a holiday.
+
+It was Polly who interrupted her dreaming.
+
+"Why, Rose Atherton!" she said, "I said 'Good-bye' to your two Aunts and
+to Nora and to Lester Jenks, but I never thought to say it to
+Evangeline! I didn't want to talk to her, but I did mean just to say
+'Good-bye.'"
+
+"Well, I guess you needn't mind," said Rose. "It may be you'd OUGHT to
+have said it, but she never'd let you go without writing an old poem,
+and p'raps it would have been a long one."
+
+"Oh, dear," said Polly, "I'm ALMOST glad I forgot!"
+
+It was a cordial welcome that awaited them at Sherwood Hall. Mrs.
+Sherwood could not wait until Polly should be beside her, but stood upon
+the broad piazza, watching until the big automobile appeared around the
+bend of the road.
+
+"Ah, there they come!" she cried, "my own little Princess Polly is
+coming back to Sherwood Hall."
+
+Up the broad driveway it came, and the moment it stopped Polly sprang
+out and into the arms that opened wide to receive her.
+
+"Oh, it's lovely to be with Rose, and I've had a fine time, so why IS it
+so sweet to come home?" she cried.
+
+"We who have loving hearts can easily understand," said Mrs. Sherwood,
+"and Mr. Atherton doubtless remembers of days when, as a boy, he went on
+vacation trips that he enjoyed with all the ardent spirit of youth, yet
+when the day came for returning, his heart beat faster. Home, after all,
+seemed the dearest place!"
+
+"That is exactly as I remember it, but there's one thing that you did
+not mention, and that was the tears that I had to hide," said Uncle
+John.
+
+"I started on my camping trips with high spirits, yet a bit of regret at
+leaving home caused my eyes to fill. I could not let the other boys see
+the tears for fear of being laughed at, so I made all sorts of excuses
+for the moisture by talking of dust and cinders; that, however, never
+deceived my comrades for a moment. Therefore, they dubbed me 'Softy,' a
+name that I detested."
+
+The sound of a firm tread on the gravel walk caused them to turn as
+Arthur Sherwood came to greet his guest, and to welcome his little
+daughter, Polly.
+
+The older members of the party seated themselves on the broad piazza,
+and while they were pleasantly chatting, Polly and Rose found their
+little boats that Uncle John had purchased for them, and away they ran
+to the brook to try them.
+
+"Mine has rubies and emeralds for cargo," said Rose, "and a few, just a
+FEW necklaces. What has yours, Polly?"
+
+"Mine has diamonds and sapphires," said Polly, "and there are bracelets
+and bangles in the hold."
+
+"Oh, see their sails!" cried Rose, "how fine, they look just like real
+ships, that have truly cargoes."
+
+"And see them in the water!" said Polly. "The real boats floating, and
+the shadow boats down, down in the water. Which are finest, the TRULY
+boats or the shadow boats?"
+
+"The truly boats are dearest, because Uncle John gave them to us, and
+they are real, but the shadow boats are beautiful and they look like
+fairy ships," said Rose.
+
+"Push yours out into the brook away from the shore," said Polly, "and
+I'll lash the water with this switch."
+
+"All right," said Rose, and she gave the tiny craft a gentle push.
+
+Polly struck the water sharply with her switch.
+
+"Look! Look!" she cried, "See the boats rocking on the waves! See the
+bubbles! Don't it look almost like foam?"
+
+The boats rocked, and danced on the little waves that were only ripples
+on the surface, and Polly was about to use the switch harder in an
+attempt to make a hurricane when they heard Uncle John calling:
+
+"Rose! Rose!"
+
+"Oh, he's calling me," cried Rose, and lifting the little boats from the
+water they ran back to the driveway.
+
+A few weeks earlier Rose would have found it hard to leave Polly, and
+she did regret it, but the fact that Uncle John would be with her on the
+way back to Aunt Rose made it easier.
+
+Then there was his promise, that only he and her own little self knew
+about!
+
+And later she was to visit Polly! Oh, these were pleasant things to
+think of!
+
+The "Good-byes" were said, Mrs. Sherwood had urged Rose to come a little
+later to visit Polly, Uncle John had agreed to call whenever Rose was at
+Sherwood Hall, Mr. Sherwood had promised to drive over to call upon the
+master of "The Cliffs" and enjoy a sail on the Dolphin, and Rose, as
+they drove away, spoke the thought that told of her happiness.
+
+"I feel as if they were my own relatives," she said, "and oh, Uncle
+John, isn't it different from the way it was when I lived here with Aunt
+Judith. Then I felt so very poor, because I had only one person that was
+really my own and SHE didn't,--need a little girl. Now I have Aunt Rose
+and Aunt Lois and you, and you ALL want me."
+
+"We need you, dear little Rose, and especially do _I_ need you."
+
+"And you said perhaps, just PERHAPS, you could--" She paused.
+
+"I said I should try to arrange things so that I could be with you a
+part of each year.
+
+"I think I can manage it, little Rose, if you say nothing about it until
+I tell you that you may."
+
+"I'll keep it," said Rose, "you'll see how I'll keep it!"
+
+On the way down the avenue they stopped at Aunt Judith's cottage.
+
+Repeated raps at the door brought no response, however, and just as they
+turned to go, Gyp, the ever present Gyp, howled a bit of news from his
+perch on the roof of the hen coop.
+
+"Say! 'Taint no use ter pound on that 'ere door. She ain't to home,
+'cause she's somewhere else! I seen her go out. She had a basket on her
+head, an' a bunnit on her arm! No, a bunnit on her, oh--pshaw! I do'no'
+how ter say it! Heigh-o-dingerty-dingty-dum!"
+
+He had done the usual thing. Whenever embarrassed Gyp took to the woods.
+
+Uncle John looked after the flying figure, and laughed when Gyp paused
+in the middle of the field to turn a somersault before disappearing in
+the woods.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+GWEN CALLS UPON POLLY
+
+Polly's return was hailed with delight, and it seemed as if every child
+in the neighborhood turned its steps to ward Sherwood Hall to greet her,
+and to hear all about her visit.
+
+Lena Lindsey, with her brother Rob, Leslie Grafton, and Harry, Vivian
+Osborne, and, indeed, all of her little friends and playmates hastened
+to see her, to hear from Rose, and to tell all of the small neighborhood
+happenings that had occurred while she had been away.
+
+"I've three white rabbits," said Rob, "and I want to show them to you,
+Polly."
+
+"And mama has bought the dearest angora kitten for me. I wish you'd come
+down soon and see it," urged Leslie; "it's just a baby cat and you can't
+help loving her, she's so cunning."
+
+"I haven't anything new to show you," said Vivian, laughing merrily. "I
+mean I've nothing of my own, but there's SOMETHING I'll show you, and I
+guess it's different from anything you ever saw!"
+
+"Why, Vivian Osborne! What ARE you going to show Polly?" Harry Grafton
+asked.
+
+Vivian's eyes were dancing as she whispered something in Harry's ear.
+
+"Oh, THAT'S it, is it? Well, I guess Polly WILL look when you show it to
+her!"
+
+"You just tell me this minute!" said Polly. "I'm wild to know what IT
+is!"
+
+"IT," said Vivian, "is a girl, a very pretty little girl!"
+
+"Then why is she a sight to see, and why DO you laugh?" Polly asked,
+completely puzzled.
+
+"She LOOKS well enough," Vivian replied, "but she ACTS like--"
+
+"The old SCRATCH!" said Rob.
+
+"Oh, Rob!" cried Lena, "Mama told you not to say that!"
+
+"I know it," Rob admitted, "but I couldn't think of any other name that
+would give Princess Polly an idea what she was like."
+
+"But who is she? Where is she?" questioned Polly.
+
+"Oh, she lives in the next house to us," said Vivian. "Her papa has
+bought that fine large house that has the big lawn, and the lovely
+garden at the back. She's very, VERY pretty, and if she didn't ACT so--"
+
+"HOW does she act?" said Polly. "I tell you all truly, I'm wild to see
+her!"
+
+"Rob told you how she acted," said Harry, with a laugh, "and old Scratch
+isn't half bad 'nough. Say! She wanted to have a wedding for her best
+doll the other day, and she cut a lace curtain off a yard from the floor
+to make a wedding veil for it!"
+
+"'Twas a parlor curtain and I guess her mama didn't think that was
+cunning," said Lena.
+
+"She tells lies--"
+
+"Oh, Harry!" interrupted Leslie, "you mustn't."
+
+"Well, she DOES, and they're too big to be called fibs," Harry said,
+stoutly.
+
+"And the queerest thing is that Inez Varney plays with her all the time,
+and she doesn't ever play with any of us now. She hasn't been to my
+house since that new little girl came here to live," said Leslie.
+
+"And Leslie don't care," declared Harry, "because Inez was getting
+queerer and queerer, and she wasn't the pleasantest playmate, but now
+she's so gay you'd hardly think she was Inez Varney."
+
+Polly was greatly interested.
+
+"What's the new little girl's name?" she asked.
+
+"Gwen Harcourt, and mama says that Mrs. Harcourt is lovely, and I must
+be kind to Gwen," said Lena, "and it would be hard, only I don't often
+see her. She's always with Inez."
+
+Polly had been away but two weeks. She had gone to visit Rose Atherton,
+intending to remain but a single week. Then when she was at "The Cliffs"
+she had written for permission to stay "just a little longer," and Mrs.
+Sherwood had extended the time an extra week.
+
+During that time the house next to the Osborne's had been purchased, the
+family had moved in and the little daughter of the family had become
+very intimate with Inez, her near neighbor.
+
+A short time surely for so much to have been accomplished.
+
+Perhaps the "new little girl," as the other children called her, found
+it easier to capture Inez, and hold her for her BEST friend, because
+Inez was very eager for a little "chum."
+
+She had hoped to be chosen by Princess Polly, to take the place of Rose.
+Disappointed, and angry because Polly Sherwood did not prefer her, she
+would not try to choose a mate from her other playmates. Instead, she
+gave all of her time to the "new little girl," and never were two small
+girls more intimate.
+
+A few days after Polly's return she was sitting on the stone wall near
+the entrance to the driveway.
+
+A bright hued Japanese parasol kept the sun from her head and shoulders,
+and she sang a cheery melody, hitting her little heels against the wall
+to mark the time.
+
+    "Sunshine and showers,
+     Bees in the flowers,
+     Blue sky and floating clouds,
+     Soft Summer air;
+     Bright yellow butterfly,
+     His gauzy wings to try,
+     Floats like the thistledown,
+     Without a care.
+
+    "Now, to the velvet rose,
+     Off and away he goes,
+     Far from all other blooms
+     Roving so free;
+     Flighty, and light of heart,
+     Having of care no part,
+     Gay yellow butterfly,
+     Happy is he."
+
+Inez Varney, with her new playmate, ran along the avenue. Inez was the
+only one of Polly's friends who had not been up to see her since her
+visit to Rose.
+
+Now, in great haste, she clasped the hand of her little friend and ran
+to where Polly was sitting.
+
+"This is Gwen Harcourt," said Inez, "and Gwen, this is Polly Sherwood,
+that all the children call 'Princess Polly.'"
+
+"_I_ won't!" said little Miss Harcourt, stoutly.
+
+"You NEEDN'T," said Polly, coolly.
+
+The new little girl was surprised. She had believed that Polly would be
+very angry. Indeed, she was quite disappointed that Polly seemed not in
+the least to care.
+
+"Is that your house up there between the trees?" she asked.
+
+"Yes," said Polly, but she did not say: "'Will you come in?'"
+
+That did not trouble Gwen, however. She needed no invitation. She could
+invite herself, and she did.
+
+"I'm coming over to see you some day," she said.
+
+Inez giggled. She thought her new friend's pertness very smart.
+
+"You don't say you'll be glad to see me, but I'm coming just the same,"
+said Gwen; "and p'raps I'll come to-morrow, and p'raps it'll be next
+week, but I'm truly coming."
+
+Polly felt that she had never seen a prettier child, nor could she think
+of another as rude as Gwen Harcourt.
+
+She was always kind and polite, but what could she say to this rude
+little girl that would be courteous and at the same time truthful?
+
+"I can't tell her I'll be glad to have her come, for I just KNOW I don't
+want her. She's very pretty, but, someway, I'm sure I'd be happier
+without her," thought Polly.
+
+Gwen Harcourt, vexed that Polly Sherwood had not been at all excited at
+the thought of receiving a call from her little self, turned toward
+Inez. "Come," she said, "let's go out in the sunshine and have a run.
+It's awful dull here!"
+
+"I guess we'll be going," said Inez. "Gwen is so very gay that most
+places seem dull to her. Come!"
+
+She held out her hand, Gwen grasped it, and together they ran down the
+avenue.
+
+They did not even say "Good-bye," but raced off as if every moment spent
+with Polly were too dull to be endured.
+
+"I said I shouldn't call her 'Princess Polly' and I shan't," said Gwen,
+to which Inez replied:
+
+"Well, you don't HAVE to, and I guess she didn't care much."
+
+Polly, looking after them, spoke softly to herself.
+
+"What pretty eyes she had, and her hair was fine, too." Then, after a
+moment's hesitation, she spoke again.
+
+"She was lovely to look at, but she wasn't very polite.
+
+"She said she was coming over here some day, but I do hope that she
+won't hurry about it. I'm sure I don't need her as much as Inez does. I
+don't mind how long it is before I see Gwen Harcourt!"
+
+Gwen Harcourt had a most unlovely disposition and no one could guess
+what she at any time might do. If Princess Polly had urged her to come
+very soon to Sherwood Hall she would have waited a week at least before
+appearing there.
+
+As she had received no urging, she decided to go on the following day.
+
+Very early the next morning Polly sat in a big chair in the library,
+reading her favorite fairy book. A slight sound caused her to look up
+from the page.
+
+"Why, there she is!" she whispered.
+
+There, indeed, was Gwen Harcourt, perched upon the fence that enclosed
+the piazza. She was looking straight in at the window, her bold little
+eyes noting every object in the room.
+
+"Come out! Come out!" she cried, beckoning so frantically that she
+nearly lost her balance.
+
+Polly was annoyed. She was in the midst of an enchanting tale, and she
+so wished to finish reading it. Truly, she was not glad to see Gwen
+Harcourt.
+
+She never treated anyone rudely, however, so she closed her book and
+went out to greet her early visitor.
+
+"I guess you'd think I wanted to come up here if you knew HOW I came,"
+said Gwen.
+
+"How did you come?" Polly asked, not because she cared but in order to
+say SOMETHING. She could not say that she was glad to see her.
+
+"Through the window and over our hedge," said Gwen. "Mama said that as
+I'd been horrid at the breakfast table I must stay in all the forenoon.
+I didn't think that was fair, because I wasn't VERY horrid. I put my
+foot on the table so I could tie my shoe ribbons. Papa said,
+'Gwendolen!' and I took it down quick. Then I took some peanut shells
+from my pocket and sailed them in my cup of chocolate. They looked like
+little boats. My piece of melon had the stem on it and I said it was a
+music box. I wound the stem round and round, and sung 'Yankee Doodle.'
+Mama made the waitress take me away from the table and I just howled all
+the way! I don't think I need have stayed in for such little things as
+that! I DIDN'T stay in. I jumped out of the window, it's near the
+ground, and then, because it was the shortest way, I scrambled right
+over the hedge. Horrid old thing! It had thorns on it, and it scratched
+my knee."
+
+Polly thought her a handsome little savage.
+
+Gwen thought that she had made an impression upon Polly.
+
+"There was just one reason why I acted so. Mama had guests, and she had
+just been telling them what a good child I was, and I thought it would
+be a joke to do some queer things at the table.
+
+"I thought because she had company she wouldn't send me away, but she
+did," she concluded.
+
+Her next remark was even more surprising than those that she had already
+made.
+
+"Let's catch bugs!" she said.
+
+"Oh, horrid!" cried Polly, "I couldn't do that!"
+
+"I do," said Gwen, "and it's fun. I caught two big old beetles and tied
+threads on them for harnesses. Then I hitched them to a wee little paper
+box about an inch long and they made a good span. They dragged it all
+right 'til I dumped an old fuzzy caterpillar into the box, and then they
+tumbled over on their backs and squirmed and kicked like everything! If
+I could find one now I could show you how they kick."
+
+"Oh, please don't," said Polly quickly, "I wouldn't like to see them
+wiggle."
+
+"Then let's slide down your front steps," said Gwen. "Come on! Slide the
+way I do. I sit down on the top step and commence to slip. When I've
+slid over three steps I turn over and slide three that way. I get
+excited wondering whether I'll tear my frock, or only bump my knees.
+Sometimes it's both, and sometimes it's neither!"
+
+Polly could not imagine why such antics could be amusing, and she knew
+that her mama would not like any such rough play.
+
+"You don't seem to want to," said Gwen; "are you afraid of your clothes,
+or don't you dare to risk the bumps?"
+
+"I don't think mama would like it," Polly said, gently, "but I'll play
+'Hide-and-Seek' with you, or any game you like."
+
+"Oh, I don't care for those old games," said Gwen, "so I'll tell you
+what we'll do. Come over to the stable and you get your coachman to let
+us have the horse and the cow. You ride the horse barebacked and I'll
+ride the cow. Come on! Don't be a fraidie cat!"
+
+"Oh, dear," said Polly, "I know you won't like it, but I don't want to
+do that."
+
+She saw Gwen's eyes snap, and knew that she was angry.
+
+"I'll get my boat, and I'll let you sail it if you'd like to, in the
+brook," she said.
+
+She did not enjoy her little guest, but she wished to be kind.
+
+"I WOULDN'T like to," Gwen said, rudely, "sailing boats isn't lively. I
+guess as long as you don't want to play any jolly things I'll go home. I
+meant to shingle the cat's fur this morning, and I'll do that. I'm going
+to wet it sopping wet, part it in the middle from his head to his tail,
+and then shingle it all but his tail!"
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+GWEN TELLS A STORY
+
+Of course, Gwen told Inez that she had been up to Sherwood Hall and that
+she thought it very dull.
+
+"I wouldn't care to have such a big, BIG house," she said, "'n I
+wouldn't want such a big garden."
+
+It was a silly speech to make, because it was not true, and no one could
+believe it.
+
+Her own house was fine, but no dwelling in the town could compare with
+grand, stately Sherwood Hall, and Gwen Harcourt knew that.
+
+"Polly wouldn't play anything, so I came home," she said.
+
+"Why, that's odd," said Inez, "she's always willing to play games."
+
+"Oh, well, she wanted to play 'Hide-and-Seek' and that's too stupid.
+Let's play 'Tag' and see how hard we can run. You can make ever so much
+noise if you stamp your feet when you run on the asphalt. Le' me count!"
+
+Inez did not dare to object.
+
+   "Eena, mena, mina, moot,
+     Le'me catch you by the foot;
+     Fill your eyes and mouth with soot,
+     Pull a tree up by the root.
+
+    "Hit you with a speckled trout,
+     Pull your hair to make it sprout;
+     Though you grumble, also pout,
+     One, two, three, and you are out."
+
+"There!" said Gwen, "now you're it, so we'll begin to play."
+
+"Why, how can I be 'it' when you said I was 'out?'" questioned Inez.
+
+"'Cause I SAY so, that's all," said Gwen, coolly, and Inez dared not say
+a word. She knew if she did that Gwen would be provoked and would
+probably go home.
+
+She was a little tyrant and anyone who wish to play with her must do as
+she said if she cared for peace.
+
+"Run, now!" she cried. "Run! But you can't catch me!"
+
+Truly, she was fleet footed.
+
+Up the long driveway, around the house, past old Towser's kennel,
+pausing just long enough to kick it in order that he might growl, up the
+front steps and along the piazza, over its railing, across a bed of
+choice flowering plants, breaking some, and crushing many, around the
+summer house and through the grape arbor, shouting like a little wild
+Indian, she ran, and Inez could not get near enough to touch her.
+
+"You're slow!" cried Gwen, "slower than an old cow! You can't run like
+anything, so we might as well sit down!"
+
+In truth, she was tired but she would not say so. It pleased her far
+better to find fault with Inez.
+
+"When YOU get rested," she said, "we might climb up onto your barn and
+crawl into the cupola."
+
+"Ye'll not be doin' that, young lady," said the gardener, who, as he was
+passing, had heard what she had said. "It's not safe, an' I know Mr.
+Varney'd not allow it."
+
+"Horrid old thing!" said Gwen. "Who do you mean?" Inez asked, sharply.
+
+"The gardener, of course," snapped Gwen.
+
+"I guess I'll go home," she said, a moment later, and although Inez
+coaxed her, she would not remain nor would she say why she had decided
+to go.
+
+Whenever she wearied of a place she left it, refusing to remain or
+explain why she would not stay. Inez looked after the little flying
+figure.
+
+"I hate to have her go, but I couldn't run every minute," she said.
+
+One sunny afternoon, Lena and Rob, Leslie and Harry were sitting on the
+lawn, listening to Polly's story of floating in a little boat out to the
+open sea. Of how she and Rose did not dream how naughty the boy, Donald,
+had been until they were so far out that they could hardly see the
+beach.
+
+The boys thought it very exciting, and this was not the first time that
+they had heard it. Indeed, they had often asked her to tell it, and each
+time they had found it as interesting as when they first had listened to
+it.
+
+"Now tell us about the first moment that you saw the Dolphin," said Rob.
+
+Gwen Harcourt, seeing the group on the lawn, wondered what they were
+talking about.
+
+There was but one way to find out, and she chose to take it. She ran up
+the path that led to where the little group was sitting and dropped on
+the grass beside Harry Grafton.
+
+She listened to the story, but she did not think it at all amusing.
+
+Anyone who knew Gwen would know that it could not interest her. She
+cared for no story of which she was not the heroine.
+
+When the tale was finished and the playmates were telling Polly how fine
+a story it was, Gwen, speaking very loudly, made herself heard; she
+usually did.
+
+"Everybody listen while I tell a story that'll scare you 'till you most
+can't breathe. It's a true story, too!"
+
+"Go ahead, Gwen," said Rob.
+
+"Yes, tell it!" said Harry. "I don't mind being scared if you can do
+it!"
+
+She needed no urging.
+
+"One time when I was little---" she commenced, but Harry interrupted.
+
+"When was that?" he asked.
+
+"Stop, Harry!" whispered Leslie.
+
+"One time, when I was LITTLER than I am now, I went into our parlor all
+alone when it was almost dark, and looked at the pictures. Mama has ever
+so many, and some of them are landscapes and some of them are portraits.
+
+"The one I liked to look at scared me every time I saw it. It was a big,
+tall lady dressed in yellow and she had a feather fan.
+
+"When I saw her in the bright daylight I thought she moved SOME, but
+whenever I looked at her when it was almost dark she seemed to move
+MORE!"
+
+Gwen paused to see if the other children were impressed, and looked up
+just in time to see Rob Lindsey "nudge" his sister. Her eyes flashed.
+
+"Well, p'raps you don't believe it, Rob Lindsey, but I SAW it, and I
+guess I know!" she said.
+
+"Go on, Gwen," said Rob, who was a great tease, "I only touched Lena's
+arm to let her know the 'scare' part of the yarn was coming."
+
+Thus reassured, Gwen continued her story.
+
+"Well, this time I'm telling 'bout, the lady in the yellow gown looked
+at me, and--WAVED her fan!"
+
+"Hot day?" questioned Rob, but Gwen chose not to notice what he said.
+
+"She waved her big feather fan slower and slower, and then--she walked
+RIGHT OUT OF THE PICTURE and came down on the floor!"
+
+"Oh--o!" said Princess Polly, and "Oh--oo--oo!" said Lena, but Rob asked
+a question.
+
+"Did your fine lady come down on the floor in a heap?"
+
+"Did she BUST her feather fan?" questioned Harry Grafton.
+
+"You're not nice to laugh when I'm telling a story," said Gwen, "and I
+guess you wouldn't have laughed if you'd BEEN there!"
+
+"Why, what happened?" Lena asked, partly because she was curious and
+partly to be kind.
+
+"I'll never know just what did truly happen, because just as she came
+toward me, I was so scared I fainted, and when I came to, the lady had
+vanished, but the big hole in the canvas showed JUST WHERE SHE'D STOOD!"
+
+"Why Gwen Harcourt! You know that story's a fib story all the way
+through!" said Harry.
+
+"'Tis NOT!" said Gwen, "and I guess I know!"
+
+She sprang from the grass, and ran down the driveway.
+
+"I guess when you see the big frame, and the picture with a big hole in
+it just the shape of the lady, that showed where she WAS, I guess you'll
+HAVE to b'lieve it," she said, and having said this to the boys that had
+teased her, she hurried down the avenue.
+
+"Oh, what an awful story!" said Polly, "it made me feel like shivering,
+and I was glad the boys were with us."
+
+"If Gwen Harcourt likes to tell such stories, she can," said Leslie,
+"but she needn't say they're true."
+
+"Oh, but perhaps SOME of it---" Polly stopped. She had meant to speak
+kindly, but what part of so silly a story could be true?
+
+"You've been in her parlor, Leslie," said Harry, "did YOU see the
+picture with the big hole in it, just where the fine lady stepped out
+from the frame? Leslie, HAVE you?"
+
+"Yes," admitted Leslie, "I've been there."
+
+"WAS the big picture with the big hole in it hanging there?" he asked.
+
+"N--NO!" said Leslie, "and I'll tell you all something. A lady that mama
+knows heard some of Gwen's stories, and she told Mrs. Harcourt what
+perfectly awful things Gwen was telling, and Mrs. Harcourt said that she
+was very glad, and thankful that Gwen had such great imagination, and
+said she wouldn't, for the world do anything to check it, because it's a
+SURE sign she'll be something fine some day.
+
+"Mrs. Harcourt said it was just wonderful what a strong imagination Gwen
+had, and she said she thought she would be either an author, or a play
+writer, or something great."
+
+"And papa, when he heard that, said he'd want to be careful lest she
+grow up to be an awful liar!" said Harry.
+
+"Oh, hush!" said Leslie, "papa said falsifier or some name like that."
+
+"Well, that's the same thing," said Harry.
+
+The little friends talked of Gwen, and the stories that she told.
+
+The boys thought them ridiculous, and laughed at the idea that she
+expected her playmates to believe them, but neither Polly, Lena, nor
+Leslie could see it that way.
+
+"I wouldn't mind the stories," Polly said, "because anyone can make up
+stories just for fun, but I do hate to have her say they're TRUE."
+
+"And she sticks to it," said Harry.
+
+"That's it," said Lena, "she says they're true, and she dared us to come
+down to her house, and see the picture!"
+
+Gwen was safe in daring them, for not one of the little friends liked
+her well enough to go to her home, none save Inez, and Inez had not
+heard the story about the picture.
+
+One sunny morning Polly ran along the avenue to overtake Lena Lindsey.
+
+"Lena! Lena!" she cried, "wait for me! I've a letter from Rose," she
+said, as she walked along with Lena.
+
+"Which way are you going?" Lena asked, "I want to hear what she says."
+
+"I wasn't going anywhere 'til I saw you," said Polly.
+
+"Then come along the path through the grove," said Lena, "and we'll stop
+on the bridge, and enjoy the letter there."
+
+They ran along the path together, the sunbeams making Jack-o-lanterns at
+their feet. Light branches swayed in the wind, and through the dancing
+leaves the sunlight sifted, making Lena's hair a brighter brown, and
+Polly's flaxen ringlets like pale gold.
+
+They reached the little bridge, and paused to watch the clear, rippling
+brook, as it ran beneath it, and out through the tiny grove.
+
+Humming a melody all its own, it made its zigzag way between birches,
+and alders, maples, and elderblow, carrying on its shining surface stray
+leaves, and water spiders that struggled to see which first should reach
+the sunlit meadow land beyond.
+
+"Now, read the letter," said Lena, "and does she say when she's coming
+here?"
+
+"Oh, you hark, while I read," said Polly, taking from its envelope, the
+letter that she had, already, read three times.
+
+Lena listened with delight. It would be an event to have little Rose
+Atherton come to Avondale! She told of Uncle John's frequent visits, and
+of long drives enjoyed with him.
+
+"And here's something that made me laugh," said Polly.
+
+"I told you about Evangeline Longfellow Jenks," she continued, "and
+she's written some more verses, and Rose copied this one. Just listen
+while I read it."
+
+Polly took a slip of paper from the envelope, and read this absurd verse
+that was written upon it:
+
+ [Illustration with caption: "Lena listened with delight."]
+
+   "I'm to be a poet when I get big,
+     And I'll write a book that's bigger'n me.
+     My poems I make now are to practice on,
+     But when I'm big they'll be fine to see."
+
+"Does she think THAT'S poetry?" said Lena, laughing because the verse
+was so absurd that she could not help it.
+
+"If you think that one is funny, just listen to this," said Polly,
+turning the slip over, and reading from the other side.
+
+    "The sea is wet, and so is the brook;
+     The earth swings round and round.
+     The cat's asleep, and so are my feet,
+     So I'll write no more till anon."
+
+"Why, what DOES she mean?" said Lena, when she could stop laughing long
+enough to ask.
+
+"I don't know," said Polly, laughing as heartily as Lena did, "and the
+funny thing is that Evangeline says anyone could write poetry that folks
+understand. She says it's just TWICE as bright to make verses that
+NOBODY could understand!
+
+"I wouldn't want to have to play with her, and Rose says she runs away
+whenever she sees Evangeline coming," said Polly.
+
+"I should think she would run," said Lena, "I would."
+
+After the sweet little letter had been read, and Lena had asked for a
+second reading, Polly put it back into its envelope, and they talked of
+what Rose had written.
+
+"Only think," said Polly, "her Aunt Rose doesn't wish her to be away
+from the house to go to school, so she's to have a private tutor at
+home, a music teacher, and a dancing teacher, and they're all to
+come to her house. She won't be in school with other little girls at
+all."
+
+"I wouldn't like that," said Lena, "we have fine times together when
+school commences, and I don't believe I'd like teachers that came to my
+house. Well, I don't mean I wouldn't like the teachers, but I think it's
+more fun to go to school."
+
+"I don't see how she's ever to get acquainted with other little girls,"
+said Polly, "I think it sounds very lonesome!"
+
+"So do I," said Lena, "but perhaps she doesn't. We'll know when she
+comes to your house, because I'm most sure she'll tell us."
+
+"And we'll go to school the third week of next month," said Polly, "and
+Rose isn't to begin her lessons until two weeks later than that. She's
+coming to stay with me and spend the two weeks. Oh, won't we have fun?"
+
+"Fun?" said Lena, "we'll do every fine thing we can think of. I'll tell
+Rob, and he'll help us make it jolly. He always does, and he likes Rose
+as well as we do."
+
+"And who's Lester Jenks?" Lena asked, "is he the poetry girl's brother?"
+
+"Oh, no, he's her cousin, and he's full of fun, and fine to play with,"
+said Polly, "and he thinks Evangeline is pokey, and he laughs at her
+poetry. I didn't laugh at it, and I don't think he was nice to. I told
+him so, and he only laughed harder."
+
+"He told Rose to tell me that he's going to send me a Valentine this
+year, and he says he's found a new place to get ice cream just a little
+way from where Rose lives. He says when I'm at her house the next time,
+he'll buy ice cream almost every day."
+
+"Isn't he generous? And he says: 'Tell Princess Polly to hurry up and
+come,' and Rose says she can hardly wait 'til she sees me."
+
+"Oh, Polly!" cried Lena, as a happy thought occurred to her, "if she's
+to be here when school has commenced, you can bring her to school.
+Teacher'll let us have guests.
+
+"I'm glad you read the letter to me, because it makes it seem as if Rose
+was right here."
+
+"And almost before you know it, she WILL be!" cried Polly, with a gay
+little laugh.
+
+"I'll have to run along now," said Lena, "because Rob gave me this note
+to take to Harry Grafton, and I said I'd rush over there to give it to
+him. I forgot all about it when I stopped to hear Rose's letter. I guess
+I'd have stopped just the same, if I'd remembered Rob's note!" she said,
+and her brown eyes twinkled, as she looked over her shoulder on her way
+down the path.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+GYP RUNS AWAY
+
+Polly stood on the little bridge and watched Lena until, at the opening
+between the trees, she turned and waved her hand, and then ran out upon
+the road.
+
+"I'll find Sir Mortimer, and tell him Rose is coming to see us soon,"
+she said.
+
+She ran along the path, out onto the avenue, then up the broad driveway
+of Sherwood Hall.
+
+As she passed the holly-hocks, she saw the big cat lying in front of
+them, basking in the sun.
+
+"Oh, Mortimer darling, you'll tan in that hot sun," she said, "but she
+sat down beside him, as if the sun would have no effect upon her.
+
+"See this letter?" she said, as she showed him the little envelope. Of
+course, Sir Mortimer promptly smelt of it.
+
+"Oh, you don't need to see it so CLOSE, dear," said Polly, "you can
+surely look at it without putting your nose on it."
+
+He stretched out his soft paw, and caught at the envelope, as if to play
+with it.
+
+"Now, Mortimer, 't isn't any use for you to take the letter, because you
+know, dear, you couldn't read it, but I'll tell you the best thing in
+it, if you'll listen."
+
+The big cat stared at her and blinked.
+
+"Rose is coming to see us, and Mortimer, when I say US, that means you
+and me. Of course she wants to see her Aunt Judith, and everyone in this
+town, but MOST she really wants to see us, that TRULY is you and me.
+Aren't you glad?"
+
+He arched his neck, and rubbed against her, purring as if to show his
+delight with the news she had told him.
+
+Polly took him in her arms, and carrying him to the hammock, seated
+herself, and began to swing very gently.
+
+At another time, Sir Mortimer might have objected, but just now he was
+rather drowsy, and instead of jumping from the hammock, he curled up in
+Polly's lap, and seemed to be preparing for a nap.
+
+"I love little pussy," sang Princess Polly, gently patting his handsome
+head.
+
+"Look at her, now," said the cook, peeping from the kitchen window, and
+pointing at Polly, "ain't she the dearest child in the world?"
+
+"Ye've no need ter ask," said the big butler, "fer ye know my answer.
+Our little Miss Princess Polly is the finest child I ever saw."
+
+"And did ye mind that wild little heathen that came up here the other
+day, a prancin' all over the place, here one minute, an' there another?
+Sure, I expected ter see her shin up the side of the stable, an' then
+jump from the ridge-pole. She'd make nothin' of that!" said the maid.
+
+"I think it must be that little Harcourt monkey," said the butler, "and
+I'm told her ma likes her wild pranks. What is it she calls 'em? Oh,
+yes, I remember. She says as how her darling is very VERVASHUS! What
+that means I do'no, but one thing I'm SURE of. If her youngster is THAT,
+our Miss Polly just AIN'T!"
+
+And while Polly petted big Sir Mortimer, she thought of the dear letter,
+and softly whispered to her pet:
+
+"Lena is just as glad that Rose is coming as you, and I are, and she
+said Rob would be glad, too."
+
+There were other little people beside Polly and Lena who were thinking
+of the first days of school, and of them all, not one was more
+interested than wee Dollie Burton.
+
+Indeed, she was both interested, and grieved. Interested to hear all
+that her sister, Blanche, and the other children had to say, and grieved
+because she could not understand why she could not at once begin to be a
+little school girl.
+
+In vain was she told that she was far too small to think of going to
+school. She insisted that she was not so VERY little, and that she so
+wished to go.
+
+"Blanche did not go to school until she was much larger than you, dear,"
+her mother had said, "and I think it would be far better for you to stay
+at home this Winter. You can play school at home, and you can be the
+teacher, and your two little kittens, and your dolls can be your
+pupils."
+
+"But I could play it nicer if I had been to school just a little while,"
+said Dollie, "'cause then I'd know just how."
+
+The rustic bridge upon which Polly and Lena had stood spanned the brook
+that ran through the grove.
+
+The grove was a wee bit of woodland so near to dwellings that it was
+quite safe for children to play there.
+
+Dollie Burton was so very small, however, that she had always played in
+the lovely grounds that surrounded her home.
+
+Whenever she had ventured farther, she had been with Blanche, but to-day
+she had left the garden, and for the first time in her little life she
+had run away!
+
+It was something that Harry Grafton had said that had caused her to do
+it.
+
+"Why, Dollie, you'd feel lost if you went to school," he had said,
+"'cause you've always played in your yard."
+
+He had not meant it unkindly, but he had offended little Dollie.
+
+"I WOULDN'T feel lost outside of our garden any more than you would,
+Harry Grafton, so now!" she had cried.
+
+"Don't you mind, Dollie," the boy had answered, but Dollie DID mind very
+much.
+
+She had no thought as to where she was going when she ran from the
+garden, and it was only chance that led her to the grove.
+
+She ran to the bridge and stood watching the rippling brook, as it
+rushed beneath it.
+
+Softly she crooned a little tune, for wee Dollie was never long unhappy.
+She had almost forgotten how vexed she had been, and she laughed as she
+saw small bubbles sailing, sailing away to the meadow. Softly she
+hummed, and then little words, describing what she saw, fitted quaintly
+into the droll melody--
+
+    "See the pretty bubbles, bubbles,
+     Riding on the little brook;
+     See the spiders try to catch them,
+     And old Mr. Toady Frog sings
+     'Po-dunk!' and jumps down deep.
+     Oh, green old Mr. Toady Frog--
+
+There's Blanche's teacher! I'll ask her, and p'raps she'll say 'yes.'"
+
+A slender young woman with a gentle, smiling face, came along the path,
+and stepped upon the bridge.
+
+She wondered who the tiny girl might be, until Dollie turned, and gave
+her a sunny smile.
+
+"Oh, I wanted to see you this very minute!" cried Dollie; "I want you to
+tell mama I'm big 'nough to go to school. Will you, please, Miss
+Sterling. I'll LOVE you, if you will!"
+
+The young girl was tempted to laugh, until she saw the red lips quiver.
+Then she knew how much her answer meant to the little girl, and kneeling
+beside Dollie, she put her arm around her, drawing her close.
+
+"Dear, can't you love me, whatever I say?" she asked.
+
+"Yes," said Dollie, "because you're so handsome."
+
+"Oh, you are truly an artful baby," the young teacher said, with a
+laugh.
+
+"But WILL you?" urged Dollie, "I do know SOMETHING. I can spell 'c-a-t,
+cat,' and I know that isn't kitten, and I can spell 'b-e, be,' and that
+isn't the bumble kind, so can I come to school?"
+
+"Dollie, dear, you couldn't be in my class if you started this year, so
+I cannot give you permission. You would begin your schooldays in Miss
+Primson's room," was the reply.
+
+"Why, she's the cross-looking teacher, with black eyes that look like
+this!"
+
+Dollie touched the fore-finger of each hand with its thumb, thus making
+rings through which she peeped, in imitation of spectacles, and frowned
+as darkly as her baby face would permit.
+
+Miss Sterling knew that she should not laugh at the grimace, but it was
+so very funny that she could not help it.
+
+"Miss Primson is to teach in another town next season, so if you wait
+'til next year you will have a new teacher to commence with, and you can
+work very hard, so as to get into my room as soon as possible," she
+said.
+
+The child's face lighted with a happy smile.
+
+"Oh, then, I don't want to go THIS year!" she cried, "I'll stay at home,
+as mama said, and keep school with my dolls and the kittens, but will
+you come sometimes, and see if I teach them right?"
+
+"I certainly will," Miss Sterling said, kindly, "and I do hope your
+little class will behave nicely."
+
+"The dolls will," said Dollie, hopefully, "but the kittens' manners
+are--awful!"
+
+"Then that shows how much they need a teacher," Miss Sterling said, and
+Dollie felt sure that it must be right for her to remain at home, that
+those kittens might not be neglected.
+
+"They run away 'thout asking to be s'cused, and they walk right into the
+saucer of milk. I don't s'pect them to use spoons, but they needn't sit
+down in it. How'd I look, if I sat down in MY plate when I was eating?"
+
+There was no one near to answer her question, and the little girl
+hurried home, convinced that there must be no delay in educating the
+kittens.
+
+There was one small person in the town who feared the opening of school,
+and that was Gyp.
+
+During vacation days he was care free, but as it neared the time when
+all the children of Avondale would be, for the greater part of the day,
+in school, he began to watch any person who passed the shanty that he
+called "home," and to view with terror the blue coat of a policeman.
+
+"They shan't ketch me!" he muttered, "I WON'T go to school!"
+
+His mother, as ignorant as himself, enjoyed using him as a wood
+gatherer, and thus insisted that he was not old enough to go to school,
+when questioned by a member of the school committee.
+
+"Not OLD enough!" cried the man in disgust, "why, woman, any child five
+years old can go to school."
+
+"Gyp ain't five yet!" the woman had answered, stolidly.
+
+"It's no use talking that way," was the quick reply, "he's NINE if he's
+a day. I think it's more likely that he's ten. Ye can't keep a child out
+of school unless he's less'n five, or over fourteen."
+
+"Then he's OVER fourteen!" cried the woman.
+
+"Less'n five one minute, and over fourteen the next!" said the man in
+disgust. "Grows kinder fast, don't he?"
+
+"Well, he AIN'T goin' ter school!" the woman insisted, and the officer
+went his way.
+
+Gyp, however, did not believe that he would long remain away from the
+shanty.
+
+He determined to take no chances, and it seemed to him that the safest
+thing for him to do, was to keep well away from home.
+
+At twilight he surprised his family by appearing with a huge bundle of
+fagots that he had gathered in the woods. He gave them yet another
+surprise by packing the wood upon the old wood pile behind the house,
+and running off again for more.
+
+He returned with a larger bundle than the first.
+
+"Kind 'o busy, ain't yer?" questioned his mother, but Gyp made no reply.
+She watched him, as he hastily piled the wood.
+
+It certainly was unusual to see the boy work like that!
+
+When asked to do a task, it was Gyp's habit to do it as slowly as
+possible, and to do as little as he dared.
+
+Now, without waiting to be asked, he was working as if he had not a
+moment to spare!
+
+Yet more amazing, on the next day, before any of his family was
+stirring, he was again at work, and soon a huge heap of fagots rose in
+the little back yard.
+
+"What AILS ye, Gyp?" his mother asked, "Be ye sick?"
+
+Gyp never answered unless he chose, and this was surely one of the times
+when he did not choose.
+
+"Ornary critter!" said the woman, as she picked up her broom, and went
+in, closing the door behind her.
+
+"NOW, I'll go!" said Gyp, and he ran off across the fields.
+
+He could take care of himself, and he always managed, when away from
+home, to steal enough so that he was well fed. He knew that, if wood
+were needed, his mother would hunt for him, but with the big pile of
+firewood behind the shanty, she would not search for him. She would be
+glad that for a time she need not feed him!
+
+Gyp had been shrewd when he had made that woodpile!
+
+He found, when he had crossed the fields, that he was on a country road,
+and near a large farmhouse, whose big barn-door stood invitingly open.
+
+In front of the house stood a baker's cart, and Gyp looked about to see
+if the driver were in sight.
+
+"He's in that house!" whispered Gyp, in great excitement.
+
+In haste, lest the man return, and catch him, he pulled out a draw,
+snatched some buns, and a pie, and darted with them into the barn, and
+up on the hay in the loft, where he hugely enjoyed his treat.
+
+He heard the man run out to the cart, push the draw to, and then drive
+off.
+
+"I've had a fine treat, an' he ain't missed what I took, so that's all
+right," he said, with a laugh, "an' I guess I'll see who's got some
+fruit in his garden. That's what I want now!"
+
+He went down the ladder like a monkey, ran from the barn, and a little
+farther up the road, found a fine blackberry patch, just over the wall.
+
+Of these he ate until he cared for no more, and then, like a
+full-fledged tramp, strode down the dusty road.
+
+"I ain't goin' ter be ketched 'fore their old school begins, fer if I AM
+ketched, they'll make me begin with the others, an' I ain't a goin' ter,
+but after its goin' on two weeks, then I'll be safe. They won't bother
+me then, an' I'll hang around the schoolhouse an' make things lively!"
+
+He smiled as he muttered this threat, and his black eyes twinkled. Oh,
+yes, he would be delighted to play any outrageous trick that might
+startle both teacher and pupils.
+
+He did not know that during all the season, those who intended that
+every child in town should be educated, strove with the same vigilance
+as at the beginning of the year.
+
+"Gyp's run away!"
+
+"Why, Harry Grafton, he's always running away from somewhere, or from
+someone," said Leslie.
+
+"Oh, that's when he's been stealing things," said Harry, "but this time
+it's different. He ran away from the shanty, and I know, because I heard
+his mother asking a policeman to find him, and she said he'd been gone a
+week!"
+
+"Wherever he is, he won't stay long," said Leslie, "he'll come running
+home."
+
+"Why will he?" questioned Harry. "If he's run away, it's because he's
+tired of that old shanty, and I should think he would be!"
+
+"WE'D be tired of it," said Leslie, "but he's used to it, and he'll come
+back, just because it's his home."
+
+"P'raps he will," agreed Harry, "but I wouldn't think that place would
+seem like home even to Gyp!"
+
+"I'm going up to play with Princess Polly," said Leslie, "and I'll tell
+her about Gyp. She's afraid of him, and I know she wouldn't want him to
+run away, but she may feel safer because he has."
+
+"He wouldn't dare harm her," said Harry, with flashing eyes, "for he
+knows we boys wouldn't stand that. We'd fight for Princess Polly!"
+
+"And she's the only thing I'd want to see you fight for. Mama says that
+boys who quarrel are vulgar, but it would be right to do ANYTHING for
+Princess Polly. She's the dearest girl in the world," said Leslie, "and
+Rose Atherton is next!"
+
+"Yes," said Harry, "Rose is next."
+
+Quite unaware that any of her playmates were near, Polly ran out into
+the sunshine, and taking a long bit of trailing vine for a skipping
+rope, tripped along the driveway.
+
+"Oh, you're not a very nice rope," she said, "but you're a pretty
+make-believe rope. Here, Mortimer! You can have this for a string."
+
+She ran along, dragging the vine, and Sir Mortimer, glad of a playmate,
+raced after it, as much excited as if he had been a kitten.
+
+   "We'll dance and play
+    The livelong day;
+     Ah, happy friends are we.
+    With summer flowers
+    And shady bowers
+     And young hearts light and free,"
+
+sang Polly, and Leslie and Harry from their seat on the top of the stone
+wall, near the gate-way, echoed the last line;
+
+   "And young hearts light and free."
+
+"Oh, I was singing to Sir Mortimer, and I didn't know anyone was near to
+hear me," said Polly, laughing gaily, as the two who had been her little
+audience sprang from the wall, and ran up the driveway to the garden.
+
+Polly tossed the vine upon the grass, where Sir Mortimer promptly
+snatched it, and rolling over, became entangled in it.
+
+"You'll want to take him to school with you," said Leslie, with a laugh,
+"but Mortimer will have to stay at home."
+
+"They won't let even Princess Polly bring a cat to school," said Harry,
+"tho' I would if _I_ was the teacher."
+
+"Then I wish you were the teacher, Harry," said Polly, "but I know I
+shall like school here at Avondale, and I shall have fine times, even if
+Sir Mortimer has to stay at home."
+
+"Gwen Harcourt will be funny in whatever class they place her," said
+Harry, "because she says she doesn't want to go to school, and she means
+to act so that the teacher'll be GLAD to send her home!"
+
+"And Rob Lindsey says there's ever so many new pupils coming this year,
+so the classes will be full, and there'll be just CROWDS of children to
+play with," declared Leslie.
+
+Oh, there were merry days in store for the little playmates, and those
+who have learned to love Princess Polly, and would like to meet her
+again, to know what happened to Rose, and of the gay times at school,
+and at Sherwood Hall, may read of all this in
+
+"PRINCESS POLLY AT SCHOOL"
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Princess Polly's Playmates, by Amy Brooks
+
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