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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Five Little Peppers Abroad, by Margaret Sidney
+
+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: Five Little Peppers Abroad
+
+Author: Margaret Sidney
+
+Illustrator: Fanny Y. Cory
+
+Posting Date: April 30, 2013 [EBook #6987]
+Release Date: November, 2004
+First Posted: February 20, 2003
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FIVE LITTLE PEPPERS ABROAD ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Michelle Shephard, Charles Franks and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+FIVE LITTLE PEPPERS ABROAD
+
+by
+
+MARGARET SIDNEY
+
+
+Illustrated by FANNY Y. CORY
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+When the friends of the Pepper family found that the author was firm in
+her decision to continue their history no further, they brought their
+appeals for the details of some of those good times that made the
+"little brown house" an object-lesson.
+
+In these appeals, the parents were as vigorous as the young people for
+a volume of the stories that Polly told, to keep the children happy in
+those hard days when her story-telling had to be a large factor in
+their home-life; and also for a book of their plays and exploits,
+impossible to be embodied in the continued series of their history, so
+that all who loved the "Five Little Peppers" might the better study the
+influences that shaped their lives.
+
+Those requests were complied with; the author realising that the
+detailed account held values, by which stronger light might be thrown
+on the family life in the "little brown house."
+
+And now the pressure is brought to bear for a book showing the Little
+Peppers over the ocean, recorded in "Five Little Peppers Midway." And
+the author is very glad to comply again; for foreign travel throws a
+wholly different side-light upon the Pepper family. So here is the book.
+
+It is in no sense to be taken as a story written for a
+guide-book,--although the author lives in it again her repeated
+enjoyment of the sights and scenes which are accurately depicted. A
+"Baedeker," if carefully studied, is really all that is needed as a
+constant companion to the traveller; while for supplementary helps and
+suggestions, there are many valuable books along the same line. This
+volume is given up to the Peppers; and they must live their own lives
+and tell their own story while abroad just as they choose.
+
+As the author has stated many times, her part is "simply to set down
+what the Peppers did and said, without trying to make them say or do
+anything in particular." And so over the ocean they are just as much
+the makers of their own history as when they first opened the door of
+the "little brown house" to
+
+                                 MARGARET SIDNEY.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+CHAPTER
+
+      I. OVER THE OCEAN
+     II. TWO ENGLISH FRIENDS
+    III. PHRONSIE GOES VISITING
+     IV. STEAMER LIFE
+      V. A FISH STORY AND OTHER THINGS
+     VI. A LITTLE SURPRISE
+    VII. OFF FOR HOLLAND
+   VIII. "WE WILL COME AGAIN AND STAY A WEEK"
+     IX. A BOX FOR THE PEPPER BOYS
+      X. DANGER
+     XI. THE TWO BIRTHDAYS IN OLD HOLLAND
+    XII. THE HENDERSON BOX
+   XIII. "THE CLEANEST PLACE IN ALL HOLLAND"
+    XIV. THE ISLAND OF MARKEN
+     XV. MR. KING DOES HIS DUTY
+    XVI. "LET US FLY AT THOSE BOOKS"
+   XVII. POLLY WROTE A NICE LITTLE NOTE
+  XVIII. BAYREUTH AND OLD FRIENDS
+    XIX. MR. KING HAS A LITTLE PLAN FOR POLLY
+     XX. "I SHOULD MAKE HIM HAPPY," SAID PHRONSIE
+    XXI. ON THE RIGI-KULM
+   XXII. POLLY TRIES TO HELP
+  XXIII. IN THE SHADOW OF THE MATTERHORN
+   XXIV. THE ROUND ROBIN
+    XXV. ON THE _MER DE GLACE_
+   XXVI. "WELL, HERE WE ARE IN PARIS!"
+  XXVII. "I'VE FOUND HIM!" EXCLAIMED JASPER
+ XXVIII. "WELL, I GOT HIM HERE," SAID THE LITTLE EARL
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+"Now don't you want to get off?"
+
+He clung to his pear with both hands and ate away with great
+satisfaction
+
+"Fan-ny!--the Earl of Cavendish!" She could go no further
+
+Phronsie sat opposite him
+
+"Mamsie's got her two bothers," said Polly
+
+"Look at that girl!"
+
+She picked up the skirt of her gown
+
+Phronsie ducked and scuttled in as she could
+
+
+
+
+_Five Little Peppers Abroad_
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+OVER THE OCEAN
+
+
+"Dear me," said Polly, "I don't see wherever she can be, Jasper. I've
+searched just everywhere for her." And she gave a little sigh, and
+pushed up the brown rings of hair under her sailor cap.
+
+"Don't worry, Polly," said Jasper, with a reassuring smile. "She's with
+Matilda, of course. Come, Polly, let's you and I have a try at the
+shuffle-board by ourselves, down on the lower deck."
+
+"No, we can't," said Polly, with a dreadful longing at her heart for
+the charms of a game; "that is, until we've found Phronsie." And she
+ran down the deck. "Perhaps she is in one of the library corners,
+though I thought I looked over them all."
+
+"How do you know she isn't with Matilda, Polly?" cried Jasper, racing
+after, to see Polly's little blue jacket whisking ahead of him up the
+companion-way.
+
+"Because"--Polly stopped at the top and looked over her shoulder at
+him--"Matilda's in her berth. She's awfully seasick. I was to stay with
+Phronsie, and now I've lost her!" And the brown head drooped, and Polly
+clasped her hands tightly together.
+
+"Oh, no, she can't be lost, Polly," said Jasper, cheerfully, as he
+bounded up the stairs and gained her side; "why, she couldn't be!"
+
+"Well, anyway, we can't find her, Jasper," said Polly, running on. "And
+it's all my fault, for I forgot, and left her in the library, and went
+with Fanny Vanderburgh down to her state-room. O dear me!" as she sped
+on.
+
+"Well, she's in the library now, most likely," said Jasper, cheerfully,
+hurrying after, "curled up asleep in a corner." And they both ran in,
+expecting to see Phronsie's yellow head snuggled into one of the
+pillows.
+
+But there was no one there except a little old gentleman on one of the
+sofas back of a table, who held his paper upside down, his big
+spectacles on the end of his nose, almost tumbling off as he nodded
+drowsily with the motion of the steamer.
+
+"O dear me!" exclaimed Polly; "now we shall wake him up," as they
+tiptoed around, peering in every cosey corner and behind all the tables
+for a glimpse of Phronsie's little brown gown.
+
+"No danger," said Jasper, with a glance over at the old gentleman;
+"he's just as fast asleep as can be. Here, Polly, I think she's
+probably tucked up in here." And he hurried over to the farther side,
+where the sofa made a generous angle.
+
+Just then in stalked a tall boy, who rushed up to the little old
+gentleman. "Here, Granddad, wake up." And he shook his arm smartly.
+"You're losing your glasses, and then there'll be a beastly row to pay."
+
+"O dear me!" cried Polly aghast, as she and Jasper whirled around.
+
+"Hey--what--what!" exclaimed the old gentleman, clutching his paper as
+he started forward. "Oh,--why, I haven't been asleep, Tom."
+
+"Ha! Ha! tell that to the marines," cried Tom, loudly, dancing in
+derision, "You've been sleeping like a log. You'd much better go down
+and get into your state-room. But give me a sovereign first." He held
+out his hand as he spoke. "Hurry up, Granddad!" he added impatiently.
+
+The old gentleman put his hand to his head, and then rubbed his eyes.
+
+"Bustle up," cried the boy, with a laugh, "or else I'll run my fist in
+your pocket and help myself."
+
+"Indeed, you won't," declared the old gentleman, now thoroughly awake.
+
+"Ha! Ha!" laughed the boy. "You see if I won't, Granddad." Yet he
+dropped his imperious tone, and waited, though impatiently, while the
+big pocket-book was drawn out.
+
+"What do you want with money on board the boat?" demanded the old
+gentleman.
+
+"Give me a sovereign, Granddad," cried Tom, controlling his impatience
+as best he might, with many a cross look at the wrinkled old face under
+the white hair.
+
+His Grandfather slowly drew out the coin, and Tom twitched it eagerly
+from the long, thin fingers.
+
+"I don't see how you can need money on board the boat," repeated the
+old gentleman.
+
+"Never you mind what I want it for, Grand-daddy," said Tom, laughing
+loudly and shaking the sovereign at him as he ran off; "that's my
+business, and not yours."
+
+Polly had not taken her eyes off their faces. Now she turned toward
+Jasper. "Oh, how very dreadful!" she gasped--then would have given
+everything if she had kept still, for the old gentleman whirled around
+and saw them for the first time.
+
+"Hey--who are you--and what are you listening there for--hey?" he
+demanded sharply. He had little black eyes, and they now snapped in a
+truly dreadful way at them.
+
+"We came to find her little sister," said Jasper, politely, for Polly
+was quite beyond speaking.
+
+"Sister? I don't know anything about your sister," said the old
+gentleman, irascibly. "And this room isn't a place for children, I can
+tell you," he added, as if he owned the library and the whole ship.
+
+Jasper made no reply.
+
+"Phronsie isn't here." Polly clasped her hands again tighter than ever.
+"And, oh, Jasper!" and she looked at the angry old face before them
+with pitying eyes.
+
+"What I say to my grandson, Tom, and what he says to me, is our own
+business!" exclaimed the old gentleman in a passion, thumping the table
+with his clenched hand. "And no one else has a right to hear it."
+
+"I am so very sorry we heard it," said Polly, the colour which had
+quite gone from her cheek now rushing back. "And we are going right
+away, sir."
+
+"You would much better," said the old man, nodding angrily. "And you,
+boy, too; I suppose you think yourself better than my Tom. But you are
+not--not a bit of it!" And suddenly he tried to start to his feet, but
+lurched heavily against the table instead.
+
+Polly and Jasper rushed over to him. "Lean on me, sir," said Jasper,
+putting both arms around him, while Polly ran to his other side, he was
+shaking so dreadfully.
+
+The old gentleman essayed to wave them off. "Let me alone," he said
+feebly; "I'm going after my grandson, Tom." His voice sank to a
+whisper, and his head dropped to his breast. "He's got money--he's
+always getting it, and I'm going to see what he's doing with it."
+
+"Polly," said Jasper, "you help me put him back on the sofa; there,
+that's it," as the old man sank feebly down against the cushions; "and
+then I'll run and find his grandson."
+
+It was just the time when everybody seemed to be in the state-rooms, or
+out on deck in steamer chairs, so Polly sat there at the old man's
+head, feeling as if every minute were an hour, and he kept gurgling,
+"Tom's a bad boy--he gets money all the time, and I'm going to see what
+he's doing with it," with feeble waves of his legs, that put Polly in a
+fright lest he should roll off the sofa at every lurch of the steamer.
+
+"Tom is coming," at last she said, putting her hand on the hot
+forehead. "Please stay still, sir; you will be sick."
+
+"But I don't want Tom to come," cried the old gentleman, irritably.
+"Who said I wanted him to come? Hey?" He turned up his head and looked
+at her, and Polly's hand shook worse than ever when the little snapping
+eyes were full on her face, and she had all she could do to keep from
+running out of the room and up on deck where she could breathe freely.
+
+"I am so sorry," she managed to gasp, feeling if she didn't say
+something, she should surely run. "Does your head feel better?" And she
+smoothed his hot forehead gently just as Phronsie always did
+Grandpapa's when it ached. And when she thought of Phronsie, then it
+was all she could do to keep the tears back. Where could she be? And
+would Jasper never come back?
+
+And just then in ran Tom with a great clatter, complaining noisily
+every step of the way. "I told you you'd much better get off to your
+stateroom, Granddad!" he exclaimed. "Here, I'll help you down there."
+And he laid a hasty hand on the feeble old arm.
+
+"I think he is sick," said Polly, gently. Jasper came hurrying in.
+"Phronsie is all right," he had time to whisper to Polly.
+
+"Oh, Jasper!" the colour rushed into her cheek that had turned quite
+white. "I am so glad."
+
+"Nonsense!" exclaimed Tom, abruptly. "It's only one of his crotchets.
+You don't know; he gets up plenty of 'em on occasion."
+
+"What did you want a sovereign for?" asked the old gentleman,
+querulously, taking his sharp little eyes off Polly to fasten them on
+his grandson's face. "Say, I _will_ know."
+
+"And I say no matter," retorted Tom, roughly. "And you ought to come
+down to your state-room where you belong. Come, Granddad!" And he tried
+again to lay hold of his arm. But the little old gentleman sank back,
+and looked up at Polly again. "I think I'll stay here," he said.
+
+"I say," began the boy, in an embarrassed way, "this is dreadfully
+rough on you," and then he looked away from Polly to Jasper. "And if
+you knew him as well as I do," nodding his head at his Grandfather,
+"you wouldn't get in such a funk."
+
+Polly was busy smoothing the hot forehead under the white hair, and
+appeared not to notice a word he said.
+
+"Your Grandfather really appears ill," said Jasper. "And the doctor
+might give him something to help him."
+
+Tom burst into a short laugh and kicked his heel against the table.
+"Hoh! hoh! I say, you don't know him; oh, what muffs you are! He's well
+enough, only he's determined not to go to his state-room where he
+belongs, but to kick up a row here."
+
+"Very well," said Jasper, coolly, "since you are determined to do
+nothing for his relief, I shall take it upon myself to summon the
+doctor." He stepped to a table a bit further off, and touched the
+electric button back of it.
+
+"Here, don't do that," remonstrated Tom, springing forward. But it was
+too late, and the steward who attended to calls on the library stepped
+in.
+
+"It isn't the hour for giving out books," he began.
+
+Tom was stamping his foot impatiently, and scowling at Jasper,
+alternately casting longing glances out the nearest port-hole.
+
+"It isn't books we want," said Jasper, quickly, "but this old
+gentleman"--whose head was now heavily sunken on his breast, and whose
+cheek was quite white--"appears to be very ill, and to need the doctor."
+
+"Is that so?" The steward leaned over and peered into the old face.
+"Well, he doesn't look just right, and that's a fact. Is he your
+father?"
+
+"Oh, no," said Jasper, quickly, "I don't know who he is. But, do hurry,
+for he's sick, and needs the doctor at once."
+
+"I'll get Dr. Jones." Off ran the steward toward the surgeon's cabin.
+
+"See what you've done," cried Tom, in a towering passion. "Kicked up a
+pretty mess--when I tell you I've seen my Grandfather just as bad a
+hundred times."
+
+Jasper made no reply, and Polly continued to stroke gently the poor
+head.
+
+"Well--well--well!" exclaimed Mr. King, coming in, "to be sure, it's
+very stupid in me not to think of looking in the library for both of
+you before. O dear me--bless me!" And he came to a dead stop of
+astonishment.
+
+"Father," cried Jasper, "this poor man seems very ill."
+
+"Oh, yes," breathed Polly, pitifully, "he really is, Grandpapa." And
+she put out her hand to seize one of Mr. King's. "And Jasper has sent
+for the doctor."
+
+"And none too soon, I should say," remarked Mr. King, grimly, with a
+keen glance into the old man's face. "Raise his feet a little higher,
+Jasper; put a pillow under them; there, that's it. Well, the doctor
+should be hurried up." He glanced quickly around. "Here, you boy,"
+seeing Tom, "run as you never have run before, and tell the doctor to
+come quickly."
+
+"There isn't any need," began Tom.
+
+"Do you _go_!" commanded Mr. King, pointing to the door. And Tom went.
+
+"Father, that boy is his grandson," said Jasper, pointing to the sick
+man.
+
+Mr. King stared into Jasper's face, unable to make a reply.
+
+"He is," declared Polly. "Oh, Grandpapa, he really is!" Then she buried
+her flushed face up against Mr. King's arm.
+
+"There is no need to waste words," said Mr. King, finding his tongue.
+"There, there, Polly, child," fondling her brown head, "don't feel
+badly. I'm sure you've done all you could."
+
+"'Twas Jasper; he did it all--I couldn't do anything," said Polly.
+
+"Oh, Polly, you did everything," protested Jasper.
+
+"Yes, yes, I know, you both did," said Mr. King. "Well, here's the
+doctor, thank the Lord!"
+
+And then when nobody wanted them, the library seemed to be full of
+people, and the news spreading out to the decks, many of the passengers
+got out of their steamer chairs, and tried to swarm into the two
+doorways.
+
+Tom, who never knew how he summoned Dr. Jones, being chiefly occupied
+in astonishment at finding that he obeyed a command from a perfect
+stranger, did not come back to the library, but kept himself with the
+same amazed expression on his face, idly kicking his heels in a quiet
+corner of the deck near by. He never thought of such a thing as being
+worried over his Grandfather, for he couldn't remember when the old
+gentleman hadn't been subject to nervous attacks; but somehow since "a
+row," as he expressed it, "had been kicked up," it was just as well to
+stay in the vicinity and see the end of it. But he wasn't going
+inside--no, not he!
+
+After awhile, Tom was just beginning to yawn, and to feel that no one
+could expect him to waste time like that, and probably his Grandfather
+was going to sleep it out on the sofa, and the stupid doctor would find
+that there was nothing the matter, only the old man was nervous. "And
+I'm going back to the fellows," decided Tom, shaking his long legs.
+
+"Oh, here you are!" cried Jasper, running up to him. "Come quickly,"
+seizing his arm.
+
+"Hey, here, what are you about?" roared Tom at him, shaking off the
+hand.
+
+"You must excuse me for wasting no ceremony," said Jasper, sternly. It
+struck Tom that he looked very much like the old gentleman who had told
+him to _go!_ "Your Grandfather is very ill; something is the matter
+with his heart, and the doctor has sent me for you. He says he may not
+live an hour." It was necessary to tell the whole of the dreadful
+truth, for Tom was still staring at him in defiance.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+TWO ENGLISH FRIENDS
+
+
+"I don't want you," muttered the old gentleman, feebly, turning his
+head away from Tom, and then he set his lips tightly together. But he
+held to Polly's hand.
+
+"You would better go out," Dr. Jones nodded to Tom. "It excites him."
+
+The second time Tom was told to go. He stood quite still. "He's my
+Grandfather!" he blurted out.
+
+"Can't help it," said Dr. Jones, curtly; "he's my patient. So I tell
+you again it is imperative that you leave this room." Then he turned
+back to his work of making the sick man comfortable without taking any
+more notice of the boy.
+
+Tom gave a good long look at as much of his Grandfather's face as he
+could see, then slunk out, in a dazed condition, trying to make himself
+as small as possible. Jasper found him a half hour afterward, hanging
+over the rail away from curious eyes, his head buried on his arms.
+
+"I thought you'd like to know that your Grandfather is better," said
+Jasper, touching the bent shoulder.
+
+"Get away, will you?" growled Tom, kicking out his leg, unmindful where
+it struck.
+
+"And the doctor has gotten him into his state-room, and he is as
+comfortable as he could be made." Jasper didn't add that Dr. Jones had
+asked him to come back, and that the old man was still insisting that
+Polly should hold his hand.
+
+"In that case," declared Tom, suddenly twitching up his head, "I will
+go down there." His face was so drawn that Jasper started, and then
+looked away over the sea, and did not appear to notice the clenched
+hand down by the boy's side.
+
+"I--I--didn't know he was sick." Tom brought it out in gusts, and his
+face worked worse than ever in his efforts not to show his distress.
+The only thing he could do was to double up his hand tighter than ever,
+as he tried to keep it back of him.
+
+"I understand," nodded Jasper, still looking off over the blue water.
+
+"And now I'll go down," said Tom, drawing a long breath and starting
+off. Oh! and Dr. Jones had said the last thing to Jasper as he rushed
+off with the good news to Tom, "On no account let that boy see his
+Grandfather. I won't answer for the consequences if you do."
+
+"See here," Jasper tore his gaze off from the shimmering water. "The
+doctor doesn't--doesn't think you ought to see your Grandfather now."
+
+"Hey!" cried Tom, his drawn lips flying open, and his big blue eyes
+distending in anger. "He's my Grandfather. I rather think I shall do as
+I've a mind to," and he plunged off.
+
+"Tom!" Jasper took long steps after him. "Beg your pardon, this is no
+time for thinking of anything but your Grandfather's life. Dr. Jones
+said you were not to see him at present." The truth must be told, for
+in another moment the boy would have been off on the wings of the wind.
+
+"And do you think that I will mind in the least what that beastly
+doctor says?" cried Tom, getting redder and redder in the face, his
+rage was so great. "Hoh! no, sir."
+
+"Then your Grandfather's life will be paid as a sacrifice," said Jasper
+calmly. And he stood quite still; and surveyed the boy before him.
+
+Neither spoke. It seemed to Jasper an age that they stood there in
+silence. At last Tom wavered, put out his hand unsteadily, leaned
+against a steamer chair, and turned his face away.
+
+"Let us do a bit of a turn on the deck," said Jasper, suddenly,
+overcoming by a mighty effort his repugnance to the idea.
+
+Tom shook his head, and swallowed hard.
+
+"Oh, yes," said Jasper, summoning all the cheerfulness he could muster
+to his aid. "Come, it's the very thing to do, if you really want to
+help your Grandfather."
+
+Tom raised his head and looked at him. "I never supposed the old man
+was sick," he said brokenly, and down went his head again, this time
+upon his hands, which were grasping the top of the chair.
+
+"I don't believe you did," answered Jasper. "But come, Tom, let's walk
+around the deck; we can talk just as well meanwhile."
+
+Two or three young men, with cigarettes in their mouths, came
+sauntering up. "Tom Selwyn, you're a pretty fellow--"
+
+Tom raised his head and looked at them defiantly.
+
+"To give us the slip like this," cried one, with a sneer, in which the
+others joined, with a curious look at Jasper.
+
+"Well, come on now," said one. "Yes--yes--come along," said another;
+"we've waited long enough for you to get back."
+
+"I'm not coming," declared Tom, shortly.
+
+"Not coming back? Well--" One of the young men said something under his
+breath, and the first speaker turned on his heel, tossing his cigarette
+over the railing.
+
+"No," said Tom, "I'm not coming. Did you hear me?"
+
+"I believe I had that pleasure," said the last named, "as I am not
+deaf. Come on, fellows; our little boy has got to wait on his
+Grandpappy. Good-by, kid!" He snapped his fingers; the other two
+laughed derisively, and sauntered off down the deck as they came.
+
+Tom shook with passion. "I'd like to walk," he said, drawing a long
+breath, and setting off unsteadily.
+
+"All right," said Jasper, falling into step beside him.
+
+Meantime the old gentleman, in his large handsome state-room, showed no
+sign of returning to the consciousness that had come back for a brief
+moment. And he held to Polly's hand so tightly, as she sat at the head
+of the berth, that there was no chance of withdrawing her fingers had
+she so desired. And Father Fisher with whom Dr. Jones had of course
+made acquaintance, before the steamer fairly sailed, sat there keeping
+watch too, in a professional way, the ship's doctor having called him
+in consultation over the case. And Phronsie, who had been in deep
+penitence because she had wandered off from the library with another
+little girl, to gaze over the railing upon the steerage children below,
+thereby missing Polly, was in such woe over it all that she was allowed
+to cuddle up against Polly's side and hold her other hand. And there
+she sat as still as a mouse, hardly daring to breathe. And Mr. King,
+feeling as if, after all, the case was pretty much under his
+supervision, came softly in at intervals to see that all was well, and
+that the dreadful boy was kept out.
+
+And the passengers all drifted back to their steamer chairs, glad of
+some new topic to discuss, for the gossip they had brought on board was
+threadbare now, as they were two days at sea. And the steamer sailed
+over the blue water that softly lapped the stout vessel's side,
+careless of the battle that had been waged for a life, even then
+holding by slender threads. And Fanny Vanderburgh, whose grandfather
+was a contemporary in the old business days in New York with Mr. King,
+and who sat with her mother at the next table to the King party, spent
+most of her time running to Mrs. Pepper's state-room, or interviewing
+any one who would be able to give her the slightest encouragement as to
+when she could claim Polly Pepper.
+
+"O dear me!" Fanny cried, on one such occasion, when she happened to
+run across Jasper. "I've been down to No. 45 four times this morning,
+and there's nobody there but that stupid Matilda, and she doesn't know
+or won't tell when Polly will get through reading to that tiresome old
+man. And they won't let me go to his state-room. Mrs. Fisher and your
+father are there, too, or I'd get them to make Polly come out on deck.
+We all want her for a game of shuffle-board."
+
+Jasper sighed. So did he long for a game of shuffle-board. Then he
+brought himself up, and said as brightly as he could: "Mr. Selwyn begs
+Polly to stay, and won't have any one else read to him, Miss
+Vanderburgh, so I don't see as it can be helped. He's been very sick,
+you know."
+
+Fanny Vanderburgh beat the toe of her boot on the deck floor. "It's a
+perfect shame. And that horrible old man, he's so seedy and
+common--just think of it--and spoiling all our fun!"
+
+Jasper looked off over the sea, and said nothing.
+
+"As for that dreadful boy, his grandson, I think he's a boor. Goodness
+me--I hope nobody will introduce him. I'm sure I never'll recognise him
+afterward."
+
+Jasper turned uneasily. "Please, Mr. King, do make Polly listen to
+reason," begged Fanny. "There isn't another girl on board I care to go
+with--at least not in the way I would with her. The Griswolds are well
+enough to play games with, and all that; but you know what I mean. Do
+make her come out with us this morning, and listen to reason," she
+repeated, winding up helplessly.
+
+"But I think she is just right," said Jasper, stoutly.
+
+"Right!" cried Fanny, explosively; "oh, how can you say so, Mr. Jasper!
+Why, she is losing just every bit of the fun."
+
+"I know it," said Jasper, with a twinge at the thought. "Well, there is
+nothing more to be said or done, Miss Vanderburgh, since Polly has
+decided the matter. Only I want you to remember that I think she is
+just right about it."
+
+Fanny Vanderburgh pouted her pretty lips in vexation. "At least, don't
+try to get that dreadful boy into our own set to play games," she cried
+venomously, "for I won't speak to him. He's a perfect boor. 'Twas only
+yesterday he brushed by me like a clumsy elephant, and knocked my book
+out of my hand, and never even picked it up. Think of that, Mr. King!"
+
+"I know--that was dreadful," assented Jasper, in dismay at the obstacle
+to the plan he had formed in his own mind, to do that very thing he was
+now being warned against. "But you see, Miss Vanderburgh, he's all
+upset by his Grandfather's sickness."
+
+"And I should think he would be," cried Fanny Vanderburgh, with spirit.
+"Mrs. Griswold says she's heard him domineering over the old man, and
+then his Grandfather would snarl and scold like everything. She has the
+next state-room, you know. I don't see how those Selwyns can afford
+such a nice cabin," continued Fanny, her aristocratic nose in the air,
+"they look so poor. Anyway that boy is a perfect beast, Mr. King."
+
+"He's very different now," said Jasper, quickly. "He had no idea his
+Grandfather was so poorly. Now I'll tell you, Miss Vanderburgh," Jasper
+turned sharply around on his heel so that he faced her. It was
+necessary with a girl like her to state plainly what he had to say, and
+to keep to it. "I am going to ask Tom Selwyn to play games with all us
+young people. If it distresses you, or any one else, so that you cannot
+join, of course I will withdraw, and I know Polly will, and we will get
+up another circle that will play with him."
+
+It was almost impossible to keep from laughing at Fanny's face, but
+Jasper was very grave as he waited for an answer. "O dear me, Mr.
+Jasper," she cried, "haven't I told you I don't really care for any one
+on board but Polly Pepper, and Mamma doesn't want me to mix up much
+with those Griswolds?" She lowered her voice and glanced over her
+shoulder. "It would make it so awkward if they should be much in New
+York, and we should meet. So of course I've got to do as Polly and you
+do. Don't you see?--it's awfully hard on me, though," and she clasped
+her hands in vexation.
+
+"Very well, then," said Jasper; "now that's decided. And seeing it is,
+why the next thing to do, is to bring Tom down, and we'll get up a game
+of shuffle-board at once. He's not needed by his Grandfather now." He
+didn't think it necessary to add, "for the old gentleman won't see him,
+and Tom is forbidden the room by the doctor."
+
+Fanny's aristocratic nose went up in alarm, and her whole face was
+overspread with dismay. It was one thing to anticipate evil, and quite
+another to find it precipitated upon one. "I--I don't--believe I can
+play this morning, Mr. Jasper," she began hurriedly, for the first time
+in her young life finding herself actually embarrassed. She was even
+twisting her fingers.
+
+"Very well," said Jasper, coolly, "then I understand that you will not
+play with us at any time, for, as we begin to-day, we shall keep on. I
+will set about getting up another party at once." He touched his yacht
+cap lightly, and turned off.
+
+"I'll go right down on the lower deck with you now." Fanny ran after
+him, her little boot heels clicking excitedly on the hard floor. "The
+steward has marked it all for us. I got him to, while I ran to find
+Polly so as to engage the place," she added breathlessly.
+
+"That's fine," said Jasper, a smile breaking over the gloom on his
+face; "now we'll have a prime game, Miss Vanderburgh."
+
+Fanny swallowed hard the lump in her throat, and tried to look
+pleasant. "Do you go and collect the Griswolds," cried Jasper,
+radiantly, "and I'll be back with Tom," and he plunged off. It was all
+done in a minute. And the thing that had been worrying him--how to get
+Tom into good shape, and to keep him there--seemed fixed in the best
+way possible. But Tom wouldn't go. Nothing that Jasper could do or say
+would move him out of the gloom into which he was cast, and at last
+Jasper ran down for a hurried game with the party awaiting him, to whom
+he explained matters in the best way he could.
+
+At last, old Mr. Selwyn was able to emerge from his state-room. Mr.
+King and he were the best of friends by this time, the former always,
+when Polly read aloud, being one of the listeners. At all such hours,
+indeed, and whenever Polly went to sit by the invalid, Phronsie would
+curl up at Polly's side, and fondle the doll that Grandpapa gave her
+last, which had the honour to take the European trip with the family.
+Phronsie would smooth the little dress down carefully, and then with
+her hand in Polly's, she would sit motionless till the reading was
+over. Mamsie, whose fingers could not be idle, although the big mending
+basket was left at home, would be over on the sofa, sewing busily; and
+little Dr. Fisher would run in and out, and beaming at them all through
+his spectacles, would cry cheerily, "Well, I declare, you have the most
+comfortable place on the whole boat, Mr. Selwyn." Or Dr. Jones, whom
+Polly thought, next to Papa Fisher, was the very nicest doctor in all
+the world, would appear suddenly around the curtain, and smile approval
+through his white teeth. At last on the fifth day out, the old man was
+helped up to sun himself in his steamer chair on deck. And then he had
+a perfect coterie around him, oh-ing and ah-ing over his illness, and
+expressing sympathy in every shape, for since Mr. King and his party
+took him up, it was quite the thing for all the other passengers to
+follow suit.
+
+When a few hours of this sort of thing had been going on, the old man
+called abruptly to Polly Pepper, who had left him, seeing he had such
+good company about him, and had now skipped up with Jasper to toss him
+a merry word, or to see if his steamer rug was all tucked in snugly
+around him.
+
+"See here, Polly Pepper, do you play chess?"
+
+"What, sir?" Polly thought she had not heard correctly.
+
+"Do you play chess, I say?" demanded old Mr. Selwyn, bringing his sharp
+little eyes to bear on her.
+
+"No, sir, that is--only a little," stammered Polly.
+
+"Well, that will do for a start," the old gentleman nodded in
+satisfaction. "And I'll give you some points later on about the game.
+Well, and you play backgammon, of course." He didn't wait for her to
+answer, but finished, "These people here drive me almost crazy, asking
+me how I feel, and what was the matter with me, and all that rubbish.
+Now, I'm going into the library, and you shall go too, and we'll have a
+game of backgammon."
+
+He flung back his steamer rug with a determined hand.
+
+Jasper began, "Oh, Polly!" in dismay, but she broke in, "Yes, indeed, I
+do play backgammon, Mr. Selwyn, and it will be fine to have a game."
+And together they helped him up and into a cosey corner of the library.
+
+"There, now," said Polly, with a final little pat on the sofa pillows
+tucked up at his back. "I believe you are as comfortable as you can be,
+Mr. Selwyn."
+
+"Indeed I am," he declared.
+
+"And now, Jasper, do get the backgammon board," cried Polly. "There it
+is over there," spying it on a further table.
+
+Old Mr. Selwyn cast a hungry glance on it as it was brought forward,
+and his sharp little eyes sparkled, as Polly threw it open. He even
+chuckled in delight as he set the men.
+
+Tom Selwyn came up to the door, and standing in its shadow, looked in.
+Jasper flung himself down on the sofa by the old gentleman's side to
+watch the game. Suddenly he glanced up, caught sight of Tom, although
+the latter's head was quickly withdrawn, and jumping up, he dashed
+after him.
+
+"Here--see here, Tom!" he called to the big figure before him, making
+good time down the stairs. "I can't go chasing you all over the boat in
+this fashion. Stop, will you?"
+
+"What do you want?" demanded Tom, crossly, feeling it impossible to
+elude such a pursuer, and backing up against a convenient angle.
+
+"I want you to come up into the library and watch the game. Do, it'll
+be the best time,"--he didn't say "to make it all up."
+
+"Can't," said Tom, "he won't see me."
+
+"Oh, yes, he will; I almost know he will," declared Jasper, eagerly
+feeling this minute as if the most unheard-of things were possible.
+
+"And beside, your sister--I mean the Pepper girl--Miss Pepper--" Tom
+corrected himself clumsily. "She can't bear me--I won't come."
+
+"Oh, yes, she can now," said Jasper, just as eagerly, "especially since
+I've told her all you've told me."
+
+"Well, I hate girls anyway," declared Tom, in his most savage fashion;
+"always have hated 'em, and always shall. I won't come!"
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+PHRONSIE GOES VISITING
+
+
+"Grandpapa," said Phronsie, softly, as she clung to his hand, after
+they had made the descent to the lower deck, "I think the littlest one
+can eat some of the fruit, don't you?" she asked anxiously.
+
+"Never you fear," assented old Mr. King, "that child that I saw
+yesterday can compass anything in the shape of food. Why, it had its
+mouth full of teeth, Phronsie; it was impossible not to see them when
+it roared."
+
+"I am so glad its teeth are there," said Phronsie, with a sigh of
+satisfaction, as she regarded her basket of fruit, "because if it
+hadn't any, we couldn't give it these nice pears, Grandpapa."
+
+"Well, here we are," said Mr. King, holding her hand tightly. "Bless
+me--are those your toes, young man?" this to a big chubby-faced boy,
+whose fat legs lay across the space as he sprawled on the deck; "just
+draw them in a bit, will you?--there. Well, now, Phronsie, this way.
+Here's the party, I believe," and he led her over to the other side,
+where a knot of steerage passengers were huddled together. In the midst
+sat a woman, chubby faced, and big and square, holding a baby. She had
+a big red shawl wrapped around her, in the folds of which snuggled the
+baby, who was contentedly chewing one end of it, while his mother had
+her eyes on the rest of her offspring, of which there seemed a good
+many. When the baby saw Phronsie, he stopped chewing the old shawl and
+grinned, showing all the teeth of which Mr. King had spoken. The other
+children, tow headed and also chubby, looked at the basket hanging on
+Phronsie's arm, and also grinned.
+
+"There is the baby!" exclaimed Phronsie, in delight, pulling
+Grandpapa's hand gently. "Oh, Grandpapa, there he is."
+
+"That's very evident," said the old gentleman. "Bless me!" addressing
+the woman, "how many children have you, pray tell?"
+
+"Nine," she said. Then she twitched the jacket of one of them, and the
+pinafore of another, to have them mind their manners, while the baby
+kicked and crowed and gurgled, seeming to be all teeth.
+
+"I have brought you some fruit," said Phronsie, holding out her basket,
+whereat all the tow headed group except the baby crowded each other
+dreadfully to see all there was in it. "I'm sorry the flowers are gone,
+so I couldn't bring any to-day. May the baby have this?" holding out a
+pear by the stem.
+
+The baby settled that question by lunging forward and seizing the pear
+with two fat hands, when he immediately sank into the depths of the old
+shawl again, all his teeth quite busy at work. Phronsie set down her
+basket on the deck, and the rest of the brood emptied it to their own
+satisfaction. Their mother's stolid face lighted up with a broad smile
+that showed all her teeth, and very white and even they were.
+
+"Grandpapa," said Phronsie, turning to him and clasping her hands, "if
+I only might hold that baby just one little bit of a minute," she
+begged, keenly excited.
+
+"Oh, Phronsie, he's too big," expostulated Mr. King, in dismay.
+
+"I can hold him just as easy, Grandpapa dear," said Phronsie, her lips
+drooping mournfully. "See." And she sat down on a big coil of rope near
+by and smoothed out her brown gown. "Please, Grandpapa dear."
+
+"He'll cry," said Mr. King, quickly. "Oh, no, Phronsie, it wouldn't do
+to take him away from his mother. You see it would be dreadful to set
+that child to roaring--very dreadful indeed." Yet he hung over her in
+distress at the drooping little face.
+
+"He won't cry." The mother's stolid face lighted up a moment. "And if
+the little lady wants to hold him, he'll sit there."
+
+"May I, Grandpapa?" cried Phronsie, her red lips curling into a happy
+smile. "Oh, please say I may, Grandpapa dear," clasping her hands.
+
+"The family seems unusually clean," observed Mr. King to himself. "And
+the doctor says there's no sickness on board, and it's a very different
+lot of steerage folks going this way from coming out, all of which I've
+settled before coming down here," he reflected. "Well, Phronsie--yes--I
+see no reason why you may not hold the baby if you want to." And before
+the words were hardly out of his mouth, the chubby-faced woman had set
+the fat baby in the middle of the brown gown smoothed out to receive
+him. He clung to his pear with both hands and ate away with great
+satisfaction, regardless of his new resting-place.
+
+"Just come here!" Mrs. Griswold, in immaculately fitting garments,
+evidently made up freshly for steamer use, beckoned with a hasty hand
+to her husband. "It's worth getting up to see." He flung down his novel
+and tumbled out of his steamer chair. "Look down there!"
+
+"_Whew!_" whistled Mr. Griswold; "that _is_ a sight!"
+
+"And that is the great Horatio King!" exclaimed Mrs. Griswold under her
+breath; "down there in that dirty steerage--and look at that
+child--Reginald, did you ever see such a sight in your life?"
+
+"On my honour, I never have," declared Mr. Griswold, solemnly, and
+wanting to whistle again.
+
+"Sh!--don't speak so loud," warned Mrs. Griswold, who was doing most of
+the talking herself. And plucking his sleeve, she emphasised every word
+with fearful distinctness close to his ear. "She's got a dirty steerage
+baby in her lap, and Mr. King is laughing. Well, I never! O dear me,
+here come the young people!"
+
+Polly and Jasper came on a brisk trot up the deck length. "Fifteen
+times around make a mile, don't they, Jasper?" she cried.
+
+"I believe they do," said Jasper, "but it isn't like home miles, is it,
+Polly?"--laughing gaily--"or dear old Badgertown?"
+
+"I should think not," replied Polly, with a little pang at her heart
+whenever Badgertown was mentioned. "We used to run around the little
+brown house, and see how many times we could do it without stopping."
+
+"And how many did you, Polly?" asked Jasper,--"the largest number, I
+mean."
+
+"Oh, I don't know," said Polly, with a little laugh; "Joel beat us
+always, I remember that."
+
+"Yes, Joe would get over the ground, you may be sure," said Jasper, "if
+anybody could."
+
+Polly's laugh suddenly died away and her face fell. "Jasper, you don't
+know," she said, "how I do want to see those boys."
+
+"I know," said Jasper, sympathisingly, "but you'll get a letter, you
+know, most as soon as we reach port, for they were going to mail it
+before we left."
+
+"And I have one every day in my mail-bag," said Polly, "but I want to
+_see_ them so, Jasper, I don't know what to do." She went up to the
+rail at a remove from the Griswolds and leaned over it.
+
+"Polly," said Jasper, taking her hand, "you know your mother will feel
+dreadfully if she knows you are worrying about it."
+
+"I know it," said Polly, bravely, raising her head; "and I won't--why
+Jasper Elyot King!" for then she saw Grandpapa and Phronsie and the
+steerage baby.
+
+Jasper gave a halloo, and waved his hand, and Polly danced up and down
+and called, and waved her hands too. And Phronsie gave a little crow of
+delight. "See, Grandpapa, there they are; I want Polly--and Jasper,
+too." And old Mr. King whirled around. "O dear me! Come down, both of
+you," which command it did not take them long to obey.
+
+"Well, I never did in all my life," ejaculated Mrs. Griswold, "see
+anything like that. Now if some people"--she didn't say "we"--"should
+do anything like that, 'twould be dreadfully erratic and queer. But
+those Kings can do anything," she added, with venom.
+
+"It's pretty much so," assented Mr. Griswold, giving a lazy shake.
+"Well, I'm going back to my chair if you've got through with me,
+Louisa." And he sauntered off.
+
+"Don't go, Reginald," begged his wife; "I haven't got a soul to talk
+to."
+
+"Oh, well, you can talk to yourself," said her husband, "any woman
+can." But he paused a moment.
+
+"Haven't those Pepper children got a good berth?" exclaimed Mrs.
+Griswold, unable to keep her eyes off from the small group below. "And
+their Mother Pepper, or Fisher, or whatever her name is--I declare it's
+just like a novel, the way I heard the story from Mrs. Vanderburgh
+about it all."
+
+"And I wish you'd let me get back to my book, Louisa," exclaimed Mr.
+Griswold, tartly, at the mention of the word "novel," beginning to look
+longingly at his deserted steamer chair, "for it's precious little time
+I get to read on shore. Seems as if I might have a little peace at sea."
+
+"Do go back and read, then," said his wife, impatiently; "that's just
+like a man,--he can't talk of anything but business, or he must have
+his nose in a book."
+
+"We men want to talk sense," growled her husband, turning off. But Mrs.
+Griswold was engrossed in her survey of Mr. King and the doings of his
+party, and either didn't hear or didn't care what was remarked outside
+of that interest.
+
+Tom Selwyn just then ran up against some one as clumsily as ever. It
+proved to be the ship's doctor, who surveyed him coldly and passed on.
+Tom gave a start and swallowed hard, then plunged after him. "Oh, I
+say."
+
+"What is it?" asked Dr. Jones, pausing.
+
+"Can I--I'd like--to see my Grandfather, don't you know?"
+
+Dr. Jones scanned him coolly from top to toe. Tom took it without
+wincing, but inwardly he felt as if he must shake to pieces.
+
+"If you can so conduct yourself that your Grandfather will not be
+excited," at last said the doctor,--what an age it seemed to Tom,--"I
+see no reason why you shouldn't see your Grandfather, and go back to
+your state-room. But let me tell you, young man, it was a pretty close
+shave for him the other day. Had he slipped away, you'd have had that
+on your conscience that would have lasted you for many a day." With
+this, and a parting keen glance, he turned on his heel and strode off.
+
+Tom gave a great gasp, clenched his big hands tightly together, took a
+long look at the wide expanse of water, then disappeared within.
+
+In about half an hour, the steerage baby having gone to sleep in
+Phronsie's arms, the brothers and sisters, finding, after the closest
+inspection, nothing more to eat in the basket, gathered around the
+centre of attraction in a small bunch.
+
+"I hope they won't wake up the baby," said Phronsie, in gentle alarm.
+
+"Never you fear," said old Mr. King, quite comfortable now in the
+camp-chair one of the sailors had brought in response to a request from
+Jasper; "that child knows very well by this time, I should imagine,
+what noise is."
+
+But after a little, the edge of their curiosity having been worn off,
+the small group began to get restive, and to clamour and pull at their
+mother for want of something better to do.
+
+"O dear me!" said Phronsie, in distress.
+
+"Dear, dear!" echoed Polly, vainly trying to induce the child next to
+the baby to get into her lap; "something must be done. Oh, don't you
+want to hear about a funny cat, children? I'm going to tell them about
+Grandma Bascom's, Jasper," she said, seeing the piteous look in
+Phronsie's eyes.
+
+"Yes, we do," said one of the boys, as spokesman, and he solemnly
+bobbed his tow head, whereat all the children then bobbed theirs.
+
+"Sit down, then," said Polly, socially making way for them, "all of you
+in a circle, and I'll tell you of that very funny cat." So the whole
+bunch of tow-headed children sat down in a ring, and solemnly folded
+their hands in their laps. Jasper threw himself down where he could
+edge himself in. Old Mr. King leaned back and surveyed them with great
+satisfaction. So Polly launched out in her gayest mood, and the big
+blue eyes in the round faces before her widened, and the mouths flew
+open, showing the white teeth; and the stolid mother leaned forward,
+and her eyes and mouth looked just like those of her children, only
+they were bigger; and at last Polly drew a long breath and wound up
+with a flourish, "And that's all."
+
+"Tell another," said one of the round-eyed, open-mouthed children,
+without moving a muscle. All the rest sat perfectly still.
+
+"O dear me," said Polly, with a little laugh, "that was such a good
+long one, you can't want another."
+
+"I think you've gotten yourself into business, Polly," said Jasper,
+with a laugh. "Hadn't we better go?"
+
+Polly gave a quick glance at Phronsie. "Phronsie dear," she said, "let
+us go up to our deck now, dear. Shall we?"
+
+"Oh, no, Polly, please don't go yet," begged Phronsie, in alarm, and
+patting the baby softly with a gentle little hand. Polly looked off at
+Grandpapa. He was placidly surveying the water, his eyes occasionally
+roving over the novel and interesting sights around. On the other side
+of the deck a returning immigrant was bringing out a jew's-harp, and
+two or three of his fellow-passengers were preparing to pitch quoits.
+Old Mr. King was actually smiling at it all. Polly hadn't seen him so
+contented since they sailed.
+
+"I guess I'll tell another one, Jasper," she said. "Oh, about a dog,
+you wanted, did you?" nodding at the biggest boy.
+
+"Yes," said the boy, bobbing his tow head, "I did;" and he unfolded and
+folded his hands back again, then waited patiently.
+
+So Polly flew off on a gay little story about a dog that bade fair to
+rival Grandma Bascom's cat for cleverness. He belonged to Mr. Atkins
+who kept store in Badgertown, and the Pepper children used to see a
+good deal of him, when they took home the sacks and coats that Mamsie
+sewed for the storekeeper. And in the midst of the story, when the
+stolid steerage children were actually laughing over the antics of that
+remarkable dog, Jasper glanced up toward the promenade deck, took a
+long look, and started to his feet. "Why, Polly Pepper, see!" He
+pointed upward. There, on the curve, were old Mr. Selwyn and Tom
+walking arm in arm.
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+STEAMER LIFE
+
+
+And after that, it was "My grandson, Thomas," on all occasions, the old
+gentleman introducing the boy to the right and to the left, as he
+paraded the deck, his old arm within the younger one. And the little,
+sharp black eyes snapped proudly and the white head was held up, as he
+laughed and chattered away sociably to the passengers and the ship's
+crew, at every good opportunity.
+
+"Yes, my grandson, Thomas, is going back to school. We've been running
+about in your country a bit, and the boy's mother went home first with
+the other children--" Polly heard him say as the two paused in front of
+her steamer chair.
+
+"Indeed!" ejaculated Mrs. Vanderburgh, as he addressed her, and raising
+her eyebrows with a supercilious glance for his plain, unprepossessing
+appearance. "Yes, Madam, and glad shall I be to set my foot on Old
+England again Hey, Tom, my boy, don't you say so?"
+
+Tom looked off over the sea, but did not speak.
+
+Neither did Mrs. Vanderburgh answer, but turned her face away in
+disdain that was very plainly marked.
+
+"Home is the best place, Madam," declared old Mr. Selwyn emphatically.
+"Well, Old England is our home, and nothing will induce me to leave it
+again, I can assure you."
+
+Again Mrs. Vanderburgh did not reply, but looked him up and down in
+cold silence. Old Mr. Selwyn, not appearing to notice, chattered on. At
+last she deliberately turned her back on him.
+
+"Isn't he common and horrid?" whispered Fanny Vanderburgh, in the
+steamer chair next to Polly, thrusting her face in between her and her
+book. And she gave a little giggle.
+
+"Hush!" said Polly, warningly, "he will hear you."
+
+"Nonsense--it's impossible; he is rattling on so; and do look at
+Mamma's face!"
+
+He didn't hear, but Tom did; and he flashed a glance--dark and
+wrathful--over at the two girls, and started forward, abruptly pulling
+his Grandfather along.
+
+"O dear me!" exclaimed Polly, in distress, dropping her book in her
+lap; "now he _has_ heard."
+
+"Oh, that dreadful boy," said Fanny, carelessly, stretching out in her
+steamer chair comfortably; "well, who cares? he's worse than his
+Grandfather."
+
+"Yes, he has heard," repeated Polly, sorrowfully looking after the two,
+Tom still propelling the old gentleman along the deck at a lively rate;
+"now, what shall we do?"
+
+"It isn't of the least consequence if he has heard," reiterated Fanny,
+"and Mamma has been frightfully bored, I know. Do tell us, Mamma," she
+called.
+
+Mrs. Vanderburgh turned away from the rail, where she had paused in her
+constitutional when addressed by the old gentleman, and came up to the
+girls.
+
+"Do sit down, Mamma, in your steamer chair," begged Fanny; "I'll tuck
+you up in your rug." And she jumped lightly out of her own chair.
+"There, that's nice," as Mrs. Vanderburgh sank gracefully down, and
+Fanny patted and pulled the rug into shape. "Now tell us, wasn't he the
+most horrible old bore?"
+
+As she cuddled back into her own nest, Mrs. Vanderburgh laughed in a
+very high-bred manner. "He was very amusing," she said.
+
+"Amusing! I should say so!" cried Fanny. "I suppose he would have told
+you all his family history if he had stayed. O dear me, he is such a
+common, odious old person."
+
+Polly twisted uneasily under her rug.
+
+Mrs. Vanderburgh glanced into the steamer chair on the other side. It
+had several books on top of the rug. "I don't believe he can take that
+seat," she said; "still, Fanny, I think it would be well for you to
+change into it, for that old man may take it into his head, when he
+makes the turn of the deck, to drop into it and give us the whole of
+his family history."
+
+"Horrors!" ejaculated Fanny, hopping out of her chair again. "I'll make
+sure that he doesn't. And yet I did so want to sit next to Polly
+Pepper," she mourned, ensconcing herself under the neighbouring rug,
+and putting the books on the floor by her side.
+
+"Don't do that; give them to me," said her mother; "I'll put them in
+your chair unless Miss Polly will take that place, only I don't like to
+disturb you, dear," she said with a sweet smile at Polly.
+
+"Why, that would make matters' worse, Mamma," said Fanny. "Don't you
+see, then, that old bore would put himself into Polly's chair, for he
+likes her, anyway. Do leave it as it is."
+
+So Mrs. Vanderburgh smiled again. "I don't know but that you are
+right," she said, and leaned back her head restfully. "Dear me, yes, he
+_is_ amusing."
+
+"They are terribly common people," said Fanny, her aristocratic nose
+well in the air, "aren't they, Mamma? And did you ever see such a
+clumsy thing as that dreadful boy, and such big hands and feet?" She
+held up her own hands as she spoke, and played with her rings, and let
+the jingling bracelets run up and down her wrists.
+
+"Fanny, how often must I tell you to wear gloves on shipboard?" said
+her mother, in a tone of reproof. "Nothing spoils the hands so much as
+a trip at sea. They won't get over it all summer; they're coarsened
+already," and she cast an alarmed glance at the long, slender fingers.
+
+"I'm so tired of gloves, Mamma." Fanny gave a restful yawn. "Polly
+Pepper doesn't wear them," she cried triumphantly, peering past her
+mother to point to Polly's hands.
+
+Mrs. Vanderburgh hesitated. It wouldn't do to say anything that would
+reflect against the Peppers--manners, or customs, or bringing up
+generally. So she leaned over and touched Polly's fingers with her own
+gloved ones.
+
+"You don't wear gloves, do you, my dear?" she said, in gentle surprise,
+quite as if the idea had just struck her for the first time.
+
+"No, Mrs. Vanderburgh, I don't," said Polly, "at least not on
+shipboard, unless it is cold."
+
+"There, now, Mamma," laughed Fanny, in a pleased way; "you'll stop
+teasing me about wearing them, I'm sure."
+
+Mrs. Vanderburgh turned and surveyed her daughter; but she didn't
+smile, and Fanny thought it as well to begin again on the old topic.
+
+"They're awfully common people, aren't they, Mamma,--those Selwyns?"
+
+"They are, indeed," replied Mrs. Vanderburgh, "quite commonplace, and
+exceedingly tiresome; be sure and not speak to them, Fanny."
+
+"Trust me for that," said Fanny, with a wise little nod. "The old man
+stopped me and asked me something this morning, as I was coming out of
+the dining room, after breakfast, but I pretended I didn't hear, and I
+skipped upstairs and almost fell on my nose."
+
+"You were fortunate to escape," said her mother, with a little laugh.
+"Well, let us drop the subject and talk of something else much more
+important. Polly, my dear." She turned again and surveyed the young
+girl at her side. "You are coming home this autumn, aren't you?"
+
+"Oh, no," said Polly, "Grandpapa expects to stay over in Europe a year."
+
+"Is that so?" said Mrs. Vanderburgh, and her face fell; "I regret it
+exceedingly, for I should be glad if you would visit Fanny this winter
+in New York."
+
+"Thank you; but I couldn't anyway," said Polly. Then the colour flew up
+to her cheek. "I mean I am in school, you know, Mrs. Vanderburgh, but I
+thank you, and it is so good of you to want me," she added, hurriedly,
+feeling that she hadn't said the right thing at all.
+
+"I do want you very much, my dear child," said Mrs. Vanderburgh, "and I
+am very sorry you are to remain abroad over the winter, for your
+Grandfather would be persuaded, I feel quite sure, to have you leave
+school for a while, and come to us for a visit."
+
+"Oh, no, he wouldn't," cried Polly, quickly. "I beg pardon, Mrs.
+Vanderburgh, but I never leave school for anything unless I am sick,
+and I am almost never sick."
+
+"Well, then, you could come for the Christmas holidays," said Mrs.
+Vanderburgh, with ladylike obstinacy like one accustomed to carrying
+her point.
+
+"The Christmas holidays!" exclaimed Polly, starting forward in her
+chair. "Oh, I wouldn't leave home for anything, then, Mrs. Vanderburgh.
+Why, we have the most beautiful times, and we are all together--the
+boys come home from school--and it's just too lovely for anything!" She
+clasped her hands and sighed--oh, if she could but see Ben and Joel and
+David but once!
+
+Mrs. Vanderburgh was a very tall woman, and she gazed down into the
+radiant face, without speaking; Polly was looking off over the sea, and
+the colour came and went on her cheek.
+
+"We would soon get her out of all such notions, if we once had her with
+us, wouldn't we, Mamma?" said Fanny, in a low tone close to her
+mother's ear.
+
+Mrs. Vanderburgh gave her a warning pinch, but Polly's brown eyes were
+fastened on the distant horizon, and she hadn't heard a word.
+
+"Well, we'll arrange it sometime," said Fanny's mother, breaking the
+silence; "so you must remember, Polly dear, that you are engaged to us
+for a good long visit when you do come home."
+
+"I will tell Grandpapa that you asked me," said Polly, bringing her
+eyes back with a sigh to look into Mrs. Vanderburgh's face.
+
+"Oh, he will fall into the plan quite readily, I think," said Mrs.
+Vanderburgh, lightly. "You know we are all very old friends--that is,
+the families are--Mr. Vanderburgh's father and Mr. King were very
+intimate. Perhaps you don't know, Polly,"--and Fanny's mamma drew
+herself up to her extreme height; it was impossible for her to loll
+back in her chair when talking of her family,--"that we are related to
+the Earl of Cavendish who owns the old estate in England, and we go
+back to William the Conqueror; that is, Fanny does on her father's
+side."
+
+Fanny thereupon came up out of her chair depths to sit quite straight
+and gaze with importance at Polly's face. But Polly was still thinking
+of the boys, and she said nothing.
+
+"And my family is just as important," said Mrs. Vanderburgh, and she
+smiled in great satisfaction. "Really, we could make things very
+pleasant for you, my child; our set is so exclusive, you could not
+possibly meet any one but the very best people. Oh, here is your
+mother." She smiled enchantingly up at Mrs. Fisher, and held out her
+hand. "Do come and sit here with us, my dear Mrs. Fisher," she begged,
+"then we shall be a delightful group, we two mothers and our daughters."
+
+"Thank you, Mrs. Vanderburgh." Mrs. Fisher smiled, but she didn't offer
+to take the steamer chair. "I have come after Polly."
+
+"Mamsie, what is it? I'll come," said Polly, tumbling out of her
+steamer chair in a twinkling.
+
+"O dear me!" exclaimed Mrs. Vanderburgh, in regret, "don't take Polly
+away, I do implore you, my dear Mrs. Fisher--I am _so_ fond of her."
+
+"I must," said Mother Fisher, smiling again, her hand now in Polly's,
+and before any more remonstrances were made, they were off.
+
+"Oh, Mamsie!" breathed Polly, hanging to the dear hand, "I am so glad
+you came, and took me away."
+
+"Polly," said Mother Fisher, suddenly, "Grandpapa asked me to find you;
+he thinks you could cheer old Mr. Selwyn up a bit, perhaps, with
+backgammon. I'm afraid Tom has been behaving badly again."
+
+"Oh, Mamsie!" exclaimed Polly, in dismay. And then the story came out.
+
+"Grandpapa," said Phronsie, pulling at his hand gently, as they walked
+slowly up and down the deck, "does your head ache?" And she peered
+anxiously up into his face.
+
+"No, child--that is, not much," said old Mr. King, trying to smooth his
+brows out. He was thinking--for it kept obtruding at all times and
+seasons--of that dreadful scrap of paper that Cousin Eunice had imposed
+upon him at the last minute before they sailed, announcing that she had
+had her way, and would at last compel acceptance of such a gift as she
+chose to make to Phronsie Pepper.
+
+"If it aches at all," said Phronsie, decidedly, "I wish you would let
+me rub it for you, Grandpapa. I do, truly."
+
+"Well, it doesn't," said Grandpapa; "that is it won't, now that I have
+you with me. I was thinking of something unpleasant, Phronsie, and
+then, to tell you the truth, that old Mr. Selwyn tires me to death. I
+can't talk to him, and his grandson is a cad."
+
+"What is a cad?" asked Phronsie, wonderingly.
+
+"Oh, well, a boy who isn't nice," said Mr. King, carelessly.
+
+"Grandpapa, why isn't that boy nice to that poor old man?" asked
+Phronsie, a grieved look coming into her blue eyes.
+
+"Goodness me, child, you ask me too much," said Mr. King, quickly; "oh,
+a variety of reasons. Well, we must take things as we find them, and do
+what we can to help matters along; but it seems a hopeless
+case,--things were in better shape; and now they seem all tangled up
+again, thanks to that boy."
+
+"Grandpapa," said Phronsie, earnestly, "I don't believe that boy means
+to be bad to that poor old man, I don't really and truly, Grandpapa,"
+she added, shaking her head.
+
+"Well, he takes a queer way to show it, if he means to be good," said
+old Mr. King, grimly.
+
+"Oh, is that you, Master Tom?" as they turned a corner to find
+themselves face to face with Tom Selwyn.
+
+"Mr. King," Tom began very rapidly so that the words ran all over each
+other, "I'm no end sorry--don't think hard things of me--it's not my
+fault this time; Grandfather heard it as well as I--at least, I caught
+a little and he asked me what it was, and I had to tell him, and it
+upset him."
+
+Old Mr. King stood gazing into the big boy's face in utter
+bewilderment. "As I don't know in the least what you are trying to tell
+me, my boy," at last he said, "I shall have to ask you to repeat it,
+and go slowly."
+
+So Tom tried again to tell his story, and by the time that it was all
+out, Mr. King was fuming in righteous indignation.
+
+"Well, well, it's not worth thinking of," at last he said at sight of
+the flashing eyes before him and the angry light on the young face.
+"You take my arm, or I'll take yours, Master Tom,--there, that's
+better,--and we'll do a bit of a turn on the deck. Your grandfather'll
+come out of it, for he's busy over the backgammon board. But it was an
+ugly thing to do just the same."
+
+Just then Mrs. Vanderburgh and Fanny passed them, all sweet smiles for
+him and for Phronsie, but with no eyes for the boy.
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+A FISH STORY AND OTHER THINGS
+
+
+"Oh, Polly! Polly!" Phronsie came running along the deck, and up to the
+little group playing shuffle-board; "there's such a very big whale."
+And she clasped her hands in great excitement. "There truly is. Do come
+and see him."
+
+"Is there, Pet?" cried Polly, throwing down her shovel, "then we must
+all go and see him. Come, Jasper, and all of you," and she seized
+Phronsie's hand.
+
+"He is very dreadful big," said Phronsie, as they sped on, Jasper and
+the other players close behind. "And he puffed, Polly, and the water
+went up, oh, so high!"
+
+"That's because he came up to breathe," said Polly, as they raced
+along. "Dear me, I hope he won't be gone when we get there."
+
+"Can't he breathe under the water?" asked Phronsie, finding it rather
+hard work to perform that exercise herself in such a race. "What does
+he stay down there for, then, say, Polly?"
+
+"Oh, because he likes it," answered Polly, carelessly. "Take care,
+Phronsie, you're running into all those steamer chairs."
+
+"I'm sorry he can't breathe," said Phronsie, anxiously trying to steer
+clear of the bunch of steamer chairs whose occupants had suddenly left
+them, too, to see the whale. "Poor whale--I'm sorry for him, Polly."
+
+"Oh, he's happy," said Polly, "he likes it just as it is. He comes up
+for a little while to blow and--"
+
+"I thought you said he came up to breathe, Polly," said Phronsie,
+tugging at Polly's hand, and guilty of interrupting.
+
+"Well, and so he does, and to blow, too,--it's just the same thing,"
+said Polly, quickly.
+
+"Is it just exactly the same?" asked Phronsie.
+
+"Yes, indeed; that is, in the whale's case," answered Polly, as they
+ran up to Grandpapa and the rest of their party, and the knots of other
+passengers, all staring hard at a certain point on the sparkling waste
+of water.
+
+"I thought you were never coming," said old Mr. King, moving away from
+the rail to tuck Polly and Phronsie in where they could get a good
+view. "Oh, there he is--there he is--Jasper, look!" cried Polly.
+
+"There he is!" crowed Phronsie, now much excited. "Oh, isn't he big,
+Grandpapa?"
+
+"I should say he was," declared Mr. King. "I think I never saw a finer
+whale in my life, Phronsie."
+
+"He comes up to blow," said Phronsie, softly to herself, her face
+pressed close to the rail, and her yellow hair floating off in the
+breeze; "and Polly says it doesn't hurt him, and he likes it."
+
+"What is it, Phronsie child?" asked old Mr. King, hearing her voice.
+
+"Grandpapa, has he got any little whales?" asked Phronsie, suddenly
+raising her face.
+
+"Oh, yes, I imagine so," said old Mr. King; "that is, he ought to have,
+I'm sure. Porpoises go in schools,--why shouldn't whales, pray tell?"
+
+"What's a porpoise?" asked Phronsie, with wide eyes.
+
+"Oh, he's a dolphin or a grampus."
+
+"Oh," said Phronsie, much mystified, "and does he go to school?"
+
+"Well, they go ever so many of them together, and they call it a
+school. Goodness me--that _is_ a blow!" as the whale spouted valiantly,
+and looked as if he were making directly for the steamer.
+
+"Oh, Grandpapa, he's coming right here!" screamed Phronsie, clapping
+her hands in delight, and hopping up and down,--Polly and Jasper were
+almost as much excited,--while the passengers ran hither and thither to
+get a good view, and levelled their big glasses, and oh-ed and ah-ed.
+And some of them ran to get their cameras. And Mr. Whale seemed to like
+it, for he spouted and flirted his long tail and dashed into the water
+and out again to blow, till they were all quite worn out looking at
+him. At last, with a final plunge, he bade them all good-by and
+disappeared.
+
+Phronsie, after her first scream of delight, had pressed her face close
+to the rail and held her breath. She did not say a word, but gazed in
+speechless enjoyment at the antics of the big fish. And Grandpapa had
+to speak two or three times when the show was all over before she heard
+him.
+
+"Did you like it, Phronsie?" he asked, gathering her hand up closely in
+his, as he leaned over to see her face.
+
+Phronsie turned away with a sigh. "Oh, Grandpapa, he was so beautiful!"
+She drew a long breath, then turned back longingly. "Won't he ever come
+back?" she asked.
+
+"Maybe not this one," said old Mr. King; "but we'll see plenty more, I
+imagine, Phronsie. At least, if not on this voyage,--why, some other
+time."
+
+"Oh, wasn't it splendid!" exclaimed Polly, tossing back the little
+rings of brown hair from her brow. "Well, he's gone; now we must run
+back, Jasper, and finish our game." And they were off, the other
+players following.
+
+"I'd like to see this very whale again," said Phronsie, with a small
+sigh; "Grandpapa, I would, really; he was a nice whale."
+
+"Yes, he was a fine one," said old Mr. King. "I don't know as I ever
+put eyes on a better specimen, and I've seen a great many in my life."
+
+"Tell me about them, do, Grandpapa," begged Phronsie, drawing nearer to
+him.
+
+"Well, I'll get into my steamer chair, and you shall sit in my lap, and
+then I'll tell you about some of them," said Mr. King, much gratified.
+As they moved off, Phronsie clinging to his hand, she looked back and
+saw two children gazing wistfully after them. "Grandpapa," she
+whispered, pulling his hand gently to attract attention, "may that
+little boy and girl come, too, and hear about your whales?"
+
+"Yes, to be sure," cried Mr. King. So Phronsie called them, and in a
+few minutes there was quite a big group around Grandpapa's steamer
+chair; for when the other children saw what was going on, they stopped,
+too, and before he knew, there he was perfectly surrounded.
+
+"I should very much like to hear what it is all about." Mrs.
+Vanderburgh's soft voice broke into a pause, when old Mr. King stopped
+to rest a bit. "You must be very fascinating, dear Mr. King; you have
+no idea how pretty your group is." She pulled Fanny forward gently into
+the outer fringe of the circle. "Pray, what is the subject?"
+
+"Nothing in the world but a fish story, Madam," said the old gentleman.
+
+"Oh, _may_ we stay and hear it?" cried Mrs. Vanderburgh,
+enthusiastically, clasping her gloved hands. "Fanny adores such things,
+don't you, dear?" turning to her.
+
+"Yes, indeed, Mamma," answered Fanny, trying to look very much pleased.
+
+"Take my word for it, you will find little to interest either of you,"
+said Mr. King.
+
+"Oh, I should be charmed," cried Mrs. Vanderburgh. "Fanny dear, draw up
+that steamer chair to the other side." But a stout, comfortable-looking
+woman coming down the deck stopped directly in front of that same
+chair, and before Fanny could move it, sat down, saying, "This is my
+chair, young lady."
+
+"That vulgar old woman has got it," said Fanny, coming back quite
+crestfallen.
+
+"Ugh!" Mrs. Vanderburgh shrugged her shoulders as she looked at the
+occupant of the chair, who surveyed her calmly, then fell to reading
+her book. "Well, you must just bear it, dear; it's one of the
+annoyances to be endured on shipboard."
+
+"I suppose the lady wanted her own chair," observed Mr. King, dryly.
+
+"Lady? Oh, my dear Mr. King!" Mrs. Vanderburgh gave a soft little
+laugh. "It's very good of you to put it that way, I'm sure. Well, now
+do let us hear that delightful story. Fanny dear, you can sit on part
+of my chair," she added, regardless of the black looks of a gentleman
+hovering near, who had a sharp glance on the green card hanging to the
+back of the chair she had appropriated and that bore his name.
+
+So Fanny perched on the end of the steamer chair, and Mr. King, not
+seeing any way out of it, went on in his recital of the whale story,
+winding up with an account of some wonderful porpoises he had seen, and
+a variety of other things, until suddenly he turned his head and keenly
+regarded Fanny's mother.
+
+"How intensely interesting!" she exclaimed, opening her eyes, and
+trying not to yawn. "Do go on, and finish about that whale," feeling
+that she must say something.
+
+"Mamma!" exclaimed Fanny, trying to stop her.
+
+"I ended up that whale some five minutes ago, Madam," said Mr. King. "I
+think you must have been asleep."
+
+"Oh, no, indeed, I have been charmed every moment," protested Mrs.
+Vanderburgh sitting quite erect. "You surely have the gift of a
+_raconteur_, Mr. King," she said, gracefully recovering herself. "O
+dear me, here is that odious boy and that tiresome old man!" as Tom
+Selwyn came up slowly, his Grandfather on his arm.
+
+Mr. King put Phronsie gently off from his lap, still keeping her hand
+in his. "Now, children, the story-telling is all done, the whales and
+porpoises are all finished up--so run away." He touched his sea-cap to
+Mrs. Vanderburgh and her daughter, then marched up to the old man and
+Tom.
+
+"I am tired of sitting still," he said. "May my little granddaughter
+and I join you in a walk?"
+
+Tom shot him a grateful look. Old Mr. Selwyn, who cared most of all for
+Polly, mumbled out something, but did not seem especially happy. But
+Mr. King did not appear to notice anything awry, but fell into step,
+still keeping Phronsie's hand, and they paced off.
+
+"If you know which side your bread is buttered, Mamma," said Fanny
+Vanderburgh, shrewdly, looking after them as they disappeared, "you'll
+make up to those dreadful Selwyn people."
+
+"Never!" declared her mother, firmly. "Fanny, are you wild? Why, you
+are a Vanderburgh and are related to the English nobility, and I am an
+Ashleigh. What would your father say to such a notion?"
+
+"Well, Papa isn't here," said Fanny, "and if he were, he'd do something
+to keep in with Mr. King. I hate and detest those dreadful Selwyns as
+much as you do, Mamma, but I'm going to cultivate them. See if I don't!"
+
+"And I forbid it," said her mother, forgetting herself and raising her
+voice. "They are low bred and common. And beside that, they are
+eccentric and queer. Don't you speak to them or notice them in the
+slightest."
+
+"Madam," said the gentleman of the black looks, advancing and touching
+his cap politely, "I regret to disturb you, but I believe you have my
+chair."
+
+Mrs. Vanderburgh begged pardon and vacated the chair, when the
+gentleman touched his cap again, and immediately drew the chair up to
+the one where the stout, comfortable-looking woman sat.
+
+"It seems to me there are more ill-bred, low-lived people on board this
+boat than it has been my lot to meet on any voyage," said Mrs.
+Vanderburgh, drawing her sea coat around her slight figure and sailing
+off, her daughter in her wake.
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+A LITTLE SURPRISE
+
+
+"Sir," said little Mr. Selwyn, bringing his sharp black eyes to bear
+upon old Mr. King, "you've been very good to me, and I've not been
+always pleasant. But it's my way, sir; it's my way."
+
+Mr. King nodded pleasantly, although deep in his heart he agreed with
+the choleric old gentleman. "But as for Polly, why, she's good--good as
+gold, sir." There was no mistaking Mr. Selwyn's sentiments there, and
+his old cheek glowed while giving what to him meant the most wonderful
+praise to be paid to a person.
+
+Old Mr. King straightened up. "You've said the right thing now," he
+declared.
+
+"And I wish I could see that girl when she's grown up," added the
+little old gentleman. "I want really to know what sort of a woman
+she'll make. I do, indeed, sir."
+
+"It isn't necessary to speculate much on it," answered Mr. King,
+confidently, "when you look at her mother and remember the bringing up
+that Polly Pepper has had."
+
+The little old gentleman squinted hard at the clouds scudding across
+the blue sky. "That's so," he said at last. "Well, I'm sorry we are to
+part," he added. "And, sir, I really wish you would come down to my
+place with your party and give me a fortnight during your stay in
+England. I really do, sir, upon me word." There was no mistaking his
+earnestness as he thrust out one thin, long-fingered hand. With the
+other, he set a card within Mr. King's fingers.
+
+"Arthur Selwyn, The Earl of Cavendish," met Mr. King's eyes.
+
+"I had a fancy to do this thing," said the little old gentleman, "to
+run across from America in simple fashion, and it pleased the boy, who
+hates a fuss. And we've gotten rid of all sorts of nuisances by it;
+interviews, and tiresome people. And I've enjoyed it mightily." He
+chuckled away till it seemed as if he were never going to stop. Old Mr.
+King burst out laughing, too; and the pair were so very jolly that the
+passengers, grouped together waiting for the Liverpool landing, turned
+to stare at them.
+
+"Just see how intimate Mr. King is with that tiresome, common, old Mr.
+Selwyn!" exclaimed Mrs. Vanderburgh to her daughter. "I never was so
+surprised at anything in all my life, to see that he keeps it up now,
+for I thought that aristocratic Horatio King was the most fastidious
+being alive."
+
+"The Kings have awfully nice times," grumbled Fanny, picking her gloves
+discontentedly. "And you keep me mewed up, and won't let me speak to
+anybody whose grandfather wasn't born in our set, and I hate and loathe
+it all."
+
+"You'll be glad when you are a few years older, and I bring you out in
+society, that I always have been so particular," observed Mrs.
+Vanderburgh, complacently, lifting her head in its dainty bonnet,
+higher than ever.
+
+"I want some nice times and a little fun now," whined Fanny, with an
+envious glance over at Polly and Jasper with the dreadful Selwyn boy
+between them, and Phronsie running up to join them, and everybody in
+their party just bubbling over with happiness.
+
+"I wish Mr. King and his party would go to Paris now," said her mother,
+suddenly.
+
+"Oh, don't I just wish it!" cried Fanny, in a burst. "Did you ask him,
+Mamma?"
+
+"Yes, indeed; I talked for fully half an hour yesterday, but it was no
+use. And he doesn't seem to know how long he is going to stay in
+England; 'only a few days,' he said, vaguely, then they go to Holland."
+
+"Oh, why couldn't we go to Holland!" exclaimed Fanny, impulsively, and
+her eyes brightened; "splendid Holland, that would be something like,
+Mamma!"
+
+"You forget the Van Dykes are to be in Paris awaiting us."
+
+"Oh, those stupid Van Dykes!" exploded Fanny. "Mamma, don't go there
+now. Do change, and let us go to Holland with the Kings. Do, Mamma,"
+she implored.
+
+"Why, Fanny Vanderburgh!" exclaimed her mother, sharply, "what is the
+matter with you? You know it was settled long ago, that we should meet
+Mrs. Van Dyke and Eleanor in Paris at just this very time. It would
+never do to offend them, particularly when Eleanor is going to marry
+into the Howard set."
+
+"And I'll have the most stupid time imaginable," cried Fanny,
+passionately, "dragging around while you and the Van Dykes are buying
+that trousseau."
+
+"Yes, that's one thing that I wanted the Kings to go to Paris for,"
+said Mrs. Vanderburgh; "you could be with them. And really they are
+much more important than any one to get in with. And I'd keep up the
+friendship with the Van Dykes. But that Mr. King is so obstinate, you
+can't do anything with him." A frown settled all across her pretty
+face, and she beat her foot impatiently on the deck.
+
+"You spoil everything, Mamma, with your sets and your stupid people,"
+declared Fanny, her passion by no means cooled. "When I come out in
+society I'm going to choose my own friends," she muttered to herself,
+and set her lips tightly together.
+
+Mr. King was saying, "Thank you, so much, Mr. Selwyn, for I really
+think I'd prefer to call you so, as I knew you so first."
+
+"So you shall," cried the little Earl, glancing around on the groups,
+"and it's better just here, at all events," and he chuckled again.
+"Then you really will come?" and he actually seized Mr. King's hand and
+wrung it heartily.
+
+"No, I was about to say it is quite impossible."
+
+The Earl of Cavendish stared blankly up out of his sharp little black
+eyes in utter amazement into the other's face. "My stay in London is
+short, only a few days," Mr. King was saying, "and then we go directly
+to Holland. I thank you all the same--believe me, I appreciate it. It
+is good of you to ask us," he cordially added.
+
+The little Earl of Cavendish broke away from him, and took a few hasty
+steps down the deck to get this new idea fairly into his brain that his
+invitation had not been accepted. Then he hurried back. "My dear sir,"
+he said, laying his hand on Mr. King's arm, "will you do me the favour
+to try to come at some future time--to consider your plans before you
+return to America, and see if you can't manage to give me this great
+pleasure of welcoming you to my home? Think of it, I beg, and drop me a
+line; if at home, I shall always be most glad to have you with me. I
+should esteem it a privilege." The Earl of Cavendish was astonished to
+find himself beseeching the American gentleman without a title. And
+then they awaked to the fact that the groups of passengers were merging
+into a solid mass, and a slow procession was beginning to form for the
+stairway, and the landing episode was well under way.
+
+Mrs. Vanderburgh, determined not to bid good-by on the steamer but to
+be with the Kings till the last moment, rushed up to them on the wharf,
+followed by Fanny.
+
+"Oh, we are _so_ sorry you are not going to Paris with us," cried Mrs.
+Vanderburgh, while Fanny flew at Polly Pepper and engrossed her
+hungrily. "Can't you reconsider it now?" she asked, with a pretty
+earnestness.
+
+"No, it is impossible," answered Mr. King, for about the fiftieth time.
+"Our plans will not allow it. I hope you and your daughter will have
+the best of times," he remarked politely.
+
+"Yes, we shall; we meet old friends there, and Paris is always
+delightful." Mrs. Vanderburgh bit her lip in her vexation. "I was going
+to see you and beg you even now to change your plans, while we were on
+the steamer waiting to land," she went on hurriedly, "but you were
+bored--I quite pitied you--by that tiresome, common, old Mr. Selwyn."
+
+"Yes, I was talking with him," said Mr. King, "but excuse me, I was not
+bored. He is peculiar, but not at all common, and he has many good
+qualities as a man; and I like the boy immensely."
+
+"How can you?" Mrs. Vanderburgh gave a little high-bred laugh. "They
+are so insufferably common, Mr. King, those Selwyns are."
+
+"Excuse me," said Mr. King, "that was the Earl of Cavendish; it will do
+no harm to mention it now, as they have gone."
+
+"Who--who?" demanded Mrs. Vanderburgh in a bewildered way.
+
+"I did not know it till this morning," Mr. King was explaining, "but
+our fellow-passenger, Mr. Selwyn, chose to cross over keeping his real
+identity unknown, and I must say I admire his taste in the matter; and
+anyway it was his affair and not mine." It was a long speech, and at
+its conclusion Mrs. Vanderburgh was still demanding, "Who--who?" in as
+much of a puzzle as ever.
+
+"The Earl of Cavendish," repeated Mr. King; "Mr. Selwyn is the Earl of
+Cavendish. As I say, he did not wish it known, and--"
+
+"Fanny--Fanny!" called her mother, sitting helplessly on the first
+thing that presented itself, a box of merchandise by no means clean.
+"Fan-ny! the--the Earl of Cavendish!" She could get no further.
+
+Little Dr. Fisher, who administered restoratives and waited on Mrs.
+Vanderburgh and her daughter to their London train, came skipping back
+to the Liverpool hotel.
+
+"I hope, wife, I sha'n't grow uncharitable,"--he actually glared
+through his big spectacles,--"but Heaven defend us on our travels from
+any further specimens like that woman."
+
+"We shall meet all sorts, probably, Adoniram," said his wife, calmly;
+"it really doesn't matter with our party of eight; we can take solid
+comfort together."
+
+The little doctor came out of his ill temper, but he said ruefully,
+"That's all very well, wife, for you and the Hendersons; for you
+steered pretty clear, I noticed, of that woman. Well, she's gone." And
+he smiled cheerfully. "Now for dinner, for I suppose Mr. King has
+ordered it."
+
+"Yes, he has," said his wife. "And you have a quarter of an hour. I've
+put your clothes out all ready."
+
+"All right." The little doctor was already plunging here and there,
+tearing off his coat and necktie and boots; and exactly at the time
+set, he joined the party, with a bright and shining face, as if no Mrs.
+Vanderburgh, or any one in the least resembling her, had ever crossed
+his path.
+
+"Jasper," cried Polly, as they hurried along out of the Harwich train
+to the steamer that was to take them to the Hook of Holland, "can you
+really believe we are almost there?"
+
+      *      *      *      *      *
+
+"No, I can't," said Jasper, "for I've wanted to see Holland for such a
+time."
+
+"Wasn't it good of Grandpapa," cried Polly, "to take us here the first
+thing after London?"
+
+"Father always does seem to plan things rightly," answered Jasper, with
+a good degree of pride. "And then 'it's prime,'" "as Joel used to say,"
+he was going to add, but thought better of it, as any reference to the
+boys always set Polly to longing for them.
+
+"Indeed, he does," exclaimed Polly, in her most earnest fashion; "he's
+ever and always the most splendid Grandpapa. Oh, I wish I could do
+things for him, Jasper," she mourned; "he's so good to us."
+
+"You do things for him all the while, Polly," Jasper made haste to say,
+as they ran along to keep up with the Parson and Mrs. Henderson's
+comfortable figures just before them; "you are all the while doing
+something for him."
+
+"Oh, no, I don't," said Polly, "there isn't anything I can do for him.
+Don't you suppose there ever will be, Jasper?" she asked imploringly.
+
+"Yes, indeed," said Jasper; "there always are things that hop up to be
+done when people keep their eyes open. But don't you worry about your
+not doing anything for him, Polly. Promise me that." Jasper took her
+hand and stopped just a minute to look into her face.
+
+"I'll try not to," promised Polly, "but, oh, Jasper, I do so very much
+wish there might be something that I could do. I do, indeed, Jasper."
+
+"It was only yesterday," said Jasper, as they began to hurry on once
+more, "that father said 'you can't begin to think, Jasper, what a
+comfort Polly Pepper is to me.'"
+
+"Did he, Jasper?" cried Polly, well pleased, the colour flying over her
+cheek, "that was nice of him, because there isn't anything much I can
+really do for him. O dear! there is Grandpapa beckoning to us to
+hurry." So on they sped, having no breath for words. And presently they
+were on the boat, and little Dr. Fisher and Mr. Henderson went forward
+into the saloon, where the rooms reserved beforehand were to be given
+out, and the rest of the party waited and watched the stream of people
+of all ages and sizes and nationalities who desired to reach Holland
+the next morning.
+
+To Polly it was a world of delight, and to Jasper, who watched her
+keenly, it was a revelation to see how nothing escaped her, no matter
+how noisy and dirty or turbulent the crowd, or how annoying the
+detention,--it was all a marvel of happiness from beginning to end. And
+Jasper looking back over the two times he had been before to Europe
+with his father, although he had never seen Holland, remembered only a
+sort of dreary drifting about with many pleasant episodes and
+experiences, it is true, still with the feeling on the whole of the
+most distinct gladness when their faces were turned homeward and the
+journeying was over.
+
+"Mamsie," cried Polly, poking her head out from the upper berth of the
+stuffy little state-room assigned to Mrs. Fisher, Mrs. Henderson,
+Phronsie, and herself; "was anything ever so delicious as this
+boat?--and to think, Mamsie,"--here Polly paused to add as impressively
+as if the idea had never been voiced before,--"that we are really to
+see Holland to-morrow."
+
+"You'd better go to sleep now, then," said Mrs. Fisher, wisely, "if you
+want to be bright and ready really to see much of Holland in the
+morning, Polly."
+
+"That's so," answered Polly, ducking back her head to its pillow, and
+wriggling her toes in satisfaction; "Phronsie is asleep already, isn't
+she, Mamsie?"
+
+"Yes," said Mrs. Fisher, "she dropped off as soon as her head touched
+the pillow. Good night, Polly, you would better do the same."
+
+"Good night, Mamsie," said Polly, with a sleepy little yawn, "and good
+night, dear Mrs. Henderson," she added, already almost in dreamland.
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+OFF FOR HOLLAND
+
+
+It seemed to Polly as if she had only breathed twice, and had not
+turned over once, when there was Mamsie's voice calling her, and there
+was Mamsie's face looking into hers over the edge of the berth. "Wake
+up, Polly, child, you have only about ten minutes to dress in."
+
+"O dear me! what--where?" exclaimed Polly, springing to a sitting
+position, thereby giving her brown head a smart thump on the ceiling of
+the berth, "where are we, Mamsie? why, it is the middle of the night,
+isn't it?" she cried, not stopping to pity her poor head.
+
+"We are almost at the Hook of Holland," said Mrs. Fisher, busily
+buttoning Phronsie's shoes. Phronsie sat on the lower berth, her sleepy
+little legs dangling over the edge, and her sleepy little head going
+nid-nodding, despite all her efforts to keep herself awake.
+
+"O dear me!" cried Polly, remorsefully, when she saw that. "I ought to
+have dressed Phronsie. Why didn't you wake me up earlier, Mamsie?"
+
+"Because I wanted you to sleep all you could," said Mrs. Fisher, "and
+now if you'll only dress Polly Pepper as quickly as possible, that's
+all I ask."
+
+"I will dress Polly Pepper in a twinkling, Mamsie," declared Polly,
+laughing merrily; "O dear me, where _is_ my other stocking?" She stuck
+out one black foot ready for its boot. "Is it down there, Mamsie?" All
+the while she was shaking the bedclothes violently for any chance
+glimpse of it in the berth.
+
+"Where did you put it last night when you took it off, Polly?" asked
+Mrs. Fisher, buttoning away for dear life on Phronsie's shoes. "There
+now, Pet, those are done; hop out now, and fly into your clothes."
+
+"I thought I put 'em both in the corner here," cried poor Polly,
+twitching everything loose. Thereupon her big hat, hung carefully upon
+a high hook, slipped off and fell to the floor.
+
+"Take care, Polly," warned her mother, "haste only makes matters worse."
+
+"But I can't go with only one stocking on," said Polly, quite gone in
+despair now. "Oh, dear Mrs. Henderson, don't you see it on the floor?"
+For that good woman had dropped to her knees, and was busily prowling
+around among the accumulation of bags and clothing.
+
+"That's what I'm hoping to do," she answered, "but I don't see it as
+yet, Polly."
+
+"I'll help Polly to find it," cried Phronsie, now thoroughly awake and
+dropping her small skirts to get down on the floor by Mrs. Henderson's
+side. "Don't feel badly, Polly; I'll find your stocking for you."
+
+"No, Phronsie," said her mother, "you must get into your own clothes.
+And then Mrs. Henderson is nearly all ready, and you can go out with
+her, and that will leave more room, so that Polly and I can search more
+carefully. And the stocking has got to come, for it couldn't walk off
+of itself," she added cheerily as she saw Polly's face. "Why--what?" as
+she happened to look upward. And then Polly looked, too, and there was
+her stocking dangling from the very high hook where the big hat had
+been.
+
+"You tossed it up there, I suppose, when you shook up the bedclothes so
+quickly," said Mrs. Fisher. "Well, now," as Polly pounced on the
+stocking, "see how fast you can hop into your clothes, daughter." Then
+she began to put the things for the bags into their places, and
+Matilda, coming in, finished the work; and Polly flew around, buttoning
+and tying and patting herself into shape, and by the time that little
+Dr. Fisher's voice called at the door, "Well, wife, are you ready?"
+there they all were, trim and tidy as ever for a start.
+
+"Where is it, Grandpapa?" asked Phronsie, peering around on either
+side,--Dr. Fisher and Jasper had gone off to attend to the examination
+of the luggage by the customs inspectors,--and then coming up gently to
+pull his arm. "I don't see it anywhere."
+
+"What, child?" answered Grandpapa, looking down at her. "See here, wait
+a minute," to the others who were ahead, "Phronsie has lost something."
+
+"Oh, no, Grandpapa, I haven't," began Phronsie, in gentle protestation,
+"all my things are in here." She patted her little bag that hung on her
+arm, a gift of old Mr. King's for her to carry her very own things in,
+that yielded her immense satisfaction every time she looked at it,
+which was very often.
+
+"Didn't you say you wanted to find something, dear?" he asked, quite
+puzzled, while the others surrounded them wonderingly.
+
+"No," said Phronsie, "only where is the hook, Grandpapa? I don't see
+it." She lifted her little face and gazed up at him confident that he
+knew everything.
+
+"She has lost her button-hook!" exclaimed Polly, "the cunning little
+silver one Auntie Whitney gave her Christmas. I'll run back and get it;
+it must be in the state-room."
+
+"Stay, Polly," commanded Mr. King. And, "Oh, no, I haven't," piped
+Phronsie, as Polly was flying off. "It's here in my bag," patting
+Grandpapa's gift hanging on her arm. "I couldn't lose that, Polly," she
+cried in horror at the thought, as Polly hurried back.
+
+"Well, what is it, then, you've lost?" demanded Polly, breathlessly.
+
+"I haven't lost anything," reiterated Phronsie, pushing back the yellow
+hair from her face. "Grandpapa, tell them, please, I haven't lost
+anything," she kept repeating, appealing to him.
+
+"She says she hasn't lost anything, so we won't say that again," echoed
+old Mr. King. "Now, Phronsie, child, tell me what it is you mean; what
+hook you want."
+
+"The hook," said Phronsie; "here, Grandpapa," and she looked all around
+in a troubled way, "they said it was here; I don't see it, Grandpapa."
+
+"She means the Hook of Holland," burst out Polly, "don't you, Phronsie
+pet?" And she threw her arms around her while Mr. Henderson exclaimed,
+"Of course, why didn't we think of it, to be sure?"
+
+"Yes, Polly." Phronsie gave a glad little cry, and wriggled in great
+satisfaction in her arms. "Grandpapa, where is it,--the Hook of
+Holland?"
+
+"Oh, bless me, child!" exclaimed Mr. King, "that is the name of the
+place; at least, to be accurate, it is Hoek van Holland. Now, just as
+soon as we get fairly started on our way to Rotterdam, I'll tell you
+all about it, or Polly shall, since she was clever enough to find out
+what you meant."
+
+"Oh, no, Grandpapa," cried Polly, "I'd so much rather you told
+her--please do, dear Grandfather?"
+
+"And so I will," he promised, very much pleased, for Mr. King dearly
+loved to be the one to relate the history and anecdotes about the
+places along which they travelled. And so, when they were steaming off
+toward Rotterdam, as he sat in the centre of the compartment he had
+reserved for their use, Phronsie next to him, and Polly and Jasper
+opposite, he told the whole story. The others tucked themselves in the
+remaining four seats, and did not lose a word. Matilda and Mr. King's
+valet, in a second-class compartment, took charge of the luggage.
+
+"I like it very much," declared Phronsie, when the story was all
+finished, and smoothing down her little brown gown in satisfaction.
+
+"I like it very much, Grandpapa's telling it," said Polly, "but the
+Hook of Holland isn't anything to what we shall see at Rotterdam,
+while, as for The Hague and Amsterdam--oh, Grandpapa!"
+
+That "oh, Grandpapa" just won his heart, and Mr. King beamed at her as
+her glowing face was turned first to one window and then to the other,
+that she might not lose anything as the train rumbled on.
+
+"Just wait till we get to Marken," broke in Jasper, gaily, "then if you
+want to see the Dutch beat the Dutch--well, you may!" he ended with a
+laugh.
+
+"Oh, Jasper, do they really beat each other?" cried Phronsie, quite
+horrified, and slipping away from Grandpapa to regard him closely.
+
+"Oh, no! I mean--they go ahead of everything that is most Dutch,"
+Jasper hastened to say; "I haven't explained it very well."
+
+"No, I should think not," laughed his father, in high good humour.
+"Well, Phronsie, I think you will like the folks on the Island of
+Marken, for they dress in funny quaint costumes, just as their
+ancestors did, years upon years ago."
+
+"Are there any little children there?" asked Phronsie, slipping back
+into her place again, and nestling close to his side.
+
+"Hundreds of them, I suppose," replied Mr. King, with his arm around
+her and drawing her up to him, "and they wear wooden shoes or sabots,
+or klompen as they call them, and--"
+
+"Wooden shoes!" cried Phronsie; "oh, Grandpapa," clasping her hands,
+"how do they stay on?"
+
+"Well, that's what I've always wondered myself when I've been in
+Holland. A good many have left off the sabots, I believe, and wear
+leather shoes made just like other people's."
+
+"Oh, Grandpapa," cried Phronsie, leaning forward to peer into his face,
+"don't let them leave off the wooden shoes, please."
+
+"I can't make them wear anything but what they want to," said old Mr.
+King, with a laugh; "but don't be troubled, child, you'll see all the
+wooden shoes you desire, in Rotterdam, and The Hague, too, for that
+matter."
+
+"Shall I?" cried Phronsie, nestling back again quite pleased.
+"Grandpapa, I wish I could wear wooden shoes," she whispered presently
+in a burst of confidence, sticking out her toes to look at them.
+
+"Bless me! you couldn't keep them on," said Mr. King.
+
+"Don't the little Dutch children keep them on?" asked Phronsie. "Oh,
+Grandpapa, I think I could; I really think I could," she added
+earnestly.
+
+"Yes, they do, because they are born and brought up to it, although,
+for the life of me, I don't see how they do it; but you couldn't,
+child, you'd fall the first minute and break your nose, most likely."
+
+Phronsie gave a sigh. "Should I, Grandpapa?"
+
+"Yes, quite likely; but I'll tell you what I will do. I will buy you a
+pair, and we will take them home. That will be fine, won't it, dear?"
+
+"Yes," said Phronsie, wriggling in delight. Then she sat quite still.
+
+"Grandpapa," she said, reaching up to whisper again, "I'm afraid it
+will make Araminta feel badly to see me with my beautiful wooden shoes
+on, when she can't have any. Do you suppose there are little teenty
+ones, Grandpapa dear, and I might get her a pair?"
+
+"Yes, indeed," cried Grandpapa, nodding his white head in delight,
+"there are shoals of them, Phronsie, of all sizes."
+
+"What are shoals?" queried Phronsie.
+
+"Oh, numbers and numbers--so many we can't count them," answered Mr.
+King, recklessly.
+
+Phronsie slid down into her place again, and sat quite still lost in
+thought. So many wooden shoes she couldn't count them was quite beyond
+her. But Grandpapa's voice roused her. "And I'll buy a bushel of them,
+Phronsie, and send them home, so that all your dolls at home can each
+have a pair. Would that suit you, Pet?"
+
+Phronsie screamed with delight and clapped her hands. Polly and Jasper
+who had changed places, as Dr. Fisher and Mr. Henderson had made them
+take theirs by one window, now whirled around. "What is it?" cried
+Polly of Phronsie. "What is it?"
+
+"I'm going to have wooden shoes," announced Phronsie, in a burst of
+confidence that included everybody in the compartment, "for my very own
+self, and Araminta is going to have a pair, and every single one of my
+children at home, too. Grandpapa said so."
+
+"Whew!" whistled Jasper. "Oh, what fun," sighed Polly.
+
+"And you shall have a pair, too, if you want them, Polly," Grandpapa
+telegraphed over to her in the corner.
+
+"And Jasper can, too, can't he, Grandpapa? And, oh, thank you _so
+much,_" cried Polly, all in one breath.
+
+"I guess it's as well I shall be on hand to set the broken bones," said
+little Dr. Fisher, "with all you children capering around in those
+wooden abominations."
+
+"Oh, Dr. Fisher, we are not going to fall!" exclaimed Jasper, in
+disdain, at the very thought. And "No, indeed," came merrily from
+Polly. And then they all fell to work admiring the numberless windmills
+past which their train was speeding toward Rotterdam.
+
+"To think it is only six o'clock!" exclaimed Polly, looking at her
+little travelling watch that Grandpapa had given her. "Now, what a fine
+long day we are going to have, Jasper, for sightseeing in Rotterdam."
+
+As the train came to a standstill, the guards threw open compartment
+doors, and all the people poured out calling for porters to see to
+their luggage, and everything was in confusion at once on the platforms.
+
+"Indeed, you won't, Miss Polly," declared Mr. King, overhearing it, as
+they waited till all was ready for them to get into the hotel
+coach,--"we are all going to spend this day at the hotel--first, in
+getting a good breakfast, and then, dear me, I shall sleep pretty much
+all of the morning, and I'd advise the rest of you to jump into your
+beds and get good naps after the experience on that atrocious steamboat
+last night."
+
+"Oh, Grandpapa, must we really go to bed?" cried Polly, in horror at
+the mere thought.
+
+"Well, not exactly into your beds," laughed Mr. King, as Jasper,
+announcing that all was ready, piloted them into the coach, "but you've
+got to rest like sensible beings. Make up your mind to that. As for
+Phronsie," and he gallantly lifted her up to the step, "she's half
+asleep already. She's got to have a splendid nap, and no mistake."
+
+"I'm not sleepy," declared Phronsie, stumbling into the high coach to
+sit down next to Mother Fisher. "No, Grandpapa dear, not a bit." And
+before anybody knew it, and as soon as the coach wheels spun round, she
+rolled over into Mamsie's lap. There she was as fast asleep as could be!
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+"WE WILL COME AGAIN AND STAY A WEEK"
+
+
+They had been several days at The Hague, running about in a restful way
+in the morning, and driving all the long golden afternoons. "Don't you
+dare to go into a picture-gallery or a museum until I give the word,"
+Grandpapa had laid down the law. "I'm not going to begin by being all
+tired out." So Polly and Jasper had gone sometimes with Mr. King and
+Phronsie, who had a habit of wandering off by themselves; or, as the
+case might be, Mr. Henderson would pilot them about till they learnt
+the ways of the old town. And Mrs. Fisher and Mrs. Henderson would
+confess now and then that they would much rather take a few stitches
+and overlook the travelling clothes than do any more sight-seeing. And
+then again, they would all come together and go about in a big party.
+All but Dr. Fisher--he was for hospitals every time.
+
+"That's what I've come for, wife," he would reply to all remonstrance,
+"and don't ask me to put my head into a cathedral or a museum." To Mr.
+King, "Land alive, man, I've got to find out how to take care of living
+bodies before I stare at bones and relics," and Mr. King would laugh
+and let him alone. "He's incorrigible, that husband of yours, Mrs.
+Fisher," he would add, "and we must just let him have his way." And
+Mamsie would smile, and every night the little doctor would tome from
+his tramps and medical study, tired but radiant.
+
+At last one morning Grandpapa said, "Now for Scheveningen to-day!"
+
+"Oh, goody!" cried Polly, clapping her hands; then blushed as red as a
+rose. They were at breakfast, and everybody in the vicinity turned and
+stared at their table.
+
+"Don't mind it, Polly," said Jasper, her next neighbour, "I want to do
+the same thing. And it will do some of those starched and prim people
+good to hear a little enthusiasm." Polly knew whom he meant,--some
+young Englishmen. One of them immediately put up his monocle and
+regarded her as if she had been a new kind of creature displayed for
+his benefit. Jasper glared back at him.
+
+"Yes, we'll go to Scheveningen this morning," repeated Mr. King,
+smiling approvingly at poor Polly, which caused her to lift her head;
+"the carriages are ordered, so as soon as we are through breakfast we
+will be off."
+
+"Oh, father," exclaimed Jasper, in dismay, "must we go in carriages?"
+
+"How else would you go, Jasper?" asked his father.
+
+"Oh, by the tramway; oh, by all means," cried Jasper, perfectly
+delighted that he could get his father even to listen to any other plan.
+
+"The dirty tram-cars," ejaculated Mr. King, in disgust. "How can you
+ask it, Jasper? No, indeed, we must go in carriages, or not at all."
+
+"But, father," and Jasper's face fell, "don't you see the upper deck of
+the tram-car is so high and there are fine seats there, and we can see
+so much better than driving in a stupid carriage?"
+
+Polly's face had drooped, too. Mr. King, in looking from one to the
+other, was dismayed and a good bit annoyed to find that his plan wasn't
+productive of much happiness after all. He had just opened his mouth to
+say authoritatively, "No use, Jasper, either you will go in the way I
+have provided, or stay at home," when Phronsie slipped out of her chair
+where she happened this morning to be sitting next to Mother Fisher,
+and running around to his chair, piped out, "Oh, Grandpapa, if you
+please, do let us sit up top."
+
+"We'll do it now, Polly," whispered Jasper, in a transport, "when
+Phronsie looks like that. See her face!"
+
+"Do you really want to go in a dirty old tram-car, Phronsie, instead of
+in a carriage?" Old Mr. King pushed back his chair and looked steadily
+at her.
+
+"Oh, yes, yes, Grandpapa, please"--Phronsie beat her hands softly
+together--"to ride on top; may we, _dear_ Grandpapa?" That "dear
+Grandpapa" settled it. Jasper never heard such a welcome command as
+that Mr. King was just issuing. "Go to the office and countermand the
+order for the carriages, my son; tell them to put the amount on my
+bill, the same as if I'd used them, unless they get a chance to let
+them to some one else. They needn't be the losers. Now then," as Jasper
+bounded off to execute the command, "get on your bonnets and hats, all
+of you, and we'll try this wonderful tram-car. I suppose you won't come
+with us, but will stay behind for the pleasures of some hospital here,"
+he added to Dr. Fisher.
+
+"On the contrary," said the little doctor, throwing down his napkin and
+getting out of his chair. "I am going, for there is a marine hospital
+for children there, that I wouldn't miss for the world."
+
+"I warrant you would find one on a desert island," retorted old Mr.
+King. "Well, hurry now, all of you--and we will be off."
+
+"Now, then, all scramble up here. Phronsie, you go with me," cried old
+Mr. King, as they stood in _plein_, and the tram-car halted before
+them. He was surprised to find that he liked this sort of thing, mixing
+with a crowd and hurrying for seats just like common ordinary
+individuals. And as he toiled up the winding stairs, Phronsie in front
+of him, he had an exhilaration already that made him feel almost as
+young as Polly and Jasper, scampering up the circular stairway at the
+other end. "Well, bless me, we are up, aren't we?" he exclaimed,
+sitting down and casting a glance around.
+
+"Did you ever see anything so fascinating?" cried Polly Pepper,
+clasping her hands in delight, and not stopping to sit down, but
+looking all around.
+
+"You had better sit down," advised Mother Fisher, "else when the car
+starts you may go over the railing."
+
+"Oh, I can't fall, Mamsie," said Polly, carelessly, yet she sat down,
+while Jasper got out of his seat and ran up to old Mr. King.
+
+"Now, father, don't you like it?" he cried. "And isn't it better than a
+stuffy old carriage?"
+
+"Yes, I do, my boy," answered his father, frankly. "Now run off with
+you, you've planned it well." So Jasper, made happy for the day, rushed
+back to his seat. A hand not over clean was laid on it, and a tall
+individual, who was pouring out very bad provincial French at a fearful
+rate, was just about to worm himself into it. Polly, who sat next, had
+turned around to view the scenery from the other side, and hadn't seen
+his advance.
+
+"Excuse me," said Jasper, in another torrent of the same language, only
+of a better quality, "this is my seat--I only left it to speak to my
+father."
+
+But the Frenchman being there, thought that he could get still further
+into the seat. So he twisted and edged, but Jasper slipped neatly in,
+and looked calmly up at him. The Frenchman, unable to get his balance,
+sat down in Jasper's lap. But he bounded up again, blue with rage.
+
+"What's all this?" demanded Mr. King, who never could speak French in a
+hurry, being very elegant at it, and exceedingly careful as to his
+accent. Phronsie turned pale and clung to his hand.
+
+"Nothing," said Jasper, in English, "only this person chose to try to
+take my seat, and I chose to have it myself."
+
+"You take yourself off," commanded Mr. King, in an irate voice to the
+French individual, "or I'll see that some one attends to your case."
+
+Not understanding the language, all might have gone well, but the
+French person could interpret the expression of the face under the
+white hair, and he accordingly left a position in front of Jasper to
+sidle up toward Mr. King's seat in a threatening attitude. At that
+Jasper got out of his seat again and went to his father's side. Little
+Dr. Fisher also skipped up.
+
+"See here you, Frenchy, stop your parley vousing, and march down those
+stairs double quick," cried the little doctor, standing on his tiptoes
+and bristling with indignation. His big spectacles had slipped to the
+end of his nose, his sharp little eyes blazing above them.
+
+"Frenchy" stared at him in amazement, unable to find his tongue. And
+then he saw another gentleman in the person of the parson, who was just
+as big as the doctor was small. With one look he glanced around to see
+if there were any more such specimens. At any rate, it was time to be
+going, so he took a bee-line for the nearest stairway and plunged down.
+But he gave the little doctor the compliment of his parting regard.
+
+"Well," ejaculated Mr. King, when his party had regained their seats
+and the car started off, "if this is to be the style of our companions,
+I think my plan of carriages might be best after all. Eh, my boy?" with
+a sly look at Jasper.
+
+"But anything like this might not happen again in a hundred times,
+father," said Jasper.
+
+"I suppose I must say 'yes, I know it' to that," said his father. And
+as everybody had regained composure, he was beginning to feel very
+happy himself as the car rumbled off.
+
+"This is fine," he kept saying to himself, "the boy knew what was
+best," and he smiled more than once over at Jasper, who was pointing
+out this and that to Polly. Jasper nodded back again.
+
+"Don't let him bother you to see everything, Polly," called Grandpapa.
+"Take my advice--it's a nuisance to try to compass the whole place on
+the first visit." But Polly laughed back, and the advice went over her
+head, as he very well knew it would.
+
+"Was anything ever more beautiful?" exclaimed Mother Fisher, drawing in
+long breaths of delight. The little doctor leaned back in his seat, and
+beamed at her over his big glasses. She began to look rested and young
+already. "This journey is the very thing," he declared to himself, and
+his hard-worked hand slipped itself over her toil-worn one as it lay on
+her lap. She turned to him with a smile.
+
+"Adoniram, I never imagined anything like this," she said simply.
+
+"No more did I," he answered. "That's the good of our coming, wife."
+
+"Just see those beautiful green trees, so soft and trembling," she
+exclaimed, as enthusiastically as Polly herself. "And what a perfect
+arch!" And she bent forward to glance down the shaded avenue. "Oh,
+Adoniram!"
+
+"What makes the trunks look so green?" Polly was crying as they rumbled
+along. "See, Jasper, there isn't a brown branch, even. Everything is
+green."
+
+"That's what makes it so pretty," said Jasper. "I don't wonder these
+oaks in the _Scheveningsche Boschjes_--O dear me, I don't know how to
+pronounce it in the least--are so celebrated."
+
+"Don't try," said Polly, "to pronounce it, Jasper. I just mark things
+in my Baedeker and let it go."
+
+"Our Baedekers will be a sight when we get home, won't they, Polly?"
+remarked Jasper, in a pause, when eyes had been busy to their utmost
+capacity.
+
+"I rather think they will," laughed Polly. "Mine is a sight now,
+Jasper, for I mark all round the edges--and just everywhere."
+
+"But you are always copying off the things into your journal," said
+Jasper, "afterward. So do I mark my Baedeker; it's the only way to jot
+things down in any sort of order. One can't be whipping out a note-book
+every minute. Halloo, here we are at the château of the Grand Duke of
+Saxe-Weimar. Look, Polly! look!"
+
+As they looked back in the distance to the receding ducal estate, Polly
+said: "It isn't one-half as beautiful as this delicious old wood is,
+Jasper. Just see that perfectly beautiful walk down there and that
+cunning little trail. Oh, I do so wish we could stay here."
+
+"Some day, let us ask Dr. Fisher to come out with us, and we will tramp
+it. Oh, I forgot; he won't leave the hospitals."
+
+"Mr. Henderson might like to," said Polly, in a glow, "let's ask him
+sometime, anyway, Jasper. And then, just think, we can go all in and
+out this lovely wood. How fine!"
+
+"Father will come over to Scheveningen again and stay a few days,
+maybe," said Jasper, "if he takes a fancy to the idea. How would you
+like that, Polly?"
+
+"I don't know," said Polly, "because I haven't seen it yet, Jasper."
+
+"I know--I forgot--'twas silly in me to ask such a question," said
+Jasper, with a laugh. "Well, anyway, I think it more than likely that
+he will."
+
+"I just love The Hague," declared Polly, with a backward glance down
+the green avenue. "I hope we are going to stay there ever so long,
+Jasper."
+
+"Then we sha'n't get on to all the other places," said Jasper. "We
+shall feel just as badly to leave every other one, I suppose, Polly."
+
+"I suppose so," said Polly, with a sigh.
+
+When they left the tram-car at the beginning of the village of
+Scheveningen they set off on a walk down to the _Curhaus_ and the
+beach. Old Mr. King, as young as any one, started out on the promenade
+on the undulating terrace at the top of the Dunes, followed by the rest
+of his party.
+
+Down below ran a level road. "There is the Boulevard," said Grandpapa.
+"See, child," pointing to it; but Phronsie had no eyes for anything but
+the hundreds and hundreds of Bath chairs dotting the sands.
+
+"Oh, Grandpapa, what are they?" she cried, pulling his hand and
+pointing to them.
+
+"Those are chairs," answered Mr. King, "and by and by we will go down
+and get into some of them."
+
+"They look just like the big sunbonnets that Grandma Bascom always wore
+when she went out to feed her hens, don't they, Jasper?"
+
+"Precisely," he said, bursting into a laugh. "How you always do see
+funny things, Polly."
+
+"And see what queer patches there are all up and down the sides of some
+of them," cried Polly. "Whatever can they be, Jasper?"
+
+"Oh, those are the advertisements," said Jasper. "You'll find that
+everything is plastered up in that way abroad."
+
+"Just as the omnibuses in London are all covered over with posters,"
+said Polly; "weren't they funny, Jasper?"
+
+"Yes, indeed,--'Lipton Teas,'--I got so tired of that. And
+these,--cocoa or chocolate. You know Holland is full of manufactories
+of it."
+
+"And isn't it good?" cried Polly, smacking her lips, as she had feasted
+on it since their arrival in Holland, Grandpapa considering it
+especially good and pure.
+
+"I should say so," echoed Jasper, smacking his lips, too.
+
+"Dr. Fisher--" The parson turned to address his neighbour, but there
+was no little doctor.
+
+"Oh, he is off long ago," said his wife, "to his beloved hospital. What
+is it, Samuel?"
+
+"I was only going to remark that I don't believe I ever saw so many
+people together before. Just look!" he pointed down to the Boulevard
+and off to the sands along the beach.
+
+"It is a swarm, isn't it?" said his wife. "Well, we must go, for Mr.
+King is going down to the Boulevard."
+
+Polly and Jasper, running in and out of the fascinating shops by the
+Concert terrace, had minds divided by the desire to stay on the sands,
+and to explore further the tempting interiors. "We must get something
+for the boys," she declared, jingling her little silver purse; "just
+let us go in this one now, then we'll run after Grandpapa; he's going
+down on the sands."
+
+"He's going to sit with Phronsie in some of those big sunbonnets of
+yours, Polly," said Jasper. "There they are," pointing to them. "Well,
+we'll go in this shop. I want to get a pair of those wooden shoes for
+Joel." And they hurried in.
+
+"Oh, how fine!" exclaimed Polly. "Well, I saw a carved bear I think
+Davie would like, and--" the rest was lost in the confusing array of
+tempting things spread out for their choice by deft shopkeepers.
+
+When they emerged, Polly had a china windmill, and an inkstand of Delft
+ware, and several other things, and Jasper carried all the big bundles.
+"O dear me," said Polly, "now we must run, or we sha'n't have much time
+to stay on the beach; and besides, Grandpapa will worry over us if
+we're not there."
+
+"We can't run much, loaded down with this," said Jasper, looking at his
+armful and laughing, "or we'd likely drop half of them, and smash them
+to pieces. Wait a bit, Polly, I'm going to buy you some fruit." They
+stopped at the top of the stone stairway leading down to the sands,
+where some comely peasant women, fishermen's wives, held great baskets
+of fruit, and in one hand was a pair of scales. "Now, then, what will
+you have, Polly?"
+
+"Oh, some grapes, please, Jasper," said Polly. "Aren't they most
+beautiful?"
+
+"I should say they were; they are black Hamburgs," declared Jasper.
+"Now, then, my good woman, give us a couple of pounds." He put down the
+coin she asked for, and she weighed them out in her scales, and did
+them up in a piece of a Dutch newspaper.
+
+"We are much worse off now, Jasper," laughed Polly, as they got over
+the stairs somehow with their burdens, "since we've all these grapes to
+carry. O dear me, there goes one!"
+
+"Never mind," said Jasper, looking over his armful of presents, to
+investigate his paper of grapes; "if we don't lose but one, we're
+lucky."
+
+"And there goes another," announced Polly, as they picked their way
+over and through the thick sand.
+
+"Well, I declare," exclaimed old Mr. King, peering out of his Bath
+chair, "if you children aren't loaded down!" He was eating black
+Hamburg grapes. Phronsie sat opposite him almost lost in the depth of
+another Bath chair, similarly occupied. And at a little remove was the
+remainder of the party, and they all were in Bath chairs, and eating
+black Hamburg grapes.
+
+"We've had such fun," sighed Polly, and she and Jasper cast their
+bundles on the soft sand; then she threw herself down next to them, and
+pushed up the little brown rings from her damp brow.
+
+Jasper set his paper of grapes in her lap, then rushed off. "I'll get
+you a Bath chair," he said, beckoning to the attendant.
+
+"Oh, Jasper, I'd so much rather sit on the sand," called Polly.
+
+"So had I," he confessed, running back and throwing himself down beside
+her. "Now, then, do begin on your grapes, Polly."
+
+"We'll begin together," she said, poking open the paper. "Oh, aren't
+they good, though!"
+
+"I should rather say they were," declared Jasper; "dear me, what a
+bunch!"
+
+"It's not as big as mine," said Polly, holding up hers to the light.
+"You made me take that one, Jasper."
+
+"It's no better than mine," said Jasper, eating away.
+
+"I'm going to hop into one of the chairs just a minute before we go,"
+said Polly, nodding at the array along the beach, and eating her grapes
+busily, "to see how they feel."
+
+"Oh, Polly, let me get you a chair now," begged Jasper, setting down
+the remainder of his bunch of grapes, and springing up.
+
+"Oh, I don't want to, I really and truly don't, Jasper," Polly made
+haste to cry. "I like the sand ever and ever so much better. I only
+want to see for a minute what it's like to be in one of those funny old
+things. Then I should want to hop out with all my might, I just know I
+should."
+
+"I'm of your mind," said Jasper, coming back to his seat on the sand
+again. "They must be very stuffy, Polly. Well, now you are here, would
+you like to come back to Scheveningen for a few days, Polly?"
+
+"I think I should," said Polly, slowly, bringing her gaze around over
+the sea, to the Dunes, the beach, with the crowds of people of all
+nationalities, and the peasant folk, "if we could stay just as long,
+for all that, at the dear old Hague."
+
+And just then old Mr. King was saying to Phronsie, "We will come out
+here again, child, and stay a week. Yes," he said to himself, "I will
+engage the rooms before we go back this afternoon."
+
+"Grandpapa," asked Phronsie, laying her hand on his knee, "can I have
+this very same little house next time we come?"
+
+"Well, I don't know," said Mr. King, peering up and down Phronsie's
+Bath chair adorned with the most lively descriptions of the merits of
+cocoa as a food; "they're all alike as two peas, except for the matter
+of the chocolate and cocoa trimmings. But perhaps I can fix it,
+Phronsie, so that you can have this identical one," mentally resolving
+to do that very thing. "Well, come, Phronsie, we must go now and get
+our luncheon."
+
+"I am so glad if I can have the same little house," said Phronsie, with
+a sigh of contentment, as she slowly got out of her Bath chair. "It is
+a nice little house, Grandpapa, and I love it very much."
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+A BOX FOR THE PEPPER BOYS
+
+
+"Mamsie, have we been here a whole week in Amsterdam," cried Polly,
+leaning out of the window to look up and down the canal where the
+many-coloured boats lay, "beside all those days at Scheveningen? I
+can't believe it!"
+
+"It doesn't seem possible," Mother Fisher answered musingly, and her
+hands dropped to her lap, where they lay quietly folded.
+
+"Mamsie,"--Polly suddenly drew in her gaze from the charming old canal
+and its boats, and sprang to Mrs. Fisher's side,--"do you know, I think
+it was just the loveliest thing in all the world for Grandpapa to bring
+dear Mr. and Mrs. Henderson abroad with us? I do, Mamsie."
+
+"Mr. King is always doing good, kind things," said Mrs. Fisher, coming
+out of her revery, as Polly threw herself down on the floor and laid
+her head in her mother's lap, just as she used to do at home. "I
+haven't done this for so long," she said, "and it is so good!"
+
+"That is the only drawback about travel," observed Mother Fisher, her
+hand passing soothingly over Polly's head, "that there never seems to
+be time for the little home ways that are so good. Now we must make the
+time and keep it, Polly."
+
+"Indeed we will," cried Polly, seizing Mamsie's other hand to cuddle it
+under her chin, "and I'm going to begin right now. It makes me think of
+the little brown house, Mamsie, whenever you smooth my hair. What good
+times we used to have there!"
+
+Mrs. Fisher's hand trembled a bit, but the black eyes were as serene as
+ever. "You used to work pretty hard, Polly," she said.
+
+"Oh, but it was fun!" said Polly, merrily, "only I didn't like the old
+stove when it acted badly. But then came my new stove. Mamsie, wasn't
+Papa Fisher splendid? And then he saved my eyes. Just think, Mamsie, I
+never can love him half enough. I wish I could do something for him,"
+she mourned, just as she did in the old days.
+
+"You do, Polly; you are doing something every day of your life," said
+her mother, reassuringly. "Never think that you don't do anything. Why,
+it was only this very morning that your father told me that you were
+his little helper, and that he depended on you to cheer him up."
+
+"Did he say that?" asked Polly, much gratified, poking up her head to
+look at her mother. "Oh, I want to be, but I don't know how to help
+him. Papa Fisher always seems to be doing something for other people,
+and not to need anybody to do things for him."
+
+"Ah, Polly, when you have lived longer," said Mrs. Fisher, "you will
+know that those who are doing things always for other people, are the
+very ones who need cheering up, for they never complain. Your father,
+in going about as he does, day after day, to the hospitals and
+everywhere, where he can learn anything that will make him a better
+doctor, is working very hard indeed, and yet think how cheerful he is
+when he comes home! And he says you help to keep him so, Polly." She
+bent over and set a kiss on Polly's red cheek.
+
+"Mamsie," cried Polly, with a glow where the kiss had dropped, "I'm
+going to try harder than ever to see wherever I can find a time to help
+Papa-Doctor. And I hope that one will come soon."
+
+"And you'll find just such a time will come; it never fails to when you
+watch for it," said Mother Fisher, wisely. Just then the door opened,
+and Phronsie, fresh from the hands of Matilda, who had been changing
+her gown, came in with Araminta in her arms. When she saw Polly on the
+floor with her head in Mamsie's lap, she got down by her side and
+curled up there, too.
+
+"Smooth my hair, do, Mamsie," she begged.
+
+"Mamsie's got her two bothers," said Polly, with a little laugh.
+
+"Mamsie doesn't mind her bothers," said Mrs. Fisher, her other hand
+going softly over Phronsie's yellow hair, at which Phronsie gave a
+small sigh of content, and wriggled her toes as they were stretched out
+straight before her on the carpet, "if only they grow up a little
+better every day than they were the day before."
+
+"We'll try to, Mamsie," said Polly, "won't we, Pet?" leaning over and
+kissing her.
+
+"I'll try to," promised Phronsie, with another wriggle of her small
+toes.
+
+"That's right," said Mother Fisher, smiling approval.
+
+"Mrs. Fisher!" called Grandpapa's voice at the door. Thereupon Polly
+and Phronsie sprang to their feet, and a lively race ensued to see
+which should be there the first to open it. The consequence was that
+both faces met him at once.
+
+"Bless me!" cried old Mr. King, laughing gaily, as the door flew open,
+and they both rushed into his arms; "so you did like to have your old
+Grandfather come to see you," he exclaimed, mightily pleased.
+
+"I should think we did!" cried Polly, as they escorted him in, and led
+him to the seat of honour, a big carved arm-chair, with a faded
+tapestry covering.
+
+"I should very much like to get into your lap, Grandpapa dear," said
+Phronsie, surveying him gravely as he sat down and leaned his head
+against the chair back.
+
+"So you shall," cried Mr. King, lifting her up to his knee, Araminta
+and all. She perched there in quiet content, while he set forth his
+business which he had come to talk over with Mother Fisher.
+
+"Now, you know those three boys of yours are the most splendid boys
+that ever were in all this world, and they are working away at home,
+studying and all that, Joel and David are, and Ben is pegging away at
+business." Old Mr. King thought best to go to the heart of the matter
+at once without any dallying.
+
+Mrs. Fisher's cheek grew a shade paler, but she said not a word as she
+fastened her black eyes on his face.
+
+"Hem--well, we don't talk much about those boys," observed the old
+gentleman, "because it makes us all homesick after them, and it's best
+that they should be there, and that we should be here, so that was
+settled once for all by our coming."
+
+Still Mrs. Fisher said not a word.
+
+"Well, now, the fact of it is," continued old Mr. King, still keeping
+to the main point with wonderful directness, "I think the time has come
+for us to act, which is much better than talking, in my opinion; and I
+want to do something for those boys."
+
+A pin could have been heard to drop. Polly leaned over his chair and
+hung on his words, while Mrs. Fisher never took her eyes from his face.
+
+"In short," continued old Mr. King, well pleased with the attention of
+his audience, "I propose that we send a box of good things of various
+descriptions to Ben and Joel and David."
+
+A small howl of delight from Polly broke the silence. When she heard
+that, Phronsie gave a little crow. "Oh, Grandpapa!" exclaimed Polly,
+"do you really mean it?" and she threw her arms around his neck.
+Phronsie immediately clambered up and did the same thing.
+
+"That's just as your mother shall decide," said Mr. King, immensely
+pleased with the way his news was received. "She hasn't said a word yet
+whether she likes the idea or not."
+
+"It's just because I couldn't speak at first," said Mrs. Fisher, wiping
+her eyes; and her voice trembled. "But it's the very thing; and oh!
+thank you, sir, for thinking of it. The boys won't be so homesick for
+us when they get the box. And it will be the best thing in the world
+for us to keep busy, so we can't worry about them."
+
+"Mamsie _has_ said 'yes'!" exclaimed Polly, flying off to dance around
+and around in the middle of the room. "Oh, I wish Jasper was here!" she
+cried regretfully, breaking short off.
+
+"Go and call him, then,--he's down in the reading room, writing to the
+boys,--and bring him up here," said old Mr. King. "No, no, Phronsie,
+you want to stay and take care of me," as Phronsie showed signs of
+slipping down from his lap to go too.
+
+"I'll stay and take care of you," said Phronsie, obediently; "just let
+me lay Araminta down, Grandpapa, on the sofa, and then I'll come back
+and rub your head."
+
+So she got down and set Araminta up straight against the sofa back, and
+then came and clambered up again into his lap. By this time Polly and
+Jasper, racing along the hall, had reached Mother Fisher's room.
+
+"That's regularly splendid, father." Jasper tossed his dark hair back
+from his forehead, and his eyes sparkled. "Oh, can't we go out right
+away and begin to buy the presents?"
+
+"I shouldn't think that idea was a half-bad one," said old Mr. King.
+"What do you say, Mrs. Fisher? If we are going to send the box, why
+isn't it best to begin the work at once? There's never so good a time
+as now, in my opinion. I'm sure you agree with me."
+
+On Mother Fisher saying "yes," all three of the young people took hold
+of hands, and danced around the room in glee. For old Mr. King set
+Phronsie down, with, "There, go, child, and spin with the others; then
+all hurry and get your hats on, and we'll be off."
+
+And in less time than it takes to write it, old Mr. King and Mother
+Fisher and Jasper and Polly and Phronsie all hurried out of the hotel,
+and began a round of the shops to get the things together for the
+wonderful box to go home to the boys. And though Polly didn't know it,
+several other things, that boys wouldn't be supposed to care for in the
+least, were slyly added to the purchases, when she wasn't looking, to
+be sent home to the hotel in separate parcels to Mr. King. For Polly
+was going to have a birthday before very long; though she had quite
+forgotten it in the excitement over this box for Ben and Joel and David.
+
+"It's just like buying things for Christmas, isn't it, Jasper?" said
+Polly, as they hung over the show-cases and peered into windows; "only
+everything is so funny here. Oh, no, Phronsie, that won't do; it's too
+big," as Phronsie protested that nothing was so nice as a huge Delft
+plate hanging on the wall. There was a big windmill and several little
+windmills in the distance along a Dutch canal, and two or three cows in
+the foreground, and a peasant girl with a basket in her hand. Phronsie
+stood and gazed at it all the time they were in this particular shop.
+
+"I like that little girl," she said, "and those cows; and they are like
+Deacon Blodgett's cows at home in Badgertown. And Ben would like it,
+and Joel, and David." And all Polly could do, she would still say, "I
+like it, Polly, and I want Grandpapa to send it."
+
+At last Polly turned in despair to Jasper. "Oh, what can we do?" she
+cried; "she is just as determined as she was when she would send the
+gingerbread boy to Grandpapa."
+
+"Well, I think we would better not try to get her away from the idea,"
+said Jasper, with a look at the rapt little face. Phronsie was now
+kneeling on a Flemish oak chair, and studying the Delft plate with
+absorbed attention.
+
+"No," said Polly, with a sigh, "I suppose it isn't any use to try when
+she looks like that." Just then old Mr. King, who had been busy in a
+farther corner with the proprietor of the shop, picking out some small
+articles that struck his fancy, turned and called Phronsie. She didn't
+hear him, being too absorbed. And so he laid down the little silver
+paper-cutter he was looking at, and came over to see what was the
+matter.
+
+"Well, child," he said, looking over her shoulder. "And so you like
+that, hey?"
+
+Phronsie drew a long breath. "I do, Grandpapa, like it very much
+indeed," she said.
+
+"Well, then, I don't see but what you must have it. And it shall hang
+in your own little room at home, Phronsie."
+
+"But I don't want it for my very own, Grandpapa," said Phronsie; "it
+must go in the box for Ben and Joel and David."
+
+"Dear me! You think they would like it, Phronsie?" he asked doubtfully,
+and just on the point of saying, like Polly, "it's too big, child,"
+when he stopped himself and finished up--"and so it pleases you,
+Phronsie?"
+
+"Yes, it does," said Phronsie, with an emphatic little nod; "I love
+that nice cow, and that little girl. Grandpapa, I think I should like
+to live in a windmill."
+
+"Bless me! I think you wouldn't want to live there very long, child.
+Well, the plate shall go to the boys, and I only hope they will like
+it," he said to himself, dubiously.
+
+"He is going to send it," Jasper and Polly said to each other, peering
+round an angle in the shop at the two. "Well, it's a mercy it's got a
+cow on it instead of a cat," said Jasper. "How Joel would howl if
+Phronsie sent him the picture of a cat!"
+
+"She would if there were a cat to be found," said Polly; "don't you
+believe, Jasper, but what she would?"
+
+
+
+
+X
+
+DANGER
+
+
+Well, the box that went home across the seas to the Pepper boys was a
+marvel, stuffed in every nook and cranny where there was a possibility
+that the tiniest parcel could be tucked, until Phronsie, who kept
+bringing up more bundles, had to be told by Polly and Jasper, who did
+the packing, that no more could go in.
+
+"They are very small," sighed Phronsie, curling up on the floor by the
+side of the big box, almost overflowing with billows of the soft white
+paper on top, and holding up two pudgy little bundles.
+
+"So you've said for the last hour, Phronsie," exclaimed Polly, in
+despair, and sitting quite straight, her hands in her lap. "Jasper,
+what _shall_ we do?" He was over by the window laying out the long
+nails that were to fasten the cover on; for no one must touch this
+precious box, but the loving hands that got it ready.
+
+"Oh, we can't," began Jasper. Then he turned and saw Phronsie's face.
+"Perhaps one might be crowded in," he added, with a look at Polly.
+"Which one would you rather have Polly make a try at, Phronsie?"
+
+"This one," she said, holding up the pudgiest bundle, "because this is
+the china cat, and I want Joel to have that."
+
+Down went Polly's head on the edge of the box. Jasper dropped the long
+nails and hurried over to her.
+
+"I can't help it." Polly's shoulders were shaking, and she added
+gustily, "O dear me--and Joel does so hate cats!"
+
+"Phronsie, I think I can tuck in that parcel," Jasper made haste to
+say. "There, give it to me, child," and he took it out of her hand.
+"For Joel" was written across it in unsteady letters.
+
+"Is Polly sick?" asked Phronsie, wonderingly, as she resigned her cat
+into his hands.
+
+"No, only a bit tired, I think," answered Jasper. "Well, now, Phronsie,
+I think there is just room enough to tuck that parcel in this corner,"
+said Jasper, crowding his fingers down in between the various bundles
+to make a space. "There, in it pops!" suiting the action to the word.
+
+"I am so very glad," said Phronsie, smoothing her brown gown in great
+satisfaction; "for then Joel will know that I sent it all by myself."
+
+"He'll know that nobody else sent it," said Polly to herself. "And I
+know it's a perfectly awful cat, for Phronsie always picks out the very
+ugliest she can find."
+
+Well, the box was off, at last, the Pepper children and Jasper seeing
+it till the very last minute. And old Mr. King was nearly as excited as
+the young folks, and the Parson and Mrs. Henderson said it reminded
+them of Christmas times over again, and Mother Fisher and the little
+doctor were in a great state of happiness.
+
+And that night when Polly was in bed, and Mother Fisher came into her
+room and Phronsie's, which opened into her own, to say "Good night,"
+Polly turned on her pillow. "Mamsie," she said, "I do so very much wish
+that we could send a box to the Henderson boys. They must be so
+homesick for their mother and father."
+
+Mrs. Fisher stopped and thought a bit, "A very good idea, Polly," she
+said, "and I'm glad you thought of it. I'll speak to your father and
+see if he approves, before we say anything to Mr. King."
+
+"You see," said Polly, rolling over to get hold of one of Mother
+Fisher's hands, and speaking very fast, "of course the Henderson boys
+are having a good time at dear Deacon Blodgett's, but then their mother
+and father are away off. Oh, Mamsie!" She reached over and threw both
+arms around her mother and hugged her tightly.
+
+"Yes, I know, Polly," said Mother Fisher, holding her big girl to her
+heart, "and we must look out for other people's boys; that's what you
+mean to say, isn't it?"
+
+"Yes," said Polly, happy that Mamsie always understood, "and now that
+Ben's and Joel's and David's box is off, why, I wish we could, Mamsie,
+send the other one."
+
+"I really think it can be done," said Mrs. Fisher, "but I must ask your
+father first. And now, daughter, go to sleep, like Phronsie." She
+glanced over at the other little bed, where Phronsie's yellow head was
+lost in dreams.
+
+"You know we are going to Marken tomorrow."
+
+"I know," said Polly, with a happy little wriggle under the bedclothes.
+
+"And it never would do for you to be all tired out in the morning. That
+would be very unkind to dear Mr. King, who is trying so hard to make us
+all happy," continued Mrs. Fisher.
+
+"I know," said Polly, again. "Well, good night, Mamsie." She set three
+or four kisses on Mother Fisher's cheek, then turned over, with her
+face to the wall.
+
+"I'll shut the door until you get to sleep, Polly," said Mrs. Fisher,
+"then I will open it again," as she went out.
+
+As Mother Fisher had said, they were going to the Island of Marken
+to-morrow; and Polly tumbled asleep with her head full of all the
+strange things they were to see there, and that Jasper and she had been
+reading about,--how the people wore the same kind of funny costume that
+their great-great-ever-so-many-times great-grandfathers and
+grandmothers had worn; and how the houses were of different colours,
+and built in different layers or mounds of land, with cunning little
+windows and scarcely any stairs; and how they were going in the haying
+season when everybody would be out raking up and
+gleaning--and--and--Polly was completely lost in her happy dreams.
+
+Somebody seemed to be pulling her arm. What! Oh, she remembered they
+were going to Marken, and she must hurry and get her bath and fly into
+her clothes. "Yes, Mamsie!" she cried, flying up to sit straight in the
+bed. "I'll get right up and dress; oh, won't we have fun!"
+
+"Polly," said Mother Fisher. She had on a dressing-gown, and her black
+hair was hanging down her back. She looked pale and worried; Polly
+could see that, although she blinked at the sudden light. "It isn't
+morning, but the middle of the night. You must get up this minute. Pull
+on your shoes; don't stop for stockings, and slip into your wrapper.
+Don't ask questions," as Polly's lips moved.
+
+Polly obeyed with an awful feeling at her heart. She glanced at
+Phronsie's little bed; she was not there! Mrs. Fisher threw the pink
+wrapper over her head; Polly thrust her arms into the sleeves, feeling
+as if she were sinking way down. "Now come." And Mamsie seized her hand
+and hurried her through her own room without another word. It was
+empty. Father Fisher and Phronsie were nowhere to be seen. And now for
+the first time Polly was conscious of a great noise out in the
+corridor. It seemed to spread and fasten itself to a number of other
+noises, and something made Polly feel queerly in her throat as if she
+should choke. She looked up in her mother's eyes, as they sped through
+the room.
+
+"Yes, Polly," said Mother Fisher, "it is fire. The hotel is on fire;
+you will be brave, my child, I know."
+
+"Phronsie!" gasped Polly. They were now in the corridor and hurrying
+along.
+
+"She is safe; her father took her."
+
+"Oh, Mamsie, Jasper and Grandpapa!"
+
+"They know it; your father ran and told them. Obey me, Polly; come!"
+
+Mrs. Fisher's firm hand on her arm really hurt Polly, as they hurried
+on through the dense waves of smoke that now engulfed them.
+
+"Oh, Mamsie, not this way; we must find the stairs." But Mrs. Fisher
+held her with firmer fingers than ever, and they turned into a narrower
+hall, up toward a blinking red light that sent a small bright spark out
+through the thick smoke, and in a minute, or very much less, they were
+out on the fire-escape, and looking down to hear--for they couldn't
+see--Jasper's voice calling from below, "We are all here, Polly," and
+"Be careful, wife, how you come down," from Dr. Fisher.
+
+"Oh," cried Polly, as the little group drew her and Mamsie into their
+arms, "are we all here?"
+
+"Yes, Polly; yes, yes," answered Jasper. And "Oh, yes," cried old Mr.
+King, his arm around Phronsie, "but we shouldn't have been but for this
+doctor of ours."
+
+"And Mr. and Mrs. Henderson?" cried Polly, shivering at Grandpapa's
+words.
+
+"We are here, dear child," said the parson's wife, pressing forward,
+and then the crowd surged up against them this way and that, and more
+people came down the fire-escape, and some were screaming and saying
+they had lost everything, and they must go back for their jewels, and
+one woman brought down a big feather pillow, and set it carefully on
+the grass, she was so crazed with fright.
+
+"O dear, dear, can't we help them?" cried Polly, wringing her hands,
+"Look at that girl!"
+
+She was about as old as Polly, and she rushed by them plunging into the
+thickest of the crowd surging up against the fire-escape. "I'm going
+up," she kept screaming.
+
+Polly remembered her face as she flashed by. She sat at the next table
+to theirs in the dining room, with a slender, gentle, little old lady
+whom she called "Grandmamma." "O dear!" groaned Polly, "we _must_ help
+her!"
+
+Jasper dashed after the girl, and Polly ran, too. He laid his hand on
+the arm of the flying figure as she broke through the crowd, but she
+shook him off like a feather. "She's up there," pointing above, "and I
+must get her."
+
+One of the firemen seized her and held her fast. Jasper sprang for the
+fire-escape. "_Jasper!_" called Polly, hoarsely, "it will kill
+Grandpapa if you go--oh!" She turned at a cry from the girl, whose arms
+were around a bent, shaking, little figure, and they had both sunk to
+the ground.
+
+"I brought her down long ago," said another fireman, who could speak
+English, pointing to the white-haired old lady, who, on hearing her
+granddaughter's voice, had pushed her way through the crowd, as Dr.
+Fisher hurried up.
+
+And then Mr. King and his party gathered his group, and they hurried to
+another hotel close by, Jasper and Mr. Henderson and Mother Fisher
+waiting to see to the belongings of the party; for the fire was now
+subdued, although the guests had to go elsewhere for shelter, and the
+little doctor was in his element, taking care of the old lady, and then
+he rushed off to look after a score or more of other fainting women.
+
+But nobody was really hurt--the smoke and the panic had been the worst,
+only the poor thing who had dragged down the feather pillow sat by it
+till the little doctor, discovering her, called two stout men, who took
+her up in their arms--she screaming all the while for her treasure--and
+bore her to a neighbouring house that kindly opened its doors to some
+of the people so suddenly thrown out of shelter. And it wasn't till
+near breakfast time that the little doctor came to the hotel that was
+now their home.
+
+"Brain-fever patient," he said briefly. "Wife, I must get a cold
+plunge, or I'll be having it next." And when breakfast was really set
+before their party, he appeared with the others fresh from his bath,
+and as cheery as if nothing had happened to break his good night's rest.
+
+"O dear me! How did you ever get so many things over here, in all this
+world, and why didn't you let me stay with you?" Polly had exclaimed in
+one breath, looking at the array of dresses, sacks, and hats disposed
+around the room. And Mamsie was kneeling before an open trunk to take
+out more.
+
+"It wasn't best, Polly," said her mother, who had longed for Polly as
+no one knew better than did Mother Fisher herself. "You were really
+needed here with Grandpapa and Phronsie. You truly were, my dear."
+
+"I know," said Polly. "Well, do let me take those out, Mamsie; you're
+tired to death, already. Oh, and you've brought my dear little American
+flag!" She seized it and hugged it with delight.
+
+"Did you suppose I could come back without that flag," exclaimed Mother
+Fisher in a reproving tone, "when you've put it up in your room every
+place where we've stopped?--why, Polly!"
+
+"No, Mamsie, I really didn't think you could," answered Polly, quickly,
+and running to her, little silk flag and all, to throw her arms around
+her neck, "only it's so good to see the dear thing again."
+
+"You may take the things from me, and hang them up somewhere," said her
+mother; "that will help me the most," giving her an armful. "I don't
+see how you ever thought of so many things, Mamsie!" exclaimed Polly
+going off with her armful.
+
+"I brought all I thought we needed just at first," said Mother Fisher,
+diving into the trunk depths again.
+
+"How did you ever do it?" cried Polly, for the fiftieth time, as she
+sorted, and hung the various garments in their proper places.
+
+"Oh, Jasper helped me pack them, and then he got the hotel porter to
+bring over the trunks," answered Mother Fisher, her head in the trunk.
+"I've locked up our rooms, and got the keys, so I can get the rest by
+and by."
+
+"But how did you first hear of the fire?" asked Polly, when they were
+all finally seated around the breakfast table, little Mrs. Gray--for so
+the white-haired old lady was called--and her granddaughter Adela being
+invited to join, "do tell me, Mamsie, I don't understand," she added in
+a puzzled way.
+
+"No, you were talking about Marken in your sleep," said Mother Fisher,
+"when I went to call you, and how you would be ready in the morning."
+
+"Marken?" repeated old Mr. King, looking up from the egg he was
+carefully breaking for Phronsie so that she might eat it from the
+shell. "So we were going there this morning. Well, we won't see that
+island now for a good many days; at least, till we get over this
+fright. Beside, we have things to settle here, and to get comfortably
+fixed. But we'll have that excursion all in good time, never fear."
+
+"Well, how did you, Mamsie," Polly begged again, "first hear of the
+fire? Do tell me."
+
+"Somebody made a good deal of noise down in the corridor," said Mother
+Fisher, "and your father went out to see what was the matter, and then
+he came back and told me what to do, and he took Phronsie and went for
+old Mr. King. But he had sent a porter to warn them in 165, and they
+would tell the Hendersons in the next room, before he ran upstairs to
+me." It was a long speech for Mother Fisher.
+
+"Mamsie," asked Polly, suddenly, after she had leaned across her mother
+and beamed at the little doctor, which so delighted him that his big
+spectacles nearly fell off in his plate, "how _did_ you know where the
+fire-escape was?"
+
+"Oh, that was your father's doings, too," said Mother Fisher. She
+couldn't help but show her pride. "He told me all about it the first
+day we got to the hotel. He always does; he says it's better to know
+these things."
+
+"Wife--wife," begged the little doctor, imploringly.
+
+"I'm going to tell, Adoniram," said Mother Fisher, proudly, "the whole
+story; they ought to know."
+
+"Indeed we had; and so you shall," commanded Mr. King, from the head of
+the table.
+
+"I can't help it! I really must!" exclaimed Polly, hopping out of her
+chair,--there were no other people in the breakfast room beside their
+party, so really it wasn't so very dreadful after all,--and she ran
+back of her mother's chair, and threw her arms around the little
+doctor's neck. "Oh, Papa Fisher," she cried, setting ever so many
+kisses on his cheeks under the big spectacles, "you've saved all our
+lives."
+
+"There--there, Polly," cried the little doctor, quite overcome.
+
+"And ours, too," said little Mrs. Gray, in a shaking voice.
+
+
+
+
+XI
+
+THE TWO BIRTHDAYS IN OLD HOLLAND
+
+
+And Polly never knew about a certain shelf in Grandpapa's closet, nor
+how full it was getting, when Jasper ran every now and then to add the
+gifts as fast as the different members of the party picked up pretty
+things in the shops for the coming birthday--now very near. And she
+actually forgot all about the birthday itself; all her mind being set
+on the Henderson box, so soon to sail off over the sea.
+
+And Mother Fisher would look over at her absorbed face, and smile, to
+watch her in the shops, picking out things for the Henderson boys; and
+old Mr. King would send many a keen glance at her, and Jasper had hard
+work not to exclaim, "Oh, Polly, father has got you a--" And then he'd
+pull himself up, and rush off into some great plan to buy Peletiah
+Henderson something that a Badgertown boy ought to have. And Phronsie
+was carefully guarded on all sides these days, lest she should let out
+the great secret, for, of course, she ought to be in the very centre of
+all these preparations to celebrate Polly's birthday in Old Amsterdam,
+so she knew everything just as soon as it was planned. But sometimes,
+with all this care, the whole thing nearly popped out.
+
+"Mr. King!" It was Mother Fisher who called after him, and her voice
+didn't sound like hers, for it had an excited little ring. "Oh, are you
+going out?" for she didn't see that he held his hat in his hand till he
+turned in the corridor.
+
+"I can wait just as well if it's anything you want, Mrs. Fisher," he
+said gladly, controlling his surprise at her unusual manner. "I was
+only about to run down to the Kalver-straat for a little matter I just
+thought of for the birthday. Can I do anything for you?" he begged.
+
+"Yes, it's just that," said Mrs. Fisher, hurriedly; "it's about the
+birthday--I must speak quickly--I've just found out,--" she glanced up
+and down the corridor as if fully expecting to see Polly dash around a
+corner,--"that Adela Gray's birthday is to-morrow--"
+
+"The dickens! You don't say so!" exploded Mr. King. "Well, now, I call
+that very clever on your part to have found it out. Very clever indeed,
+Mrs. Fisher," he repeated, beaming at her. "And just in time, for it
+would have been a dreadful thing, indeed, to have had that poor little
+girl left out, and her birthday too! Dear me!"
+
+"It would, indeed," said Mrs. Fisher, heartily, with a shiver at the
+mere thought.
+
+"And we might as well have had no celebration in such a case, for Polly
+wouldn't have enjoyed a single bit of it--not an atom!" declared old
+Mr. King, bringing his walking stick heavily down on the floor.
+
+"What is it--oh, Grandpapa, what is it?" and Polly came hurrying along
+the corridor, and Jasper after her.
+
+"Here she comes!" exclaimed Grandpapa, in a fright. "Glad you told
+me--Hush--O dear me--I'll take care of the gifts."
+
+"And I'm to do the rest--just the same--Doctor Fisher and I. Remember!"
+It was all Mrs. Fisher had time to utter. Even then, Polly caught the
+last words in the flurry.
+
+"Oh, what is it, Mamsie--Is anything the matter with Papa-Doctor?" And
+her brown eyes filled with alarm at her mother's unusual manner.
+
+"Polly," Mrs. Fisher looked into the brown eyes with a steady glance,
+and all the hurry was gone out of her voice, "your father is all right.
+And now, run away, you and Jasper." She looked over Polly's shoulder at
+him as she spoke. "No, not another word, child." And away Mrs. Fisher
+hurried, while old Mr. King slipped off in the opposite direction.
+
+"How funnily they act," said Polly, looking first after one and then
+another, with a puzzled face. "What can it be, Jasper?"
+
+"Oh, well, I suppose they are in a hurry," said Jasper, as carelessly
+as he could. "Never mind, Polly, everything is all right. Oh, I say,
+let's fix our stamp books."
+
+"But I was going to ask Grandpapa to go out with us, and now he's gone
+by himself," and Polly's face grew more puzzled than ever.
+
+"Polly," said Jasper, desperately, "I really think we ought to fix our
+stamp books. I really do," and he took her hand. "My stamps are all in
+heaps in the envelopes, and in a mess generally. Come, let's begin
+now--do." And he led her back down the corridor.
+
+"I suppose so," said Polly, with a reluctant little sigh, as they went
+off.
+
+And that afternoon, there was another narrow escape, when it seemed as
+if the secret really must pop out. Polly, rushing along to the reading
+room opposite the big dining room, saw Mother Fisher in consultation
+with the head waiter, and he was saying "cake," and then he stopped
+suddenly, and Mrs. Fisher turned and saw her. And Mamsie came across
+the hall, and into the reading room, and sat there a bit, while Polly
+tossed off a letter to Alexia Rhys, that had been worrying her for
+days. And there was a funny little smile tucked away in the corners of
+Mother Fisher's mouth, and Polly thought that things were getting
+queerer than ever.
+
+"I am glad you are writing that letter," said Mrs. Fisher, with an
+approving smile that chased the funny little one all around the
+strongly curved mouth, "for Alexia will feel badly not to hear often
+from you, Polly."
+
+"I know it," said Polly, wrinkling her brows, "and I didn't mean to let
+this wait so long," scribbling away as fast as she could.
+
+"Take care, Polly," warned her mother; "a carelessly written letter is
+no compliment, and it gets you in a bad way. Don't hurry so, child," as
+Polly's pen went scratching across the paper at a fearful rate.
+
+"But there are so many letters to write to all the girls," said Polly,
+stopping a minute to look at her mother, "and I've only just got all
+the letters in my steamer mail-bag answered. I _must_ write to Cathie
+and Philena, and Amy Garrett too, to-day, Mamsie," she added, in
+distress.
+
+"Polly," said Mother Fisher, looking into the flushed face, "I tell you
+what would be the best way for you to do. All the letters in your
+mail-bag are answered, you said?"
+
+"Yes, indeed," declared Polly. "Oh, Mamsie, you didn't think I could
+put those off?" she asked reproachfully.
+
+"No, Polly, I really didn't," Mrs. Fisher made haste to assure her.
+"Well, now, mother will tell you what will be the best way for you to
+do. Write as good a letter as you can to Alexia, and tell her to send
+it around to all the girls, for a kind of a bulletin, and--"
+
+"Oh, Mamsie Fisher," cried Polly, not stopping to hear the rest, but
+deserting the writing table to run and throw her arms around her
+mother's neck, "you're the bestest, dearest mother in all this
+world--oh--oh! Now I sha'n't have but one letter to write! How fine!"
+
+"And you must write that one letter very nicely, Polly, and take ever
+so much pains with it," said Mother Fisher, her black eyes shining at
+the happy solution; "and that is much better than to hurry off a good
+many slovenly ones. Besides, it is not well to take your time and
+strength for too much letter writing, for there are the boys, and Mrs.
+Whitney and--"
+
+"Grandma Bascom and dear Mrs. Beebe," finished Polly. "Oh, I couldn't
+ever forget them, Mamsie, in all this world." She stopped cuddling
+Mother Fisher's neck, to peer into the black eyes.
+
+"No, you mustn't ever forget them," repeated Mrs. Fisher, emphatically,
+"in all this world, Polly. Well, get to work now over your one letter
+that's to be a bulletin!"
+
+"I shall tear this one up," declared Polly, running back to get into
+her chair again. "O dear me, what a horrible old scrawl," she cried,
+with a very red face. "I didn't know it did look so bad" And she tore
+it clear across the page, and then snipped it into very little bits.
+
+"That's the result of hurry," observed Mother Fisher, wisely, "and I
+would begin all over again, Polly."
+
+So Polly took a fresh sheet and set to work; and Mrs. Fisher, seeing
+her so busily occupied, soon stole out. And there was the head waiter
+waiting for her in the dining room, and Polly never heard a word they
+said, although "cake" was mentioned a great many times, and several
+other things too.
+
+But the next morning Polly Pepper woke up to the fact that it was her
+birthday. For there was Mamsie leaning over her pillow, the first thing
+she saw the minute her eyes were opened. And Phronsie was sitting on
+the end of the bed with her hands folded in her lap.
+
+When she saw Polly's eyes open, she gave a little crow and darted
+forward. "Oh, I thought you never would wake up, Polly," she said,
+throwing her arms around Polly's neck.
+
+"Yes, this child has been sitting there a whole hour, Polly." Mother
+Fisher gave a merry little laugh, and then she began to drop kisses on
+Polly's rosy cheek--ever so many of them.
+
+Polly's dewy eyes opened wide.
+
+"It's your birthday, don't you know!" exclaimed Phronsie, trying to
+drop as many kisses and as fast, on Polly's other cheek, and to talk at
+the same time.
+
+"Mamsie Fisher!" cried Polly, springing up straight in the middle of
+the bed, nearly knocking Phronsie over. "Why, so it is. Oh, how could I
+forget--and sleep over. And I'm fifteen!"
+
+"You're fifteen," repeated Mother Fisher, setting the last little kiss
+on Polly's cheek,--"and it's the best thing you could possibly do, to
+sleep over, child. Now, then, Phronsie, let us help her to get dressed."
+
+Wasn't there a merry time, though, for the next half-hour, till Polly
+had had her bath, and was arrayed, Mother Fisher and Phronsie here,
+there, and everywhere, helping to tie and to hook Polly's
+clothes--Phronsie bringing her little silver button-hook that Auntie
+Whitney gave her, declaring that she should button Polly's boots.
+
+"Oh, no, child," protested Polly. "I'll button them myself," flying off
+for the boots.
+
+But Phronsie piped out, hurrying after her, "I have them, Polly," and,
+sure enough, there they were, one under each arm; "do let me,
+Polly--do, please!" she begged.
+
+"I would, Polly," advised Mrs. Fisher, "for Phronsie really has set her
+heart on doing it."
+
+So Polly sat down in the low chair, and put out her foot, feeling very
+queer indeed, and as if she ought to be doing up Phronsie's boots
+instead. And Phronsie curled up on the floor, and patiently drew every
+one of the buttons into place, and buttoned them fast. And then on with
+the other boot.
+
+"There, now, I did do them all by myself," she announced, getting up
+from the floor, and smoothing down her gown with much importance. "I
+did truly, Polly."
+
+"So you did, Pet," cried Polly, sticking out both feet to look at them.
+"You buttoned every single one of those buttons up splendidly, Phronsie
+Pepper. Now my toes will be just as happy all day; oh, you can't think
+how happy they'll be." And she seized her, half smothering her with
+kisses.
+
+"Will they?" cried Phronsie, coming out of the embrace to peer up into
+Polly's face, in a transport. "Will your toes really and truly be
+happy, Polly?"
+
+"They'll be so happy," declared Polly, with a little wriggle of each
+foot, "that they'll want to sing, only they can't," and she burst out
+into a little laugh.
+
+"Put on your blue dress, Polly," said Mother Fisher, coming out of the
+closet to hurry operations a bit.
+
+"Oh, Mamsie," begged Phronsie, "mayn't Polly wear her white one? Do,
+Mamsie, please!" She ran up to her mother pleadingly.
+
+"Polly will wear a white gown to-night," said Mother Fisher, her eyes
+shining, and the same funny little smile hiding in the corners of her
+mouth; "but this morning she would better put on her blue gingham."
+
+"Yes, that's best," said Polly, reassuringly, running off to get it out
+of the big bureau drawer. "It's all done up spick and span," drawing it
+out. "Mamsie, don't these Dutch women do up things well, though?"
+
+"They do, indeed," assented Mrs. Fisher, with a critical eye for the
+blue gingham; "but I really suppose the Swiss beat them, Polly."
+
+"Well, they must be just perfect, then," said Polly, putting the blue
+gown carefully over her head. "Mamsie, I just love this dress."
+
+"Yes, it is pretty," said Mother Fisher, with an approving eye for the
+dainty ruffles, "and you keep your clothes cleaner than you used to,
+Polly; you're improving."
+
+"I used to get them all mussed up just as soon as could be," mourned
+Polly, her cheeks rosy at the remembrance. "Mamsie, how much trouble
+I've made you." She stopped dressing, and sprang over to Mrs. Fisher.
+Phronsie, trying to button on the waistband, and clinging to it, went
+stumbling after.
+
+"Take care," warned Mrs. Fisher, "don't muss it; it looks so nice now."
+
+"There, there, Phronsie, I'll do that," said Polly, a trifle
+impatiently, looking over her shoulder.
+
+"Oh, I want to, Polly," said Phronsie, fumbling for the button. "Do let
+me; I want to."
+
+"No, I can do it myself," said Polly, trying to whirl off from the busy
+little fingers.
+
+"Polly," began Mother Fisher, who saw what Polly couldn't, Phronsie's
+little face very red with her exertion, and the brown eyes filling with
+tears.
+
+"Well, I declare," cried Polly, at sound of her mother's tone; "so you
+shall, Phronsie. Now I'll stand just as still as a mouse, and you shall
+make that old button fly into its hole."
+
+"So he shall, old button fly into his hole," laughed Phronsie through
+her tears. And presently she declared it was done. And with a final
+pat, this time from Mother Fisher's fingers, Polly was released, and
+the rest of the dressing was soon done.
+
+And there, waiting at the end of their corridor, was Jasper, in every
+conceivable way trying to get the better of his impatience. When he did
+finally see Polly, he dashed up to her. "Well, are you really here?"
+
+"Yes," cried Polly, scampering on, with Phronsie clinging to her hand,
+"I really believe I am, Jasper. But don't let's go faster than Mamsie,"
+looking back for her.
+
+"You all run on," said Mother Fisher, laughing, "I shall get there
+soon; and really, Mr. King has waited long enough," she added to
+herself.
+
+And, indeed, Mr. King thought so too, and he couldn't control his
+delight when the three danced into the little private parlour, opening
+out from his bedroom, and came up to his side.
+
+"I slept over," said Polly, in a shamefaced little way; "I'm sorry,
+Grandpapa dear."
+
+"You needn't be; not a bit of it," declared Grandpapa, holding her off
+at arm's length to scan her rosy face; "the best thing you could
+possibly do"--Mamsie's very words. So Polly felt relieved at once. "And
+now we will wait for Mrs. Fisher," he added, with a glance at the door.
+
+"Here she is," piped Phronsie, who had been regarding the door
+anxiously.
+
+"Yes, here she is," repeated old Mr. King, in great satisfaction,
+holding Polly fast. "Well, now, Mrs. Fisher, that you have come, we'll
+begin our festivities. Our Polly, here, is fifteen years old
+to-day--only think of that!" Still he held her fast, and bent his
+courtly white head to kiss her brown hair.
+
+Polly clung to his other hand. "It can't be a house celebration, Polly,
+my dear, with a party and all that, but we'll do the best we can. And
+to add to our pleasure, and to be company for you" (not a suggestion of
+the pleasure he was to give), "why, we've another little girl with us
+who has chosen this very day for her birthday, too. Adela, come here."
+
+Adela Gray, who had been standing silently, looking on with a sad heart
+at finding herself with a birthday on her hands, and no one to
+celebrate it with her, though for that matter all her birthdays had
+been rather dismal affairs at the best, in the Paris school, now shrank
+back at Mr. King's sudden summons, and hid behind her grandmother's
+black gown.
+
+"Come, Adela," commanded Mr. King, in a tone that brooked no further
+delay. So she crept out, and stood in front of him.
+
+"Oh, Adela!" exclaimed Polly, in a transport, drawing her up by her
+other hand, for still Grandpapa held her fast. "Is it your birthday
+too? How perfectly elegant! oh, oh!"
+
+And everybody said, "How fine!" And they all were smiling at her. And
+Adela found herself, before she knew it, coming up out of her old
+despair into brightness and warmth and joy. And she never knew when old
+Mr. King proclaimed her fourteen years old, and dropped a kiss--yes, he
+actually did--on her head. And then she found herself on his other
+side, by the big centre table, that was covered with a large cloth. And
+Polly made her put her hand under it first, saying, "Oh, no, Grandpapa,
+please let Adela pull out the first parcel." And lo, and behold--she
+held a neat little white-papered bundle tied with a blue ribbon.
+
+"Open it," cried Jasper, as she stood stupidly staring at it, in her
+hand. "Don't you see it's got your name on it?" But Adela didn't see
+anything, she was so dazed. So Jasper had to open it for her. "We may
+thank our stars the first parcel happened to be for her," he was
+thinking busily all the time he was untying the ribbon. And there was
+just what she had wanted for, oh, so long--Mrs. Jameson's little books
+on Art--her very own, she saw as soon as her trembling fingers opened
+the cover.
+
+After that, the skies might rain down anything in the shape of gifts,
+as it seemed to be doing for Polly and for her; it didn't matter to
+Adela; and she found herself, finally, looking over a heap of white
+papers and tangled ribbons, at Polly Pepper, who was dancing about, and
+thanking everybody to right and to left.
+
+"Why don't--why don't--you--thank him?" old Mrs. Gray mumbled in her
+ear, while the tears were running down her wrinkled cheeks.
+
+"Let her alone," said old Mr. King, hearing her. "She's thanked me
+enough. Now then, to breakfast, all of us! Come, Polly--come,
+Adela--Jasper, you take Mrs. Gray," and the others falling in, away
+they all went down to the big dining room, to their own special table
+in the centre.
+
+"I do so love what Joey sent me, and Ben and Davie," breathed Polly,
+for about the fiftieth time, patting her little money-bag which she had
+hung on her belt. Then she looked at the new ring on her finger very
+lovingly, and the other hand stole up to pinch the pin on her trim
+necktie, and see if it were really there. "Oh, Jasper, if the boys were
+only here!" she whispered, under cover of the chatter and bustle around
+the table.
+
+"Don't let us think of that, Polly," Jasper made haste to say; "it will
+make father feel so badly if he thinks you are worrying."
+
+"I know it," said Polly, pulling herself out of her gloom in an
+instant, to be as gay as ever, till the big sombre dining room seemed
+instinct with life, and the cheeriest place imaginable.
+
+"What good times Americans do have!" exclaimed a lady, passing the
+door, and sending an envious glance within.
+
+"Yes, if they're the right kind of Americans," said her companion,
+wisely.
+
+All that wonderful day the sun seemed to shine more brightly than on
+any other day in the whole long year. And the two girls who had the
+birthday together, went here and there, arm in arm, to gladden all the
+tired, and often discontented, eyes of the fellow-travellers they
+chanced to meet. And when finally it came to the dusk, and Polly and
+Adela were obliged to say, "Our birthday is almost all over," why then,
+that was just the very time when Mother Fisher and the little doctor
+(for he was in the plan, you may be very sure, only he wanted her to
+make all the arrangements, "It's more in a woman's way, my dear," he
+had said),--well, then, that was their turn to celebrate the double
+birthday!
+
+"Where are those girls?" cried the little doctor, fidgeting about, and
+knocking down a little table in his prancing across the room. Jasper
+ran and picked it up. "No harm done," he declared, setting the books
+straight again.
+
+"O dear, did I knock that over?" asked Dr. Fisher, whirling around to
+look at the result of his progress. "Bless me, did I really do that?"
+
+"It's all right now," said Jasper, with a laugh at the doctor's face.
+"Lucky there wasn't anything that could break on the table."
+
+"I should say so," declared the little doctor; "still, I'm sorry I
+floored these," with a rueful hand on the books. "I'd rather smash some
+other things that I know of than to hurt the feelings of a book. Dear
+me!"
+
+"So had I," agreed Jasper, "to tell you the truth; but these aren't
+hurt; not a bit." He took up each volume, and carefully examined the
+binding.
+
+When he saw that this was so, the little doctor began to fidget again,
+and to wonder where the girls were, and in his impatience he was on the
+point of prancing off once more across the room, when Jasper said, "Let
+us go and find them--you and I."
+
+"An excellent plan," said Dr. Fisher, hooking his arm into Jasper's and
+skipping off, Jasper having hard work to keep up with him.
+
+"Here--where are you two going?" called Mr. King after them. And this
+hindered them so that Polly and Adela ran in unnoticed. And there they
+were on time after all; for it turned out that the little doctor's
+watch was five minutes ahead.
+
+Well, and then they all filed into the big dining room, and there, to
+be sure, was their special table in the centre, and in the middle of it
+was a tall Dutch cake, ornamented with all sorts of nuts and fruits and
+candies, and gay with layers of frosting, edged and trimmed with
+coloured devices, and on the very tip-top of all was an elaborate
+figure in sugar of a little Dutch shepherdess. And around this
+wonderful cake were plates of mottoes, all trimmed in the Dutch
+fashion--in pink and green and yellow--while two big bunches of posies,
+lay one at each plate, of the two girls who had a birthday together in
+Old Amsterdam.
+
+"Oh--oh!" cried Polly, seizing her bunch before she looked at the huge
+Dutch cake, and burying her nose deep among the big fragrant roses,
+"how perfectly lovely! Who did do this?"
+
+But no one said a word. And the little doctor was as sober as a judge.
+He only glared at them over his spectacles.
+
+"Grandpapa," gasped Polly, "you did."
+
+"Guess again," advised Grandpapa. "Mamsie--" Polly gave one radiant
+look at Mother Fisher's face.
+
+Then Dr. Fisher broke out into a hearty laugh. "You've guessed it this
+time, Polly, my girl," he said, "your mother is the one."
+
+"Your father really did it," corrected Mother Fisher. "Yes, Adoniram,
+you did,--only I saw to things a little, that's all."
+
+"Which means that pretty much the whole business was hers," added the
+little doctor, possessing himself of her hand under cover of the table.
+"Well, girls, if you like your birthday party fixings, that's all your
+mother and I ask. It's Dutch, anyway, and what you won't be likely to
+get at home; there's so much to be said for it."
+
+
+
+
+XII
+
+THE HENDERSON BOX
+
+
+And as Mother Fisher observed, they would all enjoy Marken better for
+the delay, for there would be more time to anticipate the pleasure; and
+then there was the Henderson box to get ready, for Grandpapa King had
+not only approved the plan; he had welcomed the idea most heartily. "It
+will be a good diversion from our scare," he said, when Polly and
+Jasper laid it before him.
+
+"And give us all something to do," he added, "so go ahead, children,
+and set to work on it." And Polly and Jasper had flown off with the
+good news, and every one did "set to work" as Grandpapa said, diving
+into the shops again.
+
+Phronsie tried to find the mate to her china cat, that was by this time
+sailing over the sea to Joel; and it worried her dreadfully, for, try
+as she would, she never could see another one. And she looked so pale
+and tired one night that Mr. King asked her, in consternation, as they
+were all assembled in one corner of the drawing-room, what was the
+matter.
+
+"I wish I could find a cat," sighed Phronsie, trying not to be so
+tired, and wishing the prickles wouldn't run up and down her legs so.
+"We've walked and walked, Grandpapa, and the shop wouldn't come, where
+it must be."
+
+"What kind of a cat is it you want?" asked Adela Gray.
+
+"It was just like Joey's," said Phronsie, turning her troubled blue
+eyes on Adela's face.
+
+"Well, what colour?" continued Adela.
+
+"It was yellow," said Phronsie, "a sweet little yellow cat."
+
+"With green eyes?"
+
+"No, I don't think it's eyes were green," said Phronsie, slowly trying
+to think, "but they were so pretty; and she had a pink ribbon around
+her neck, and--"
+
+"Oh, that settles it," declared Adela, quite joyful that she could help
+the little Pepper girl in any way, "at least the pink ribbon round its
+neck does, for I know where there is a cat exactly like that--that is,
+the one I saw had green eyes, but everything else is like it--it's
+sitting upon a shelf in a shop where I was just this very day, Phronsie
+Pepper."
+
+"Oh!" Phronsie gave a little gurgle of delight, and, slipping out of
+her chair, she ran over to Adela. "Will you show me that shop
+to-morrow?" she begged, in great excitement.
+
+"To be sure I will," promised Adela, just as happy as Phronsie; "we
+will go in the morning right after breakfast. May we, Mrs. Fisher?"
+looking over to her, where she sat knitting as cosily as if she were in
+the library at home. "For I think people who travel, get out of their
+everyday habits," she had said to her husband, before they started,
+"and I'm going to pack my knitting basket to keep my hands out of
+mischief."
+
+And old Mr. King had smiled more than once in satisfaction to glance
+over at Mother Fisher in her cosey corner of an evening, and it made
+him feel at home immediately, even in the dreariest of hotel parlours,
+just the very sight of those knitting needles.
+
+And so, in between the picture galleries and museums, to which some
+part of every day was devoted, the Peppers and Jasper and Adela, and
+old Mr. King, who always went, and Mother Fisher, who sometimes was of
+the party, the ransacking of the lovely shops took place. And it really
+seemed as if everything that the Henderson boys could possibly want,
+was in some of those places--no matter how out-of-the-way--and waiting
+to be bought to fly over the sea to Badgertown. At last off that box
+went. Then Polly was quite happy, and could enjoy things all the more,
+with a mind at rest.
+
+"Now we are all ready for Marken," she cried that night, after dinner,
+when the box was on its way to the steamer, "and I do hope we are going
+to-morrow." Jasper and she had a little table between them, and they
+were having a game of chess.
+
+"Yes, we are, I think," said Jasper, slowly considering whether he
+would better bring down one of his knights into the thick of the
+battle, or leave it to protect his queen.
+
+"Oh, how fine!" exclaimed Polly, unguardedly moving the pawn that held
+at bay a big white bishop, who immediately swooped down on her queen,
+and away it went off the board; and "oh, how perfectly dreadful!" all
+in one and the same breath.
+
+"You may have it back," said Jasper, putting the black queen in place
+again.
+
+"No, indeed--it's perfectly fair that I lost it," said Polly; "oh, I
+wouldn't take it back for anything. I was talking; it was all my own
+fault, Jasper."
+
+"Well, you were talking about Marken, and I don't wonder, for we have
+been so long trying to go there. Do take it back, Polly," he begged,
+holding it out.
+
+"No, indeed!" declared Polly again, shaking her brown head decidedly,
+"not for the world, Jasper."
+
+"What is going over in that corner?" called Grandpapa's voice, by the
+big reading table. He had finished his newspaper, and was now ready to
+talk. So Jasper and Polly explained, and that brought out the subject
+of Marken, and old Mr. King said yes, it was perfectly true that he had
+made all the arrangements to go the following day if the weather were
+fine. So Polly and Jasper swept off the remaining pieces on the
+chessboard, and packed them away in their box, and ran over to hear all
+the rest of it that he was now telling to the family.
+
+"So you see it didn't make any difference about that old queen anyway,"
+said Polly, as they hurried over to him, "for nobody has beaten."
+
+"I'm glad I didn't beat," declared Jasper. "I've that satisfaction,
+anyway, because you wouldn't have moved that pawn, Polly, if you hadn't
+been talking of Marken."
+
+The next day was fine enough to warrant the trip, though not absolutely
+sunshiny. Old Mr. King wisely deciding that the fun of the expedition
+would lose its edge if postponed again, said, "Start!" So after
+breakfast they all went down to the Wester dock and embarked on the
+little steamer bound for the island of Marken in the Zuyder Zee.
+
+"Oh, Polly, look," said Jasper, "doesn't Amsterdam look fine?" as the
+little steamer slowly put forth.
+
+Polly leaned over the rail and drew in long breaths of delight. "Come,
+Adela," she called, "here is a good place;" for the little old lady was
+still too much shaken up to make much attempt at travelling, so Polly
+had begged Mother Fisher and Grandpapa to ask Adela to come with them
+on their sightseeing trips.
+
+And this was done, and the young girl was happy as a bird. So here she
+was, going down to Marken too.
+
+Adela ran and kneeled down on the seat by Polly's side and hung over
+the rail too. "Don't the houses lean over queerly?" she said, pointing
+to the long narrow buildings they were leaving behind. "They look worse
+from the water than when we are in the midst of them."
+
+"It's just as if they were holding each other up," said Polly. "Dear
+me, I should think they'd tumble over some fine day.
+
+"What makes them sag so?" asked Adela, intently regarding them.
+
+"That's because the city is built on piles, I suppose," said Jasper.
+"It's mostly sand in Holland, you know, particularly around Amsterdam,
+and so they had to drive down piles to get something strong enough to
+put their houses on. That's what--who was it?--oh I
+know--Erasmus--meant when he said, 'I know a city whose inhabitants
+dwell on the tops of the trees like rooks.'"
+
+"O dear me," said Adela, quite impressed; "well, what makes them not
+sag any more?" she asked at length.
+
+"Because they've sagged all they want to, I suppose'" said Jasper,
+laughing. "Anyway they've stood so for years on years--probably, so
+it's fair to believe they're all right."
+
+"And I think they're ever so much prettier leaning every which way,"
+declared Polly. "We can see plenty of straight houses at home, so it's
+nice to see crooked ones over here. Oh, Jasper, there's the King's
+palace!"
+
+"Yes and there is the dome of the Lutheran Church," said Jasper.
+
+"Look at that woman with the boy," said Adela, on the wharf. She's got
+a little black bonnet tied on top of her white cap.".
+
+"That's nothing to what we shall see at Marken, I suppose," said Polly.
+"I'm going to take ever so many photographs." She tapped her kodak
+lovingly, as it hung from the strap on her shoulder.
+
+"I wish I'd brought mine," said Adela.
+
+"Why didn't you?" cried Polly, whirling around to scan Adela.
+
+"I forgot it," said Adela. "I put it on the table last night close to
+my hat and gloves, and then walked off this morning without it."
+
+"Now that's too bad!" exclaimed Polly in sympathy. Then she turned back
+uncomfortably, and began to talk of something else. "I'm not going to,"
+she said to herself; "it isn't my fault she forgot her kodak, and I
+want every one of my films myself. And I care a great deal more for
+Marken than for almost any other place." The next moment Mamsie seemed
+to say, "Is that my Polly?" and although she was at the other end of
+the boat, Polly's head drooped as if she had heard the words.
+
+"O dear me--and Adela hasn't any one but a sick grandmother--and I have
+just--everybody," she thought "You shall use my kodak," cried Polly,
+aloud, "one-half the time, Adela."
+
+"Oh, no," protested Adela; but she looked hungrily at Polly's kodak
+swinging over her shoulder.
+
+"Yes, you shall too," declared Polly, cheerily. "I can take all the
+pictures I want in that time, and I have lots of films."
+
+"I'll divide with you, Polly," said Jasper. "I brought ever so many,
+and will go shares with my kodak, too." But Polly made up her mind that
+Jasper's kodak was to be used for his own special pictures, for she
+knew he had set his heart on taking certain ones, and a good many of
+them, too.
+
+"Isn't that water just perfectly lovely!" she exclaimed; "such a bluish
+grey."
+
+"I think it's a greyish blue," said Adela, squinting along its surface
+critically.
+
+"Well, what's the difference?" asked Polly, laughing.
+
+"Not much," said Jasper, "I should think."
+
+"Well, anyway, it's lovely," declared Polly; "I just wish I could paint
+it."
+
+"Do you paint?" asked Adela, suddenly.
+
+"No," said Polly, "not a bit"
+
+"Polly is all for music," said Jasper, quickly. "You ought to hear her
+play."
+
+"Oh, I can't play much now," said Polly, "but I mean tot some time.
+Jasper, how long it is since we have had a duet." Her face dropped its
+cheery curves and a sad little look crept into her eyes.
+
+"That's the bother of travelling about; one can't play in a hotel,"
+said Jasper. "But wait till we get to Dresden, Polly."
+
+"Oh, I can't bear to wait," said Polly. "I don't want to hurry on,
+Jasper--but oh, I do wish we could play on a piano." Her fingers
+drummed on the rail in her eagerness.
+
+"Why, you are playing now," said Adela, bursting into a laugh, "or
+pretending to, Polly Pepper."
+
+"I know it," said Polly, laughing too; "well, that's what I always used
+to do in the little brown house,--drum on the table."
+
+"In the little brown where?" demanded Adela in astonishment.
+
+"The little brown house," answered Polly, and her eyes lightened as she
+seemed to see it before her. "That's where we used to live, Adela--oh,
+the sweetest place, you can't think!"  Polly's fingers stopped drumming
+now, and the colour flew up to her cheek; she forgot all about Adela.
+
+"Oh, I suppose it had everything beautiful about it," said Adela,
+delighted to make Polly talk, "big gardens, and terraces, and--"
+
+"Oh, no," said Polly, "it didn't have gardens at all, Adela, only a
+little bit of a green grass-plot in front. But there was an apple tree
+at the back."
+
+"Apple tree at the back?" echoed Adela, faintly.
+
+"Yes, and we had beautiful plays under it," cried Polly, rushing on in
+remembrance; "and sometimes when all the work was finished, Mamsie
+would let us spend the whole afternoon out there. You can't think what
+perfectly splendid times we had there, Adela Gray!"
+
+Adela by this time was beyond words, but stared up at Polly's face
+speechlessly. "And what fun it was on baking days, Polly," cried
+Jasper, unable to keep quiet any longer; "do you remember when I burnt
+all my cakes around the edges?"
+
+"Well, that was because the old stove acted so," said Polly; "one
+minute it wouldn't bake at all, and the next it burnt things black."
+
+"And the washing the dishes and things up afterward," said Jasper,
+reflecting; "I think I liked that just as well as the baking, Polly."
+
+"It was good fun," said Polly; "and how funny you looked with one of
+Mamsie's aprons tied round under your chin, Jasper."
+
+"I know it," said Jasper, bursting into a laugh. "I must have looked
+like--I don't know what. But it was good fun, Polly."
+
+And then Phronsie came running up, and after her came Grandpapa to see
+that she got there all right.
+
+"Oh, Polly, do you see the windmills?" she cried, clapping her small
+hands.
+
+"Yes, Pet," said Polly, looking all along the soft curves of the shore,
+"there are hundreds of them, aren't there?"
+
+"There was a girl coming out of the door of one of them," announced
+Phronsie, climbing up on the seat and putting her arm around Polly's
+neck. "Polly, I'd like to live in a windmill; I would," she whispered
+close to her ear.
+
+"Would you, Pet?"
+
+"Yes, I would truly," she said. "Why couldn't I, Polly, just like that
+girl I saw coming out of the door?" she asked, looking back wistfully.
+
+"Well, that girl never had a little brown house to live in," said
+Polly; "think of that, Phronsie."
+
+
+
+
+XIII
+
+"THE CLEANEST PLACE IN ALL HOLLAND"
+
+
+"Oh, Polly, see the cunning little doll-houses!" exclaimed Phronsie in
+a little scream, flying about from Grandpapa at the head of his party
+on their way up from the boat-landing, and then back to the rear of the
+procession, which happened to be Polly and Jasper.
+
+"Hush, Phronsie, don't talk so loud; they are not doll-houses," said
+Polly. "People live in them."
+
+"People live in them!" echoed Phronsie, standing quite still on the
+paved road, that shone as if just freshly scoured.
+
+"Yes, yes; come along, child, the people will hear you," said Polly,
+seizing her hand.
+
+Phronsie suffered herself to be piloted along, but she stumbled more
+than once over the cobbles, her eyes were so busy.
+
+"Take care, Phronsie," warned Polly, "you came near falling on your
+nose that time."
+
+"I'll go on the other side," said Jasper; "there, now, Phronsie, give
+us your hand. Well, I don't wonder you are surprised. I never saw such
+a place as this Broek is."
+
+"They've just washed it all up, haven't they, Jasper?" asked Polly, her
+brown eyes scanning the little walks along each tiny garden they
+passed. Everything shone alike.
+
+"They're always washing up, I believe," answered Jasper, with a laugh.
+"I suppose they live in a pail of water, so to speak."
+
+"Oh, Jasper, in a pail of water!" exclaimed Phronsie, between them,
+poking her head out to look for such a strange and unwarrantable sight
+provided by the inhabitants of Broek.
+
+"I mean they're always scrubbing, so they can never be separated from
+their pails of water," said Jasper.
+
+"It seems almost too bad to step on such clean roads," said Polly,
+getting up on her tiptoes, and stepping gingerly off. When Phronsie saw
+Polly do that, she got up on her tiptoes too, and tried to get over the
+ground with her.
+
+"You can't do that long," said Jasper, with a laugh for both, "and it
+wouldn't do any good, Polly, if you could, for these Broek women will
+have to come out and scrub up after us all the same."
+
+"I suppose they will," said Polly, with a sigh of relief, coming down
+on to the rest of her feet, which proceeding, Phronsie was very glad to
+copy. "And it isn't as nice as it looks to walk on the tips of your
+toes. Jasper, do see those cunning little windows and those china
+images inside!"
+
+"It seems as if they were all windows," said Jasper, scanning the tiny
+panes shining at them from all the cottages. "Dear me, the Broek women
+have something to do, don't they, to keep everything so shiny and
+clean?"
+
+"Haven't they!" cried Polly. "Well, I don't wonder it is the cleanest
+place in all Holland. They must have to sit up all night and wash and
+scrub."
+
+"It's the cleanest place on the whole earth, I imagine," laughed Jasper.
+
+"But I should love to see some boys playing with mud pies," sighed
+Polly, running her glance up and down the immaculate road, and
+compassing all the tiny gardens possible to her range of vision.
+
+"Mud pies!" exclaimed Jasper, in mock surprise. "Polly, how can you
+mention such a thing as dirt or mud here!"
+
+"Jasper, do you suppose the children can have a good time here?"
+pursued Polly, anxiously, willing to give up the mud pies, if only
+reassured on the latter point, which seemed to her a very doubtful one.
+
+"We'll hope so," answered Jasper. "See the klompen outside that door,
+Polly. Well, here we are at the dairy, Polly."
+
+"And can I see the cows?" cried Phronsie. "Oh, Grandpapa is calling
+me," and off she ran.
+
+And so he was calling her, as he and the parson had now reached the
+dairy door, under cover with the dwelling, which seemed much less an
+object of painstaking care than the house where the cows resided and
+the cheeses were made.
+
+But everything was as neat as a pin in the house, though, and Polly and
+Jasper concluded they would explore the two rooms, as everybody seemed
+to be expected to do, after the main object of the visit was
+accomplished and the dairy inspected.
+
+"Dear me, do they have to take their shoes off before they go in the
+house?" cried Polly.
+
+"I suppose so," said Jasper. "Well, it isn't much trouble to get out of
+those sabots, that's one comfort for them."
+
+"Dear me," Mrs. Fisher was saying, "if they haven't a carpet on the
+floor for the cows to walk on!" And there, surely, were strips of
+carpeting all down the walks between the rows of stalls, and something
+that looked like braided hemp in the bottom of the stalls themselves.
+And everything was tiled where it could be, with little tiles, and all
+these and every bit of the woodwork itself shone beautifully--it was so
+clean and polished.
+
+Mrs. Fisher's black eyes shone, too. "It's beautiful," she said to her
+husband, "to see everything so clean for once in the world."
+
+"What are those hooks for?" asked Jasper of the stolid Dutchman, who
+showed them about, and who spoke English fairly well.
+
+"We hook the cows' tails up so they won't shake any dirt on their
+sides," said the Dutchman.
+
+"O dear me!" exclaimed Polly Pepper, and everybody laughed--but she
+didn't.
+
+"I think that is cruel," she said. "What do the poor things do to beat
+off the flies, pray tell?"
+
+"Flies?" said Mother Fisher. "I don't suppose they ever see a fly here,
+Polly."
+
+"They'd chase one worse than the dirt, I guess," said the little doctor.
+
+"Oh," said Polly, with a sigh of relief.
+
+"Come, Polly, let us go into the cheese room," suggested Jasper,
+peering in, for everything was connected and under one roof. "There's a
+man in there, and he is telling something;" so they skipped in, while
+Phronsie was bewailing that there were no cows there, and where were
+they?
+
+"Why, Phronsie, they are all out in the fields. You wouldn't have them
+shut up this hot day," said Grandpapa.
+
+"No," said Phronsie, swallowing the lump in her throat, "I wouldn't,
+Grandpapa; I'd much rather know they are having a nice time. I don't
+want them in here, I truly don't."
+
+"That's a nice child," said old Mr. King, approvingly. "Well, now,
+we'll see how they make these wonderful Edam cheeses, Phronsie."
+
+"I shall call this place the Cheesery," announced Polly, running about
+between the vats and the big press.
+
+"Oh, Polly, that's a capital name," said Jasper. "So shall I call it
+the 'Cheesery' in my journal. Look at the rows and rows of them, Polly."
+
+"And how round and yellow they are," said Polly; "just like pumpkins,
+aren't they? Wouldn't it be fine if we could take some home, to send to
+Badgertown? Dear Mrs. Beebe is so fond of cheese, Jasper."
+
+"It is a pity; but we couldn't take cheeses very well. Fancy our
+trunks, Polly!" He wrinkled up his face; at sight of it Polly laughed
+merrily.
+
+"No, of course not," she said; "but oh, how fine they look!"
+
+"Grandpapa, I'd like to buy one," said Phronsie, overhearing a bit of
+this, and opening her little bag that hung on her arm, to get her purse.
+
+"What in the world can you do with a Dutch cheese, child?" exclaimed
+old Mr. King.
+
+"But I would like to buy one," persisted Phronsie. And after much
+diving Phronsie produced the little silk purse--"Polly wants one,
+Grandpapa," she got up on her tiptoes to whisper confidentially.
+
+"Oh, is that it?" said Mr. King. "Well, now, Phronsie, I don't really
+believe Polly wants one. You would better ask her. If she wants one you
+shall buy it for her."
+
+So Phronsie ran off. "Do you, Polly? Do you?" then she gently pulled
+Polly's sleeve to make her hear, for Polly and Jasper were hanging on
+the description that the man in attendance was pouring forth.
+
+"Do I what?" cried Polly, only half understanding, and lost in the
+thought of how much fun it must be to make little yellow cheeses, and
+set them up in rows to be taken to market.
+
+"--want one of those dear sweet little cheeses?" finished Phronsie.
+
+"Yes, indeed," answered Polly, bobbing her head, and listening to the
+man with all her might.
+
+"Yes, she does, Grandpapa," declared Phronsie, flying back, "she told
+me so her very own self."
+
+"The goodness, she does!" exclaimed old Mr. King, "Well then, she shall
+have one. But pick out a small one, Phronsie, the very smallest you can
+find."
+
+This was so much a work of time, Phronsie laying aside one selection
+after another, each yellow cheese looking so much better on comparison,
+that at last old Mr. King was almost in despair, and counselled the
+purchase of the last one that Phronsie set her eyes on. But meantime
+she had spied one on the upper shelf of all.
+
+"There it is, Grandpapa," she cried, clapping her hands in delight,
+"the very littlest of all, and isn't it beautiful, Grandpapa, dear?"
+
+"Indeed it is," assented Grandpapa, and he had the man lift it down and
+do it up; a piece of a Dutch newspaper again doing duty, when Phronsie
+held out her arms to receive it. "You can't carry it, child; give it to
+me. What in the world shall we do with the thing?" all this Grandpapa
+was uttering in one breath.
+
+"Oh, Grandpapa, dear, I do so want to carry Polly's little yellow
+cheese," said Phronsie, the tears beginning to come in her eyes.
+
+Grandpapa, who had taken the round parcel from her arms, looked from it
+to her with increasing perplexity. "Have the goodness to put a string
+around it, will you?" he said to the man who was regarding him
+stolidly, after satisfying himself that the coin Phronsie had drawn out
+of her purse and put in his hand was a good one.
+
+"Yah, yah," said the man, and he brought out of one of his pockets a
+long piece of thick twine. This with much hard breathing accompanying
+the work, he proceeded to twist and interlace around the paper
+containing the little yellow cheese in such a way that when it was
+completed, Phronsie was carrying what looked like a little net basket,
+for there was a good strong twine handle sticking up, into which she
+put her small hand in great satisfaction.
+
+When they all gathered in the living room of the house that had open
+doors into the cow-house and dairy, all being under one roof, they
+found a huge pile of photographs displayed of various views of the
+premises indoors and out.
+
+"But they aren't half as nice as ours will be," whispered Jasper; "how
+many did you take, Polly?"
+
+"Three," said Polly.
+
+"Oh, Polly, didn't you get more than that?" said Jasper, quite
+disappointed for her, for Polly dearly loved to take photographs. "Oh,
+you've let Adela Gray take your kodak," he added; "it's a shame I
+didn't give you mine. Take it now, Polly," he begged, slinging off the
+leather strap from his shoulder.
+
+"No, no," said Polly, "I don't want to, Jasper, and I wanted Adela to
+take it, and don't let her hear us, she may come back from the other
+room;"--for Adela had disappeared with the kodak; "and it's all right,
+Jasper," she finished up incoherently.
+
+"Aren't these queer beds, Mrs. Fisher?" the parson's wife was saying,
+peering into the shelves against the side of the wall, boarded up, with
+doors swung open inviting inspection.
+
+"The idea of sleeping in one of them!" exclaimed Mrs. Fisher,
+inspecting the interior with a sharp eye. "They're clean enough and as
+neat as a pink"--with a critical glance along the white lace spread and
+the immaculate pillow--"but to be shut up in a box like that. I should
+as soon go to bed in a bureau drawer."
+
+"So should I," laughed the parson's wife; "and look at the artificial
+flowers hanging up over the head, and that picture pinned, above the
+foot. Well, well, well, and so that is a Dutch bed!"
+
+"There are a good many kinds and sorts of Dutch beds, I suppose,"
+observed Mrs. Fisher, turning away, "just as there are a good many
+American ones; but I hope there aren't many of this particular kind."
+
+"Jasper," exclaimed Polly, as they all filed decorously out of the
+"Model Farm," "how I do wish you and I could race down to the
+boat-landing!"
+
+Jasper looked longingly down the washed and shining road. "So do I,
+Polly," he said, "but I suppose it wouldn't do; we should shock these
+natives."
+
+"I suppose so," assented Polly, ruefully. Just then Phronsie came up
+holding with both hands her paper-covered, twine-netted little round
+yellow cheese.
+
+"What in the world has Phronsie got!" exclaimed Polly, catching sight
+of her. "Come here, Pet," she called.
+
+Phronsie hesitated. On Polly's calling her again she drew near, but
+more slowly than was her wont.
+
+"What have you got, Phronsie?" asked Polly, wondering and not a little
+hurt by her manner. "A little basket of string; isn't it funny, and
+where did you get it?"
+
+"It isn't a basket," corrected Phronsie, "and I cannot tell you now,
+Polly," said Phronsie, shaking her head.
+
+"Why, Phronsie," began Polly in surprise; and she couldn't help it, her
+voice quavered in spite of her.
+
+When Phronsie heard that, she was equally distressed, and at once
+decided to present the gift then instead of carrying it back to the
+hotel for Polly as she had at first intended. So she cast her burden
+into Polly's hands and piped out, "It's for you, Polly, a sweet little
+yellow cheese; you said you wanted it," and stood smiling and
+triumphant.
+
+"Oh, my goodness me!" exclaimed Polly Pepper, standing quite still.
+Then she did shock the natives, for she sat right down in the road,
+with the cheese in her hands.
+
+
+
+
+XIV
+
+THE ISLAND OF MARKEN
+
+
+When the boat was nearing the island of Marken, the little yellow
+cheese had been presented with all due formality to one of the sailors
+who had been specially kind in the matter of securing good seats for
+Mr. King's party, Polly and Phronsie having held a whispered conference
+in a retired nook, to come out of it bright and smiling.
+
+"And now it has made two people happy, Phronsie," Polly had said, when
+the presentation was well over, and she ended up with a kiss. "It made
+me happy in the first place because you thought of me, and then, just
+think, Pet, that poor sailor, how glad he will be to take it home."
+
+"Will he, Polly?" asked Phronsie, in a rapture; "and do you think he
+has got any little girls?"
+
+"Perhaps so," said Polly, "and at any rate, he can eat it himself. And
+he looks hungry enough."
+
+"I'd rather he had some little girls, Polly," said Phronsie,
+thoughtfully, "and have him give them each a piece."
+
+"Well, maybe he has some; we'll think so, anyway," Polly answered. "Oh,
+see, Jasper is calling us."
+
+To be sure, there he was on the other side of the boat nearest Marken,
+with a big group of passengers, intently watching the Marken children
+running along in their clacking sabots, on the high bank, and holding
+out their arms, singing something all the while in a shrill, high key.
+
+"They want some stuivers," cried Jasper. "Come, Polly and Phronsie, let
+us toss them some."
+
+Whiz--spin--went the coins, to fall into the thick stubby grass on the
+bank. The children, stopping their song in mid-air, scrambled and
+sprawled all over each other in their efforts to secure the coveted
+money. So Jasper and Polly threw the bits next time in the other
+direction. Then there was a shout and a rush, and the same thing was
+repeated till only a tangle of arms and legs could be seen. But some
+one of them always got the money.
+
+"Dear me! they've eyes just like birds!" exclaimed Parson Henderson;
+"to think of finding anything in that thick grass."
+
+"Let them alone for that," laughed old Mr. King; "their wits are
+sharpened by practice."
+
+"Look out, Phronsie!" exclaimed Jasper. "Your stuivers went into the
+water. Here, I'll hold you up, then you can throw it farther. There you
+go," swinging her to his shoulder. "Now, then"--he guided her hand, and
+away spun the coin.
+
+"It did, it did," crowed Phronsie, from her high perch. "It did,
+Jasper, go right straight down in the grass just like yours and
+Polly's."
+
+"So it did, Pet. Well, now, here is another."
+
+"There's a little girl back there and she hasn't any," mourned
+Phronsie. "Oh, dear, I want to give her some."
+
+"To be sure," said Jasper. "Well, we must give her some, and that's a
+fact." The small girl kept on at a dog-trot along the bank, her eyes
+fixed on the wonderful people who tossed out such magic wealth, and
+holding out her arms and singing her shrill song. But when the money
+was thrown, she was always a bit too late, and the other children,
+scrambling and scuffling, had pounced upon it, and had made off with it.
+
+"Here, you boys, keep away; you've had enough; we're going to give this
+to the little girl," Jasper shouted to them as they threw coin after
+coin.
+
+"They don't know what you are saying, my boy," said old Mr. King,
+laughing heartily at the performance, "and they wouldn't mind you in
+the least if they did."
+
+"I suppose not," said Jasper in chagrin. "Oh, the mean little beggars!"
+
+"Hold up your apron," screamed Polly to the little girl.
+
+"That's a good idea," said Jasper. "Why didn't we think of it before?"
+
+"She won't understand any better than the boys," said old Mr. King.
+"You forget, children, that these youngsters don't know our language."
+
+"What a bother," exclaimed Jasper, "it is to have so many different
+languages, anyway!"
+
+"And she hasn't any apron, Polly," corrected her mother; "that is her
+brown gown."
+
+Polly was already going through the motions of holding up an imaginary
+apron. And at last the little girl understood by gestures what she
+could not possibly get into her head by words, so she picked up the
+skirt of her gown in her sturdy little fists, and one, two, three
+clinking coins fell safely into it. But the boys racing along in
+advance soon discovered this successful trick, and completely swarmed
+around her, howling dreadfully, so she hastened off, happy in her
+prize, which she huddled up in her gown as she ran.
+
+"Isn't this just richness?" exclaimed Polly, gazing all about her in an
+ecstasy. "Oh, Jasper, what pictures we'll take--and do see that woman's
+cap! and those pot-hooks of hair over her eyes, and that funny, long
+dangling curl!"
+
+"Take care, Polly, you almost stepped off backward down the bank,"
+warned Adela, pulling her back, as they got off the steamboat and
+stopped a bit to look around.
+
+"Dear me, did I?" said Polly. "Well, it's enough to make any one step
+backward to see such funny clothes; and they are hay-making, Adela
+Gray, as sure as you live."
+
+"Didn't you suppose they would be?" answered Adela, composedly. "Why,
+that's one of the things I specially wanted to see."
+
+"Yes, so did I," said Polly. "Well, it's too, too splendid for
+anything. I'm going to begin to take pictures right straight off." Then
+she stopped and looked at Adela. "You may first," she said.
+
+"No, I'm not going to," declared Adela.
+
+"Yes, yes," said Polly, "I'd rather you did first; I truly had, Adela."
+She ran after her, for Adela had retreated down the bank, and made as
+if she were going to follow the party. "Now, Adela, be good and listen
+to reason."
+
+But Adela ran off.
+
+"Now that's too bad," mourned Polly, "for I'm afraid she'll keep away
+from me all the while we're on this island, and then I can't get a
+chance to give her my kodak at all."
+
+"She had it at the 'Model Farm,'" said Jasper, by way of comfort, for
+Polly's face fell.
+
+"Oh, that was nothing," said Polly, "such a little bit of a while
+doesn't count."
+
+"Well, let us take pictures as fast as we can," suggested Jasper, "and
+then when we do come up with Adela, why you'll have yours done."
+
+So Polly roused out of her dejection and set to work, and presently the
+hay-makers, and the Marken boys and girls, the funny little houses that
+looked as if they dropped down pellmell from the clouds and settled
+where they had dropped--the high ridges along which the men and boys,
+walking in their full baggy trousers, looked as if they were blown up,
+and formed a Dutch perspective perfectly awful--all these queer,
+delightful things were presently imprisoned in the two kodaks.
+
+Jasper looked up. "There, that's my last picture," he declared. "At any
+rate, for now."
+
+"Oh, one more! I must get a good picture of those girls raking hay."
+Polly ran off a few steps and sat down on a log to focus. The Marken
+girls happened to look up, and immediately whirled around and presented
+their backs to her.
+
+"Oh, dear, how hateful!" she exclaimed; "that would have been a
+splendid picture."
+
+"Never mind," said Jasper; "you can catch them unawares, and have
+another try at them."
+
+"Not so good as that," said Polly, sorrowfully. "Well, it can't be
+helped." So she was just going to get up from her log, when the girls,
+thinking from her attitude that she had given up the idea of taking a
+picture of them, turned back to their work. As quick as a flash Polly
+focussed again, and was just touching the button, when a hand came in
+front of her kodak, and she saw the grinning face of a Marken girl
+under its pot-hook of hair and with the long, dangling curl on one
+side, close to her own.
+
+"Too late!" exclaimed Polly. "And don't you ever do that again." And
+the hand was withdrawn, and the girl clattered off as fast as she could
+run in her wooden shoes.
+
+"I got them," said Polly, running back in triumph to Jasper.
+
+"Yes, and I took a picture of the saucy girl while she was trying to
+stop yours," said Jasper. "So she didn't do much harm, after all. Oh,
+here is a splendid group! See them standing by that old tumble-down
+house, Polly," he added excitedly.
+
+"I thought you had taken your last picture, Jasper," said Polly,
+bursting into a laugh.
+
+"Well, I had then, but I've begun again," said Jasper, recklessly. He
+walked up to the group and held out his hand, then pointed to his
+kodak. They smiled and nodded, showing all their teeth, and the mother
+took the littlest baby, for there seemed to be a very generous number
+of the smaller members of the family, and sat down with it in her lap
+on the rickety step. Then they all drew up stiff as sticks, and didn't
+even wink.
+
+"That's capital," said Jasper, in huge satisfaction, pouring the coins
+into the mother's lap, where they rolled underneath the fat baby. Polly
+and he hurried on.
+
+"Oh, Polly, I'm so very glad you've come," said Phronsie, as Polly and
+Jasper ran up to a doorway through which they could see their party.
+Phronsie stood just inside, and appeared to be watching for them.
+"There's a woman here who's been showing us things." There was Mrs.
+Fisher up by the tiny window, bending over an old woman who had spread
+out in her lap some white embroidered garments, while a young woman
+hovered near, smiling and blushing, and very happy at all this notice.
+And the rest of the party crowded up as close as they could.
+
+"They are her daughter's wedding clothes," said Mrs. Fisher, "I do
+believe." For, the old woman was working fearfully hard to make them
+understand, and pointing first to the white garments and then to the
+young woman. "Wedding clothes?" asked Mrs. Fisher, speaking very slowly.
+
+The old woman seemed to understand the one word "wedding," for she
+nodded furiously and smiled well pleased; and then devoted her whole
+time and energy to the display of the garments. And she even laughed
+aloud when old Mr. King put some coins in her hard hand.
+
+Polly took the time to study her headgear. "I think there is a round
+board under the cap," she confided to Jasper when once out of doors;
+"how else could they be pulled so tight? And they look as hard as a
+drum."
+
+"I didn't investigate," he said, laughing. "I'll leave that to you,
+Polly."
+
+"Well, it's funny anyway," she said, "that all the women and girls
+dress alike in those queer gowns in two parts, and those embroidered
+jackets over their waists, and those caps and horrible pot-hooks and
+long curls."
+
+"It's well that we've got so many pictures, for the people at home
+would never believe our stories without them."
+
+"And these houses," continued Polly, squinting up at a crooked row,
+"all colours--green stripes and black stripes--and, O dear me! Jasper
+King, just look at Phronsie!"
+
+Jasper followed the direction of Polly's finger. There sat Phronsie on
+a grassy bank a little above them, with one of the fattest Marken
+babies in her lap. A variegated group of natives was near by, watching
+her intently. But Phronsie didn't appear to notice them.
+
+"Polly, I wish we had a baby just like this," sighed Phronsie, giving
+motherly pats to the stout little legs dangling down from her lap.
+
+"Come, children,"--Grandpapa emerged from the little old house,--"we
+must hurry on, else we sha'n't get through this island. Come,
+Phronsie--goodness me!" as he saw how she was occupied.
+
+"May I carry her?" begged Phronsie, staggering to her feet--"she's
+mine"--and dragging the Marken baby up with her.
+
+"Goodness me! no, child!" exclaimed Grandpapa, in horror. "Put her
+down, Phronsie; she's ever so much too heavy for you, dear." He put
+forth a protesting hand, but the tears ran down Phronsie's cheeks and
+fell on the baby's stiff white cap. At that old Mr. King was quite gone
+in despair.
+
+"Phronsie," Polly bent over and whispered close to the wet little
+cheek, "don't you see Grandpapa is feeling badly? I'm afraid he will be
+sick, Phronsie, if he is unhappy."
+
+Phronsie dropped the pudgy little hand, and threw herself into old Mr.
+King's arms. "Don't be sick, Grandpapa," she wailed, struggling with
+her tears. "I'd rather not have my baby, please; I don't want her.
+Please be all well, Grandpapa, dear."
+
+
+
+
+XV
+
+MR. KING DOES HIS DUTY
+
+
+Polly's face appeared over Adela's shoulder. "Don't!" said Adela,
+shrinking away into the corner of the big sofa, and putting her hands
+over something she held in her lap.
+
+"Excuse me!" exclaimed Polly, tumbling back in amazement. "I wasn't
+looking. I don't want to see. I only meant to surprise you." She kept
+backing off toward the door, the colour all over her round cheek.
+
+"You mustn't get mad, Polly," cried Adela, flying up straight to look
+at her, but still keeping her lap well covered.
+
+Jasper, running in, heard the words. "Polly never gets mad," he said
+slowly, standing quite still.
+
+"Well, she is now--just as mad as can be," said Adela, in a fretful
+little voice; "look at her."
+
+"Oh, I'm not mad, Adela," began Polly, "only sorry. And it's my fault,
+Jasper," seeing his face darken, "for I looked over her shoulder. I
+only wanted to surprise her; and Adela, of course, thought I wanted to
+see what she was doing."
+
+"Yes," said Adela, "I did think so, Polly Pepper, and I don't want
+anybody to see it." With that she huddled the thing, whatever it was,
+down by her side, and ran out of the room as fast as she could go.
+
+"A disagreeable creature," began Jasper, hotly; "and she's been a
+perfect nuisance all along to take her everywhere. Now we drop her,
+Polly." He looked more like his father at this moment than Polly had
+ever seen him before.
+
+"Oh, no, Jasper," she remonstrated in dismay.
+
+"Yes, we drop her like a hot cake," said Jasper, decidedly; "that would
+be my opinion, Polly."
+
+"But we can't, she's so alone," went on Polly; "and, besides, she's
+troubled about something. That's what makes her feel so."
+
+"It's a queer way to bear trouble, I should think, to abuse you," said
+Jasper, "when you've been bothering yourself about her all this time."
+
+"Oh, I don't mind," said Polly, brightening up, "if only you won't talk
+of our dropping her, Jasper."
+
+Jasper turned on his heel, and walked to the window. When he looked
+back, the annoyance had dropped out of his face, and he was just
+saying, "All right, Polly, it ought to be as you say, I'm sure," when
+Adela Gray rushed into the room and up to Polly, and flung her arms
+around her neck. "There, and there, and there!" and something tumbled
+into Polly's hands.
+
+"I didn't want anybody to see it," mumbled Adela, "for I've spoiled it;
+and I was trying to rub out the spots when you came in, and I made it
+worse than ever. But I'll give it to you now, Polly; and please tear it
+up, and I'll make you another."
+
+When this long speech was all mumbled out, Polly was looking at a
+little sketch of Phronsie holding the fat Marken baby, and the Marken
+people looking on.
+
+"Oh, Jasper!" screamed Polly, "do come here! Oh, Adela, did you draw
+this? And oh! how perfectly beautiful!" all in one breath.
+
+"It _is_ a good thing," said Jasper, taking the drawing from Polly's
+hand and examining it critically, while Polly threw her arms around
+Adela, and oh-ed and ah-ed her delight at finding that she could draw
+and sketch so beautifully; and now to think of having this lovely
+picture of Phronsie!
+
+"But, you must tear it up," said Adela, in alarm, "else I'm sorry I
+gave it to you, Polly."
+
+"Tear it up!" repeated Polly, in astonishment; "tear up this lovely
+picture of Phronsie! What do you mean, Adela Gray?"
+
+"Oh, I've a copy, of course," said Adela, carelessly; "and I'm going to
+do you another better one."
+
+"Where did you learn to draw so well?" asked Jasper, in admiration of
+the bold, accurate lines, and the graceful curves.
+
+"In school, at Paris," said Adela, quietly.
+
+Polly looked over Jasper's arm, and scanned the sketch. "I never saw
+anything so lovely!" she exclaimed. "And it's just alive! Isn't it,
+Jasper?"
+
+"Yes, it is splendid," he said enthusiastically; "and that's the best
+part of it--it's alive, Polly, as you say."
+
+"I'd give anything in all this world, Adela, if I could draw like
+that," mourned Polly.
+
+"I'd rather play on the piano," said Adela, "than do all the drawing in
+the world. But I can't learn; the music master said there was something
+the matter with my ear, and I never could tell one note from another by
+the sound. I do so wish I could play on the piano, Polly Pepper!" she
+added discontentedly.
+
+"Well, Jasper can do both,--play on the piano, and draw, too," said
+Polly.
+
+"I can't draw like this," said Jasper, holding the sketch off at arm's
+length to view it again. "I couldn't if I were to try a thousand years."
+
+"Oh, Jasper!" exclaimed Polly, who couldn't bear to think there was
+anything that he could not do.
+
+"Well, I can't," said Jasper.
+
+"Let me see some of your sketches," begged Adela. "It's so nice to find
+some one else who can draw. Do show me some."
+
+"Oh, no," protested Jasper, in dismay, "not after this," pointing to
+Adela's drawing.
+
+"Do, Jasper," begged Polly, imploringly, "get your portfolio."
+
+"Oh, I couldn't bring them all in," said Jasper. "I wouldn't show those
+old things for the world, Polly."
+
+"Well, bring some of them, do," she begged, while Adela said, "I showed
+mine, and I didn't want to, I'm sure." So Jasper ran up to his room,
+and pretty soon he came back with his portfolio.
+
+"You did bring it, after all," exclaimed Polly, in satisfaction,
+patting the brown leather cover. "Oh, how nice of you, Jasper," as they
+ran over and ensconced themselves in a cosey corner.
+
+"I took out the worst ones," said Jasper, with a laugh. "And I'm
+awfully sorry I didn't leave behind more of the others."
+
+"I hope you brought that woman with a basket of vegetables we saw at
+the market the other day," said Polly, as he opened the portfolio. "Do
+tell me, Jasper, you did bring that, didn't you?" beginning to fumble
+through the pile.
+
+"Yes, I did, Polly," said Jasper; "she's in there all safe and sound."
+
+So for the next hour, there was great turning over and comparing of
+sketches, and much talk about vertical lines and graceful curves, and
+shading and perspective, and expression, and dear knows what all, as
+the three heads bent over the portfolio. So intent were they all, that
+no one heard Grandpapa come in, and he sat there in a farther corner,
+for a good quarter of an hour. At last Polly looked up and saw him.
+
+"Oh, Grandpapa!" she cried, flying off from the group, and carrying
+Adela's sketch in her hand. "Just see what a perfectly beautiful
+picture of Phronsie! Adela Gray made it. She draws splendidly,
+Grandpapa."
+
+Old Mr. King took the little sketch and fairly beamed at it.
+
+"It's very like,--it is excellent," he declared, caring nothing for its
+merits as a drawing, but only seeing Phronsie as she sat with the big
+Marken baby in her lap on the stubbly bank.
+
+"Isn't it, Grandpapa?" cried Polly, overflowing with happiness; "and
+she has given it to me, Grandpapa. Oh, isn't she good!"
+
+"She is, indeed," assented old Mr. King, just as well pleased as Polly.
+"A very good girl, indeed. Come here, Adela."
+
+Adela, whose sharp ears had caught most of this dialogue at the other
+end of the room,--although Jasper was keeping a steady fire of talk to
+drown it if possible,--was looking in dismay at him.
+
+"O dear me, I wish they'd stop," she breathed in distress.
+
+"I thought you said you had no ear," said Jasper, laughing at her face.
+
+"I can't tell music notes," she said, "but I can hear things."
+
+"Yes, I should think you could," he said. And then came old Mr. King's
+"Come here, Adela," so she had to go across the room, shaking every
+step of the way, and stand in front of him.
+
+"I didn't know we had such a good little artist among us," said
+Grandpapa, wonderfully well pleased and smiling kindly at her.
+
+"That is nothing," said Adela, in despair at ever stopping the flow of
+praise. "I spoiled it, and I'm going to do Polly a better one."
+
+"Nothing could be better, my dear," said Grandpapa, blandly; "it is a
+fine likeness of Phronsie." And then he questioned her as to her
+training in the art, and what she meant to do in the future, and where
+she intended to study and all that, getting an immense amount of
+information so artfully that Adela never for an instant suspected his
+reason. All the time he was holding the sketch of Phronsie in his hand,
+and intently gazing on it most of the time.
+
+"Well," he said at last, "I won't keep you young people any
+longer,"--for Jasper had thrown down the portfolio and joined the
+group,--"so run back to your own corner. Dear me," pulling out his
+watch, "it's only twenty minutes to luncheon. How time does fly, to be
+sure! To-morrow morning, remember, we are off for Antwerp."
+
+"O dear, dear!" exclaimed Polly, as they ran back and bent over the
+portfolio again, "we haven't half seen Amsterdam, Jasper."
+
+"No, and you wouldn't if you stayed a year," observed Jasper, wisely.
+
+"We must go over to the Ryks Museum once more," said Polly.
+
+"Yes, let us go there directly after luncheon," proposed Jasper. "I
+know what you want to do, Polly,--sit in front of 'The Night Watch'
+again."
+
+"Yes, I do," said Polly. "I couldn't go away without seeing that
+picture once more, Jasper."
+
+"I don't like that 'Night Watch,'" said Adela, "it's too dark and too
+smutty. I don't see why people like it so much."
+
+"Well, I do like it very much," reiterated Polly. "I know it's
+dreadfully dark, but the people in front seem to be stepping right out
+of the shadows, and to be alive. It seems to me they are just going to
+come right up toward me, as I sit there."
+
+"And that, after all, I suppose is the best thing one can say of a
+picture," said Jasper. "And it is always the finest time to look at
+that picture in the afternoon, you know, so we will go there, Polly,
+after luncheon."
+
+"And then Phronsie will want to see that picture of a woman with a cat,
+I suppose," said Polly. "Dear me, who was it that painted that, Jasper?
+I never can remember the artists' names."
+
+"Metsu was it--Jan--no, Gabriel--Metsu," answered Jasper, wrinkling his
+brows. "Neither can I remember all those fellows' names. Yes, indeed,
+you'll find Phronsie won't let us go there without paying respects to
+her special picture."
+
+"And then I suppose Grandpapa will take us for a last drive in Vondel
+Park. Oh, what nice times we have had, Jasper King!" exclaimed Polly,
+leaning back against the sofa, and clasping her hands restfully. "I
+just love Amsterdam! And I hate to leave it!"
+
+"So you said about The Hague, Polly," observed Jasper, turning to her
+with a little laugh.
+
+"Well, wasn't it perfectly beautiful?" asked Polly, flying up straight
+again. "Just think of that dear 'House in the Wood,' Jasper."
+
+"I know it; you wanted to go there day after day," laughed Jasper.
+
+"Why, we only went there three times," said Polly, "I'm sure, Jasper.
+And the picture-gallery--"
+
+"That is in the Maurit--rit, whatever is the rest of it? Oh, I know,"
+said Jasper, guilty of interrupting, "Mauritshuis, that is where the
+picture-gallery is, Polly."
+
+"Yes, that's it," echoed Polly; "it's fine--Paul Potter's 'Bull' is
+there."
+
+"Oh, I want to see that picture very much!" exclaimed Adela. "I've
+never been to The Hague."
+
+"Well, you'll go, perhaps, sometime," said Polly, with an uncomfortable
+feeling that she ought not to enjoy the things that Adela hadn't seen.
+"And you are going to Antwerp with us to-morrow, anyway," she added,
+brightening up.
+
+"Yes," said Adela, "Grandmamma is really going there. But that's all;
+for we go straight over to England then, and I sha'n't see you ever
+again, Polly Pepper," she finished gloomily.
+
+And that evening Grandpapa sat down by little old Mrs. Gray in the
+parlour after dinner, and though he began about something as far
+distant as possible, before long he was talking about Adela, and her
+wonderful talent. And the most surprising thing about it all was, that
+the little old lady, not intending to do it in the least, nor really
+comprehending how much she was telling, soon had him informed on all
+that he had set his heart on learning--how Adela had just been taken
+from the Paris school, because the little fortune her father had left,
+had somehow shrunk up, and there was no more money to keep her there.
+"I can't tell how it is, sir," she mourned, raising her faded eyes
+under the widow's cap to the kind old face above her, "I thought there
+was enough to educate my grandchild; it wasn't a big sum, but I
+supposed it was quite sufficient; but now it appears to be almost gone,
+and I have only just enough to keep me." She didn't add that the
+curate, her husband, when he crept into his grave, in the English
+churchyard, had left her nothing but the memory of his good name, her
+small means coming as a legacy from some of his grateful friends, they,
+too, long since dead.
+
+Old Mr. King made no comment, only passed on with a few little leading
+remarks when the information seemed to be on the wane. And then he said
+he thought he would like a game of backgammon, and he challenged the
+parson to come on and be beaten. And at an early hour the party broke
+up. "For remember," said Grandpapa, for about the fiftieth time that
+day, "it's Antwerp to-morrow!"
+
+So it was at Antwerp that the whole splendid business was concluded.
+And when the story of it came out, there was a regular jubilee all
+around. For were not Adela and Adela's grandmother going with the King
+party around a bit more on the continent, and then off to Paris again,
+and back to the beloved school--Grandpapa's gift to the girl with the
+talent, to keep it alive!
+
+And the little widow, stunned at first by the magnitude of the gift,
+could do nothing but feebly protest, "Oh, no, sir!" and put up both
+shaking hands to ward off the benefaction.
+
+"It's your duty, Madam," said Mr. King, sternly, at which she shrank
+down farther in her chair. "Who knows what such talent will do in the
+world? and it's my duty to see that it is kept alive,--nothing more nor
+less than a question of duty."
+
+He stamped up and down the room vehemently, and the little old lady
+protesting that she wanted to do her duty,--she was sure she always
+did,--the hardest part was over, and old Mr. King chuckled to himself
+triumphantly.
+
+"And now," cried Polly, in a transport, when the first surprise was
+over, and everybody had settled down to the quiet enjoyment of it all,
+"we've really and truly got a celebrated artist all to ourselves," and
+she drew herself up in pride.
+
+"I'm not celebrated yet," said Adela, with two little red spots on her
+cheeks, and with happy eyes on her grandmother. "You had better wait
+till I am."
+
+"Oh, well; you will be," said Polly, confidently, "sometime, and then
+we can say 'yes, we knew her when she was a girl,' and we'll go to
+picture-galleries the same as we do here, and see your name stuck up in
+the corners of the very best ones, Adela."
+
+
+
+
+XVI
+
+"LET US FLY AT THOSE BOOKS"
+
+
+"Now, Polly, in Antwerp," said Jasper, "we can see Rubens to
+perfection. Won't we just revel in his paintings, though!"
+
+"Won't we!" ejaculated Polly. "I'm so glad Grandpapa came here to this
+hotel." She leaned out of the window as she spoke.
+
+"Under the very eaves of the Cathedral, almost, isn't it?" said Jasper,
+in satisfaction.
+
+The chimes just then pealed out. Indeed, it seemed as if they did
+nothing but ring, so short were the intervals. But to Polly and Jasper
+they brought only echoes of delight.
+
+"There are forty of those bells, aren't there?" asked Polly, resting
+her elbows on the window-sill.
+
+"I believe so," answered Jasper, absently. Polly looked at him
+curiously.
+
+"Polly," he said abruptly, "do you know what I mean to do?"
+
+"No," said Polly; "tell me, do, Jasper."
+
+"Well, I mean to sit right down and finish my book. I'm ashamed to
+confess that it's not up to date."
+
+"Neither is mine," confessed Polly.
+
+"Well, now, that won't do," said Jasper, decidedly. "You see if we once
+let those books get behindhand, we're lost. We never can catch up, in
+all this world."
+
+"We've had so much to do and to see," began Polly.
+
+"That won't be any excuse that will amount to anything," said Jasper,
+shaking his head. "Let's fly at them and tackle them now, Polly."
+
+"I say so, too," she cried, and deserting the window, they surrounded
+the centre-table, and soon had the big journals, photographs, and
+pictures, of every sort and size, the ink bottle, and library paste,
+scissors, and all the rest of the paraphernalia, spread out on it.
+
+"It's good that Grandpapa is lying down and doesn't wish to go out,"
+remarked Polly, snipping away at a fearful rate, and pausing only to
+write down the dates and other bits of information around each picture,
+as she pasted it in. "Now we'll have all this morning to finish these
+books up to to-day."
+
+"And none too much for the job," said Jasper, sagely. "I declare I
+shall feel like enjoying myself twice as well, when once they're up to
+date. They've been hanging round my conscience every day since I
+slackened work on them."
+
+"And I am so glad you made me come away from that window, and set to
+work," said Polly, "or I never would have commenced on mine to-day."
+
+"Oh, yes, you would, I think, Polly," said Jasper. "Well, we are at it
+now, and that's enough. Now says I, I'm on book No. 2!" And he flapped
+down the cover of the completed one. "That's done, thank fortune!"
+
+"Oh, Jasper, have you the green one done?" asked Polly. "Why, I have
+three more pages of mine to do."
+
+"Well, you'll catch up on the red one, I dare say," said Jasper,
+opening No. 2. "We are getting on famously, aren't we, Polly?" glancing
+over at her work.
+
+"Yes, and I'm so glad you proposed this way to keep a journal," said
+Polly, "to have them labelled 'My Notes on My European Journey,' and to
+have No. 1 green, and No. 2 red, and so on all through the rest of the
+colours."
+
+"That will help us to find them in a hurry," said Jasper, "and keep
+them distinct; but I didn't propose it, Polly, about the books. It was
+your plan as much as mine."
+
+"No." Polly was guilty of contradicting. "I never should have thought
+of having the books of different colours and labelling them in that
+way, Jasper."
+
+"Well, you first thought of cutting out pictures and all sorts of
+items, and then writing the dates and whatever else we wanted to around
+the pictures," said Jasper. "I'm sure that's more important than the
+title of the book, Polly."
+
+"Well, won't the boys love to see them," asked Polly, suddenly, with a
+light in her eyes, ignoring the question as to her claim to the idea,
+"when we get home, Jasper?"
+
+"Won't they, though!" he responded, falling to work with a will.
+
+And so Antwerp was entered with clear consciences as to journals, and a
+strict determination not to fall behind again on them.
+
+But Polly slipped in so many of the beautiful photographs of the
+"Descent from the Cross," and the other two famous pictures by Rubens,
+that her red book was closed the third day of their stay in the old
+town of Antwerp; and the photographs had even overflowed into the
+yellow book, No. 3.
+
+They had a habit, most of their party, of dropping into the Cathedral
+once a day at least, usually in the morning, and sometimes before
+service. And then when it was quiet, and before the ordinary throng of
+sight-seers trailed through, Jasper would hire some chairs of one of
+the old women who always seem to be part and parcel of European
+cathedrals; and they would sit down before the painting, its wings
+spread over the dingy green background, and study what has made so many
+countless travellers take long and oftentimes wearisome journeys to see.
+
+And Polly always wanted to go after that to see the "Assumption," which
+is the altar-piece, and then the "Elevation of the Cross," both by
+Rubens. "And I am sure, Grandpapa," she would always say, "I like them
+as well as I do the famous painting."
+
+"And so do I, Polly, in a way," Grandpapa would invariably reply. "They
+are all marvellous, and that is all we can say, for no expressions
+could give the truth about them."
+
+After the Cathedral, which they loved all the more,--"for being perched
+under its eaves" (as Polly always said when speaking of the hotel that
+was for the time being their home),--Polly and Jasper set next in their
+regard the Musée Plantin-Moretus. They were never tired of running down
+there to the Marché du Vendredi, until it became a regular question
+every day at dinner, "Well, what more have you discovered at the Musée
+Plantin?"
+
+And old Mr. King would often answer, for he was as interested as the
+young people, "Marvellous things." And then he would expatiate on the
+antique furniture, the paintings, engravings, and tapestries, till the
+little doctor, fresh from his hospital visitations, would remark that
+it was just as good as if he had time to visit the place, to hear
+Grandpapa tell it all. And Adela would bring out her little sketches,
+which now she was not averse to showing, since everybody was so kind
+and sympathising, and there would be some little nook or corner of
+corridor or court that Polly would fall upon and pronounce, "Just
+perfect, and how did you get it?"
+
+"Oh, I just drew a bit now and then when you were looking at things,"
+said Adela, carelessly.
+
+"Everything just dances off your pencil," said Polly, wishing she could
+draw, and wondering if it was any use for her to try to learn.
+
+And every afternoon they would go to drive as usual, very often around
+the docks, which gave them all a good idea of this wonderful port. They
+were never tired of watching the hydraulic cranes, of inspecting the
+dry docks; the intertwining railways by which all the docks, large and
+small, are connected, and the two basins, Le Petit and Le Grand Bassin.
+
+"Dear me!" exclaimed Jasper, on one of these occasions, "I thought
+Amsterdam docks were huge affairs, but Antwerp!" And he left his
+sentence in mid-air, which was more impressive after all.
+
+But Parson Henderson liked the church of St. Jacques best of all things
+in Antwerp, and he used to steal away mornings to go there again and
+again. And he asked Polly and Jasper to go there with him one day, and
+Polly begged to have Adela go too, and they all came home as
+enthusiastic as he was.
+
+And then suddenly Mr. King would wrench them all off from this
+delightful study and put his foot down peremptorily. "No more
+cathedrals for a time," he would declare; "my old head cannot carry any
+more just yet." And he would propose a little in-letting of fun. And
+then off they would go a-shopping, or to the Zoological Gardens; and
+they always had concerts, of course, wherever they were, for Polly and
+Jasper's sakes, if for no other reason. And by and by somebody
+announced, one fine morning, that they had been in Antwerp a fortnight.
+
+And then one day Mother Fisher looked into Polly's brown eyes, and
+finding them tired, she calmly tucked Polly quietly in bed. "Why,
+Mamsie," declared Polly, "I'm not sick."
+
+"No, and I'm not going to have you be," observed Mrs. Fisher, sensibly.
+"This running about sight-seeing is more tiresome, child, than you
+think for, and dreadfully unsettling unless you stop to rest a bit. No,
+Jasper," as he knocked at the door, "Polly can't go out to-day, at
+least not this morning. I've put her to bed."
+
+"Is Polly sick, Mrs. Fisher?" called Jasper, in great concern.
+
+"No, not a bit," answered Mrs. Fisher, cheerily, "but she's tired. I've
+seen it coming on for two or three days back, so I'm going to take it
+in time."
+
+"And can't she come out, to-day?" asked Jasper, dreadfully
+disappointed, with a mind full of the host of fine things they had
+planned to do.
+
+"No, Jasper," said Mother Fisher, firmly, "not to jaunt about." So
+Jasper took himself off, feeling sure, despite his disappointment, that
+Polly's mother was right.
+
+And there was another person who wholly agreed with Mother Fisher, and
+that was old Mr. King. "If you can stop those young folks from killing
+themselves running about to see everything, you'll do more than I can,
+Mrs. Fisher," he observed. "It makes no difference how long I plan to
+stay in a town, so as to do it restfully, if they won't rest."
+
+"That is a fact," said Mother Fisher. "Well, that's my part to see that
+they do rest."
+
+"I don't envy you the job," said the old gentleman, drily.
+
+Polly fidgeted and turned on her pillow, knowing Mamsie was right, but
+unable to keep from thinking of the many beautiful plans that Jasper
+and she had formed for that very morning, till her head spun round and
+round. "I can't get to sleep," she said at last.
+
+"Don't try to," said her mother, dropping the heavy wool curtains till
+the room was quite dark; "that's the worst thing in the world to do, if
+you want to rest. Just lie still and don't try to think of anything."
+
+"But I can't help thinking," said poor Polly, feeling sure that Jasper
+was dreadfully disappointed at the upsetting of all the plans.
+
+"Never say you can't help anything, Polly," said her mother, coming
+over to the bedside to lay a cool hand on Polly's hot forehead, and
+then to drop a kiss there; and somehow the kiss did what all Polly's
+trying had failed to accomplish.
+
+"That's good, Mamsie," she said gratefully, and drew a long, restful
+breath.
+
+Mother Fisher went out and closed the door softly.
+
+It was just three o'clock that afternoon when Polly woke up.
+
+"Oh, I'm dreadfully ashamed!" she exclaimed when she found it out.
+"I've slept almost this whole day!"
+
+Mother Fisher smiled, "And it's the best day's work you've done in one
+long while, Polly," she said.
+
+"And here's my girl, Polly," cried Grandpapa, when she ran down to him,
+and holding her at arm's length, he gazed into her bright eyes and on
+her rosy cheeks. "Well, well, your mother's a clever woman, and no
+mistake."
+
+So Polly knew if she didn't take care and not get tired again, she
+would be tucked into bed another fine day.
+
+It was a long summer morning, and they were sailing up the Rhine, with
+the delights of Brussels and Cologne behind them, and in between the
+covers of the purple book, No. 4, Polly had been looking at ruined
+castles and fortresses, at vine-clad terraces, and châlets, until she
+turned to Grandpapa with a sigh.
+
+"Tired, Polly, little woman?" he said, cuddling her up against him.
+
+"No, not tired, Grandpapa," said Polly, "but, oh, there's so very much
+of it over here in Europe."
+
+"If you've found that out, you've learned the lesson early," said old
+Mr. King, with a laugh. "As many times as I've been over here, there's
+nothing that surprises me so much as the presumption with which we
+travellers all rush about, expecting to compass all there is."
+
+"But we ought to see everything," said Polly, "oughtn't we, Grandpapa,
+when we've come so far to see it?" and she looked troubled.
+
+"There's just where you are wrong, Polly, child," said old Mr. King.
+"And this 'ought to see,' why, it's an old dragon, Polly, lying in wait
+to destroy. Don't you let it get hold of you, but take my advice and
+see only what you can make your own and remember. Then you've got it."
+
+
+
+
+XVII
+
+POLLY WROTE A NICE LITTLE NOTE
+
+
+"Polly," said Jasper, running down the stairs after her, on her way to
+the little garden on the terrace at Heidelberg, "here's something for
+you; just came in the mail."
+
+"For me," said Polly, as he put a little parcel in her hand.
+
+"Yes," said Jasper, "father just gave it to me."
+
+"What can it be!" cried Polly, wonderingly; "oh, something from Alexia
+or one of the other girls, most likely," and she tore off the outer
+wrapper.
+
+"It is registered," said Jasper, "and Mr. Henderson got it out for you,
+father said; that can't be from one of the girls, Polly," as the next
+layer of paper dropping off, disclosed the name of one of the biggest
+of big London jewellers across a wooden box.
+
+"What can it be!" gasped Polly, tugging at the cover.
+
+"Here--let me." Jasper essayed to open it, but it stuck fast in the
+slide. Another pull, and a little red leather case appeared in view.
+
+"What in the world--" began Polly; "oh, it can't be for me!" and she
+stood staring at it, without any attempt to take it out.
+
+"It must be for you, Polly," said Jasper. "There couldn't be any other
+Miss Mary Pepper, and besides it is addressed to father's care, and
+comes through our bankers,--see here." He stooped, and picked up the
+outer wrapper; it was torn almost in two, but the name and address was
+all there.
+
+So Polly lifted out the little red leather case, still feeling very
+much as if she were opening a parcel belonging to some one else, and
+touching a spring at the end, the top flew up, and there on a white
+satin bed lay a little green enamelled watch set with diamonds.
+
+"O dear me!" exclaimed Polly, tumbling back in the utmost distress,
+"now I _have_ got some one else's box, Jasper. How very dreadful!"
+
+"Let us go to father," said Jasper, feeling this quite beyond him.
+"Shut the box up tight, Polly; it might tumble out on the way."
+
+"You carry it, do, Jasper," begged Polly, with an eye askance at the
+little case; and snapping the cover down, she set it in his hand.
+
+"All right, now, then," said Jasper. "We must carry these papers, and
+wooden box, and the whole business. Don't worry, Polly," seeing her
+face, "father will straighten it out."
+
+"Give me the wrapper, Jasper, and the wooden box, if only you'll take
+the other," said Polly, feeling very much depressed at coming into
+possession of other people's property; and Jasper followed with the
+little enamelled watch.
+
+And Grandpapa was just as much astounded as was Polly herself; and all
+the family congregating in Mother Fisher's room, the little watch was
+handed about from one to the other, and everybody stared at everybody
+else, and the mystery thickened every moment. And the strangest thing
+about it was that no one opened the little back cover where any one
+might have read:--
+
+"Polly Pepper, from her grateful friend, Arthur Selwyn."
+
+--until the middle of the night, when Jasper was awakened by a noise as
+if some one were prowling around in his father's room. He started up
+and listened.
+
+"It's I," said old Mr. King's voice. So Jasper threw on his wrapper,
+and hurried in. There sat his father, in dressing-gown and slippers, by
+the table, with the little enamelled watch in his hand.
+
+"Of all the idiots, Jasper," he exclaimed, "your father is the very
+worst. I've only just this moment thought to look in here." He flashed
+the little watch around in Jasper's face; it was now opened at the back.
+
+"Dear me!" cried Jasper, for want of anything better to say, as he read
+the inscription. Then he looked helplessly at his father.
+
+"Earl or no earl, this piece of foolishness goes back," fumed old Mr.
+King, getting out of his chair, and beginning to march back and forth
+across the floor as he always did when irritated. "Yes, sir, the very
+first thing in the morning," he repeated, as vehemently as if Jasper
+had contradicted him.
+
+"But, father--" began the boy.
+
+"Yes, sir, it goes back, I tell you," repeated his father, now well
+wrought up to a passion. "What right has he to send such a piece of
+foolishness to my Polly Pepper? I can give her all the watches she
+needs. And this trumpery," pointing to the jewelled gift still lying in
+Jasper's hand, "is utterly unfit for a schoolgirl. You know that
+yourself, Jasper."
+
+"But Polly was kind to him," began Jasper, again.
+
+"Kind to him!" snorted his father, "don't I know that? Of course she
+was. Polly Pepper would be kind to any one. But that's no reason why
+the old idiot should presume to give her such a silly and expensive
+present as that. The man doesn't know anything who would do such a
+thing. And this one is queerer than the average."
+
+"As you say, he is eccentric," observed Jasper, seeing here a loophole
+by which to get in a soothing word.
+
+"Eccentric? That's a mild way to put it," fumed his father. "He's odder
+than Dick's hatband. Heaven save Old England if many of her earls are
+like him. Well, I shall just write the fellow a decent sort of a note,
+and then I'll pack the box off to him, and that'll be the end of the
+matter."
+
+"I'm afraid Polly will be sorry," said Jasper, feeling at a standstill
+so far as finding the right word was concerned, for everything he
+uttered only seemed to make matters worse. So he said the best thing he
+could think of, and stopped short.
+
+"Sorry?" Old Mr. King came to a dead stop and glared at him. "You can't
+mean that Polly Pepper would like me to keep that watch. It's the last
+thing on earth that she would want, such a gewgaw as that. Why, the
+child hates the sight of it already as much as I do."
+
+"I don't think Polly would want the watch," said Jasper, quickly. "I
+know she doesn't like it, and I'm sure I wish I could smash it myself,"
+he added in a burst.
+
+"That's the most sensible thing you've said yet, Jasper," said his
+father, with a grim smile.
+
+"But she would feel dreadfully for you to send it back, for don't you
+see, father, that would hurt his feelings? And Polly would worry
+awfully to have that happen."
+
+Old Mr. King turned uneasily, took a few steps, then came back to throw
+himself into his chair again.
+
+"And this old gentleman has such ill attacks," said Jasper, pursuing
+his advantage, "that it might be the very thing to bring one on if he
+should get that watch back."
+
+"Say no more, say no more, Jasper," said his father, shortly; "put this
+thing up for tonight, and then get back to bed again." And Jasper knew
+that was the end of it.
+
+And the next day Polly wrote a nice little note, thanking the old earl
+for his gift, and hoping that he was quite well; and with so many other
+pleasant things in it, that if she could have seen him when he received
+it, she would have been glad indeed. And then she handed the little red
+leather case to Mr. King. "Keep it for me, Grandpapa," she said simply.
+
+"All right, Polly, my child," he said. And then everybody forgot all
+about the episode and proceeded to enjoy Heidelberg.
+
+"I'm so sorry for people who are not going to Bayreuth, Adela!"
+exclaimed Polly, looking out of the compartment window, as the train
+steamed rapidly on from Nuremberg where they had passed several days of
+delight revelling in the old town.
+
+Adela, with her mind more on those past delights, had less attention
+for thoughts of music, so she answered absently, "Yes. Oh, Polly,
+wasn't that Pentagonal Tower fine? What is it they call it in German?"
+
+But Polly didn't hear, being absorbed in the Wagner festival of which
+her mind was full, so Jasper answered for her. "Alt-Nuenberg, you mean,
+the oldest building of all Nuremberg."
+
+"Yes," said Adela, "well, I got two or three sketches of that tower."
+
+"Did you?" cried Jasper, "now that's good."
+
+"And I got that horrible old robber-knight,--what's his name?--sitting
+inside his cell, you know."
+
+"Eppelein von Gallingen," supplied Jasper. "Well, he was a
+horrible-looking customer, and that's a fact."
+
+"Oh, I liked him," said Adela, who rejoiced in ugly things if only
+picturesque, "and I got into one corner of the cell opposite him, so as
+to sketch it all as well as I could in such a dark place, and a lady
+came down the little stairs; you remember them."
+
+"I rather think I do," said Jasper, grimly. "I was trying to get out of
+the way of a huge party of tourists, and I nearly broke my neck."
+
+"Well, this lady came down the stairs. I could see her where I sat, but
+she couldn't see me, it was so dark in the cell; and she called to her
+husband--I guess he was her husband, because he looked so _triste_."
+Adela often fell into French, from being so long at the Paris school,
+and not from affectation in the least. "And she said, 'Come, Henry, let
+us see what is in there.' And she took one step in, and peered into
+that robber-knight's face; you know how he is sitting on a little
+stool, his black hair all round his face, staring at one."
+
+"Yes, I do," said Jasper; "he was uncanny enough, and in the darkness,
+his wax features, or whatever they were made of, were unpleasantly
+natural to the last degree."
+
+"Well," said Adela, "the lady gave a little squeal, and tumbled right
+back into her husband's arms. And I guess she stepped on his toes, for
+he squealed, too, though in a different way, and he gave her a little
+push and told her not to be a goose, that the man had been dead a
+thousand years more or less and couldn't hurt her. So then she stepped
+back, awfully scared though, I could see that, and then she caught
+sight of me, and she squealed again and jumped, and she screamed right
+out, 'Oh, there's another in there, in the corner, and it glared at
+me.' And I didn't glare at all," finished Adela, in disdain. "And then
+I guess he was scared, too, for he said, 'That old cell isn't worth
+seeing, anyway, and I'm going down into the torture chamber,' and they
+hurried off."
+
+"That torture chamber!" exclaimed Jasper; "how any one can hang over
+those things, I don't see; for my part, I'd rather have my time
+somewhere else."
+
+"Oh, I like them," said Adela, in great satisfaction, "and I've got a
+picture of the 'Iron Virgin.'"
+
+"That was a good idea, to put the old scold into that wooden tub
+concern," said Jasper; "there was some sense in that. I took a picture
+of it, and the old tower itself. I got a splendid photograph of it, if
+it will only develop well," he added. "Oh, but the buildings--was ever
+anything so fine as those old Nuremberg houses, with their high-peaked
+gables! I have quantities of them--thanks to my kodak."
+
+"What's this station, I wonder?" asked Polly, as the train slowed up.
+
+Two ladies on the platform made a sudden dash at their compartment.
+"All full," said the guard, waving them off.
+
+"That was Fanny Vanderburgh," gasped Polly.
+
+"And her mother," added Jasper.
+
+"Who was it?" demanded old Mr. King.
+
+His consternation, when they told him, was so great, that Jasper racked
+his brains some way to avoid the meeting.
+
+"If once we were at Bayreuth, it's possible that we might not come
+across them, father, for we could easily be lost in the crowd."
+
+"No such good luck," groaned old Mr. King, which was proved true. For
+the first persons who walked into the hotel, as the manager was giving
+directions that the rooms reserved for their party should be shown
+them, were Mrs. Vanderburgh and her daughter.
+
+"Oh!" exclaimed Mrs. Vanderburgh, as if her dearest friends were before
+her, "how glad I am to see you again, dear Mr. King, and you all." She
+swept Mrs. Fisher and Mrs. Henderson lightly in her glance as if
+toleration only were to be observed toward them. "We have been
+perfectly _désolée_ without you, Polly, my dear," she went on, with a
+charming smile. "Fanny will be happy once more. She has been
+disconsolate ever since we parted, I assure you."
+
+Polly made some sort of a reply, and greeted Fanny, as of old times, on
+the steamer; but Mrs. Vanderburgh went on, all smiles and eagerness--so
+rapidly in her friendly intentions, that it boded ill for the future
+peace of Mr. King's party. So Mr. King broke into the torrent of words
+at once, without any more scruple. "And now, Mrs. Vanderburgh, if you
+will excuse us, we are quite tired, and are going to our rooms." And he
+bowed himself off, and of course his family followed; the next moment
+Fanny and her mother were alone.
+
+"If this is to be the way," said Mrs. Vanderburgh, with a savage little
+laugh, "we might much better have stayed in Paris, for I never should
+have thought, as you know, Fanny, of coming to this out-of-the-way
+place, seeing that I don't care for the music, if I hadn't heard them
+say on the steamer that this was their date here."
+
+"Well, I wish that I was at home," declared Fanny, passionately, "and I
+never, never will come to Europe, Mamma, again as long as I live. You
+are always chasing after people who run away from you, and those who
+like me, you won't let me speak to."
+
+"Well, I shall be thankful for the day when you are once in society,"
+said her mother, every shred of self-control now gone; "and I shall
+sell my tickets for this old Wagner festival, and go back to Paris
+to-morrow morning."
+
+At that, Fanny broke into a dismal fit of complaining, which continued
+all the time they were dressing for dinner, and getting settled in
+their room, and then at intervals through that meal.
+
+Polly looked over at her gloomy face, three tables off, and her own
+fell.
+
+"You are not eating anything, child," said Grandpapa, presently, with a
+keen glance at her. "Let me order something more."
+
+"Oh, no, Grandpapa," and "yes, I will," she cried, incoherently, making
+a great effort to enjoy the nice things he piled on her plate.
+
+Jasper followed her glance as it rested on the Vanderburgh table. "They
+will spoil everything," he thought. "And to think it should happen at
+Bayreuth."
+
+"Yes, we are going," said Fanny Vanderburgh as they met after dinner in
+the corridor. Her eyes were swollen, and she twisted her handkerchief
+in her fingers. "And I did--did--did--" here she broke down and
+sobbed--"so want to hear the Wagner operas."
+
+"Don't cry," begged Polly, quite shocked. "Oh, Fanny, why can't you
+stay? How very dreadful to lose the Wagner music!" Polly could think of
+no worse calamity that could befall one.
+
+"Mamma doesn't know anybody here except your party," mumbled Fanny,
+"and she's upset, and declares that we must go back to Paris to-morrow.
+Oh, Polly Pepper, I hate Paris," she exploded. And then sobbed worse
+than ever.
+
+"Wait here," said Polly, "till I come back." Then she ran on light feet
+to Grandpapa, just settling behind a newspaper in a corner of the
+general reading room.
+
+"Grandpapa, dear, may I speak to you a minute?" asked Polly, with a
+woful feeling at her heart. It seemed as if he must hear it beating.
+
+"Why, yes, child, to be sure," said Mr. King, quite surprised at her
+manner. "What is it?" and he laid aside his paper and smiled
+reassuringly.
+
+But Polly's heart sank worse than ever. "Grandpapa," she began
+desperately, "Fanny Vanderburgh is feeling dreadfully."
+
+"And I should think she would with such a mother," exclaimed the old
+gentleman, but in a guarded tone. "Well, what of it, Polly?"
+
+"Grandpapa," said Polly, "she says her mother is going to take her back
+to Paris tomorrow morning."
+
+"How very fine!" exclaimed Mr. King, approvingly; "that is the best
+thing I have heard yet. Always bring me such good news, Polly, and I
+will lay down my newspapers willingly any time." And he gave a pleased
+little laugh.
+
+"But, Grandpapa--" and Polly's face drooped, and there was such a sad
+little note in her voice, that the laugh dropped out of his. "Fanny
+wanted above all things to hear the Wagner operas--just think of losing
+those!" Polly clasped her hands, and every bit of colour flew from her
+cheek.
+
+"Well, what can I do about it?" asked the old gentleman, in a great
+state of perturbation. "Speak out, child, and tell me what you want."
+
+"Only if I can be pleasant to Fanny," said Polly, a wave of colour
+rushing over her face. "I mean if I may go with her? Can I, Grandpapa,
+this very evening, just as if--" she hesitated.
+
+"As if what, Polly?"
+
+"As if we all liked them," finished Polly, feeling as if the words must
+be said.
+
+There was an awful pause in which Polly had all she could do to keep
+from rushing from the room. Then Grandpapa said, "If you can stand it,
+Polly, you may do as you like, but I warn you to keep them away from
+me." And he went back to his paper.
+
+
+
+
+XVIII
+
+BAYREUTH AND OLD FRIENDS
+
+
+Jasper turned around to gaze at the vast audience filing into the
+Wagner Opera House before he took his seat. "This makes me think of
+Oberammergau, Polly," he said.
+
+"To think you've seen the Passion Play," she cried, with glowing cheeks.
+
+"That was when I was such a little chap," said Jasper, "ages ago,--nine
+years, Polly Pepper,--just think; so it will be as good as new next
+year. Father is thinking a good deal of taking you there next summer."
+
+"Jasper," cried Polly, her cheeks all in a glow, and regardless of next
+neighbours, "what can I ever do to repay your father for being so very
+good to me and to all of us?"
+
+"Why, you can keep on making him comfortable, just as you are doing
+now, Polly," replied Jasper. "He said yesterday it made him grow
+younger every minute to look at you. And you know he's never sick now,
+and he was always having those bad attacks. Don't you remember when we
+first came to Hingham, Polly?" as they took their seats.
+
+"O dear me, I guess I do, Jasper, and how you saved Phronsie from being
+carried off by the big organ man," and she shivered even now at this
+lapse of years. "And all the splendid times at Badgertown and the
+little brown--"
+
+Just then a long hand came in between the people in the seat back of
+them. "I'm no end glad to see you!" exclaimed a voice. It was Tom
+Selwyn.
+
+"I'm going over into that vacant seat." Tom forgot his fear of Polly
+and his hatred of girls generally, and rushed around the aisle to
+plunge awkwardly into the seat just back of Jasper. "I'll stay here
+till the person comes." His long arms came in contact with several
+obstacles, such as sundry backs and shoulders in his progress, but he
+had no time to consider such small things or to notice the black looks
+he got in consequence.
+
+"Now, isn't this jolly!" he exclaimed. Jasper was guilty of staring at
+him; there seemed such a change in the boy, he could hardly believe it
+was really and truly Tom Selwyn.
+
+"My grandfather is well now, and he would have sent some message to you
+if he knew I was to run across you," went on Tom, looking at Jasper,
+but meaning Polly; "did you get a little trifle he sent you some weeks
+ago? He's been in a funk about it because he didn't hear."
+
+Wasn't Polly glad that her little note was on the way, and perhaps in
+the old gentleman's hands at this very time!
+
+"Yes," she said, "and he was very kind and--" Tom fumbled his tickets
+all the while, and broke in abruptly.
+
+"I didn't know as you'd like it, but it made him sick not to do it, and
+so the thing went. Glad it didn't make you mad," he ended suddenly.
+
+"He meant it all right, I'm sure," said Jasper, seeing that Polly
+couldn't speak.
+
+"Didn't he though!" exclaimed Tom.
+
+"And it didn't come till the day we left Heidelberg," said Polly,
+finding her tongue, and speaking rapidly to explain the delay; "that
+was a week ago."
+
+"Whew!" whistled Tom; "oh, beg pardon!" for several people turned
+around and stared; so he ducked his head, and was mostly lost to view
+for a breathing space. When he thought they had forgotten him, he
+bobbed it up. "Why, Grandfather picked it out--had a bushel of things
+sent up from London to choose from, you know, weeks and weeks ago, as
+soon as he got up to London. That's no end queer."
+
+"No," said Polly, "it didn't come till then. And I wrote to your
+grandfather the next morning and thanked him."
+
+"Now you did!" exclaimed Tom, in huge delight, and slapping his knee
+with one long hand. "That's no end good of you." He couldn't conceal
+how glad he was, and grinned all over his face.
+
+At this moment Mrs. Vanderburgh, who, seeing Fanny so happy again,
+concluded to stay on the strength of resurrected hopes of Polly
+Pepper's friendship, sailed into the opera house, with her daughter.
+And glancing across the aisle, for their seats were at the side, she
+caught sight of the party she was looking for, and there was a face she
+knew, but wasn't looking for.
+
+"Fanny," she cried, clutching her arm, "there is Tom Selwyn! Well, now
+we _are_ in luck!" And Tom saw her, and again he ducked, but for a
+different reason. When he raised his head, he glanced cautiously in the
+direction he dreaded. "There's that horrible person," he whispered in
+Jasper's ear.
+
+"Who?" asked Jasper, in astonishment.
+
+"That woman on the steamer--you knew her--and she was looking straight
+at us. Duck for your life, Jasper King!"
+
+"Oh, that," said Jasper, coolly, following the bob of his head. "Yes,
+Mrs. Vanderburgh, I know; and she is at our hotel."
+
+"The dickens! And you're alive!" Tom raised his head and regarded him
+as a curiosity.
+
+"Very much so," answered Jasper, smothering a laugh; "well, we mustn't
+talk any more."
+
+Polly was sitting straight, her hands folded in her lap, with no
+thought for audience, or anything but what she was to see and hear on
+that wonderful stage. Old Mr. King leaned past Parson Henderson, and
+gazed with the greatest satisfaction at her absorbed face.
+
+"I pity anybody," he said to himself, "who hasn't some little Peppers
+to take about; I only wish I had the boys, too. But fancy Joel
+listening to 'Parsifal'!"
+
+This idea completely overcame him, and he settled back into his seat
+with a grim smile.
+
+Polly never knew that Mamsie, with a happy look in her black eyes, was
+regarding her intently, too, nor that many a glance was given to the
+young girl whose colour came and went in her cheek, nor that Jasper
+sometimes spoke a low word or two. She was lost in the entrancing world
+of mystery and legend borne upward by the grand music, and she scarcely
+moved.
+
+"Well, Polly." Old Mr. King was smiling at her and holding out his
+hand. The curtains had closed for the intermission, and all the people
+were getting out of their chairs. Polly sat still and drew a long
+breath. "Oh, Grandpapa, must we go?"
+
+"Yes, indeed, I hope so," answered Mr. King, with a little laugh. "We
+shall have none too much time for our supper, Polly, as it is."
+
+Polly got out of her seat, very much wishing that supper was not one of
+the needful things of life.
+
+"It almost seems wicked to think of eating, Jasper," she said, as they
+picked up their hats and capes, where he had tucked them under the
+seats.
+
+"It would be more wicked not to eat," said Jasper, with a little laugh,
+"and I think you'll find some supper tastes good, when we get fairly at
+it, Polly."
+
+"I suppose so," said Polly, feeling dreadfully stiff in her feet, and
+beginning to wish she could have a good run.
+
+"And what we should do with you if we didn't stop for supper," observed
+Jasper, snapping the case to the opera-glasses, "I'm sure I don't know,
+Polly. I spoke to you three times, and you didn't hear me once."
+
+"Oh, Jasper!" exclaimed Polly, in horror, pausing as she was pinning on
+her big, flowered hat, with the roses all around the brim; "O dear me,
+there it goes!" as the hat spun over into the next row.
+
+"I'll get it," cried Tom Selwyn, vaulting over the tops of the seats
+before Jasper had a chance to try for it.
+
+Just then Mrs. Vanderburgh, who hadn't heard any more of the opera than
+could fit itself into her lively plans for the campaign she laid out to
+accomplish in siege of Tom Selwyn, pushed and elbowed herself along.
+"Of course the earl isn't here--and the boy is alone, and dreadfully
+taken with Jasper King, so I can manage him. And once getting him, I'll
+soon have the earl to recognise me as a relation." Then, oh! visions of
+the golden dream of bliss when she could visit such titled kin in Old
+England, and report it all when at home in New York, filled her head.
+And with her mind eaten up with it, she pushed rudely by a plain,
+somewhat dowdy-looking woman who obstructed her way.
+
+The woman raised a quiet, yet protesting face; but Mrs. Vanderburgh,
+related to an earl, surveyed her haughtily, and pressed on.
+
+"Excuse me," said the plain-looking woman, "but it is impossible for me
+to move; the people are coming out this way, Madam, and--"
+
+"And I must get by," answered Mrs. Vanderburgh, interrupting, and
+wriggling past as well as she could. But the lace on her flowing sleeve
+catching on the umbrella handle of a stout German coming the other way,
+she tore it half across. A dark flush of anger rushed over her face,
+and she vented all her spite on the plain-looking person in her path.
+"If you had moved, this wouldn't have happened!" she exclaimed.
+
+"It was impossible for me to do so," replied the woman, just as quietly
+as ever. Just then Tom Selwyn rushed up: "Mother!" to the plain-looking
+woman; "well, we _did_ get separated! Oh!" and seeing her companion he
+plunged back.
+
+Fanny Vanderburgh, well in the rear, a party of young German girls
+impeding the way, felt her mother's grasp, and looked around.
+
+"Oh, you've torn your lace sleeve!" she exclaimed, supposing the black
+looks referred to that accident.
+
+"Torn my sleeve!" echoed her mother, irately, "that's a trifle," while
+Fanny stared in surprise, knowing, by past experience, that much lesser
+accidents had made black days for her; "I'm the unluckiest person
+alive. And think of all the money your father has given me to spend,
+and it won't do any good. Fanny, I'm going straight back to Paris, as
+quickly as possible."
+
+"Why, I'm having a good time now," said Fanny, just beginning to enjoy
+herself. "Polly Pepper is real nice to me. I don't want to go home a
+bit." All this as they slowly filed out in the throng.
+
+"Well, you're going; and, oh, those Peppers and those Kings, I'm sick
+to death of their names," muttered her mother, frowning on her.
+
+"Why can't we wait for Polly?" asked Fanny, not catching the last
+words, and pausing to look back.
+
+"Because you can't, that's why. And never say a word about that Polly
+Pepper or any of the rest of that crowd," commanded her mother, trying
+to hurry on.
+
+"Polly Pepper is the sweetest girl--the very dearest," declared Fanny,
+in a passion, over her mother's shoulder, "and you know it, Mamma."
+
+"Well, I won't have you going with her, anyway, nor with any of them,"
+answered her mother, shortly.
+
+"Because you can't," echoed Fanny, in her turn, and with a malicious
+little laugh. "Don't I know? it's the same old story--those you chase
+after, run away from you. You've been chasing, Mamma; you needn't tell
+me."
+
+"Oh, Jasper," Polly was saying, "did you really speak to me?"
+
+"Three times," said Jasper, with a laugh, "but you couldn't answer, for
+you didn't hear me."
+
+"No," said Polly, "I didn't, Jasper."
+
+"And I shouldn't have spoken, for it isn't, of course, allowed. But I
+couldn't help it, Polly, it was so splendid," and his eyes kindled.
+"And you didn't seem to breathe or to move."
+
+"I don't feel as if I had done much of either," said Polly, laughing.
+"Isn't it good to take a long stretch? And oh, don't you wish we could
+run, Jasper?"
+
+He burst into another gay little laugh, as he picked up the rest of the
+things. "I thought so, Polly, and you'll want some supper yet. Well,
+here is Tom coming back again."
+
+"Indeed I shall, and a big one, Jasper," said Polly, laughing, "for I
+am dreadfully hungry."
+
+"Come to supper with us," Jasper said socially over the backs of
+several people, in response to Tom Selwyn's furious telegraphing.
+
+"Can't," said Tom, bobbing his head; "must stay with my mother. Thought
+you never would turn around." Jasper looked his surprise, and
+involuntarily glanced by Tom. "Yes, my mother's here; we've got
+separated, she's gone ahead," said Tom, jerking his head toward the
+nearest exit. "She says we'll go and see you. Where?"
+
+"Hotel Sonne," said Jasper.
+
+Tom disappeared--rushed off to his mother to jerk himself away to a
+convenient waiting-place till the disagreeable woman on the steamer had
+melted into space. Then he flew back, and in incoherent sentences made
+Mrs. Selwyn comprehend who she was, and the whole situation.
+
+The earl's daughter was a true British matron, and preserved a quiet,
+immovable countenance; only a grim smile passed over it now and then.
+At last she remarked coolly, as if commenting on the weather, "I don't
+believe she will trouble you, my son." Never a word about the lace
+episode or the crowding process.
+
+Tom sniffed uneasily. "You haven't crossed on a steamer with her,
+mother."
+
+"Never you mind." Mrs. Selwyn gave him a pat on the back. "Tom, let us
+talk about those nice people," as they filed slowly out with the crowd.
+
+Not a word did Tom lisp about the invitation to supper, but tucked his
+mother's arm loyally within his own. "Sorry I forgot to engage a
+table!" he exclaimed, as they entered the restaurant.
+
+"Why, there is Tom!" exclaimed Jasper, craning his neck as his party
+were about to sit down. "Father, Tom Selwyn is here with his mother,
+and they can't find places, I almost know, and we might have two more
+chairs easily at our table," he hurried it all out.
+
+"What is all this about?" demanded old Mr. King; "whom are you talking
+about, pray tell, Jasper?"
+
+So Jasper ran around to his father's chair and explained. The end of it
+all was, that he soon hurried off, being introduced to Tom's mother, to
+whom he presented his father's compliments, and would she do him the
+favour to join their party? And in ten minutes, every one felt well
+acquainted with the English matron, and entirely forgot that she was an
+earl's daughter. And Tom acquitted himself well, and got on famously
+with old Mr. King.
+
+But he didn't dare talk to Polly, but edged away whenever there was the
+least chance of matters falling out so that he would have to.
+
+And then it came out that the Selwyns thought of going to Munich and
+down to Lucerne.
+
+"And the Bernese Alps," put in Jasper, across the table. "How is that,
+Tom, for an outing? Can't you do it?" For it transpired that Mrs.
+Selwyn had left the other children, two girls and two smaller boys,
+with their grandfather, on the English estate. They all called this
+place home since the father was in a business in Australia that
+required many long visits, and Tom's mother had decided that he should
+have a bit of a vacation with her, so they had packed up and off,
+taking in the Wagner festival first, and here they were. "Yes," after
+she considered a bit, "we can do that. Join the party and then over to
+Lucerne, and perhaps take in the Bernese Alps."
+
+Only supposing that Polly's letter hadn't gone to the little old earl,
+Jasper kept saying over and over to himself. Just for one minute,
+suppose it!
+
+And in the midst of it all, the horn sounded; the intermission was
+over, chairs were pushed back hastily, and all flocked off. No one must
+be late, and there must be no noisy or bustling entrances into the
+opera house.
+
+And if Polly Pepper sat entranced through the rest of the matchless
+performance, Tom Selwyn--three seats back and off to the left--was just
+as quietly happy. But he wasn't thinking so much of "Parsifal" as might
+have been possible. "It's no end fine of the little mother to say
+'yes,'" he kept running over and over to himself, with a satisfied
+glance at the quiet face under the plain, English bonnet.
+
+"It's funny we don't see Fanny Vanderburgh anywhere," said Polly, as
+they went through the corridor and up the hotel stairs that night.
+
+"She and her mother probably came home earlier," said Mrs. Fisher; "you
+know we were delayed, waiting for our carriages. You will see her in
+the morning, Polly."
+
+But in the morning, it was ten o'clock before Mr. King's party gathered
+for breakfast, for Grandpapa always counselled sleeping late when out
+the night before. And when Polly did slip into her chair, there was a
+little note lying on her plate.
+
+"Fanny Vanderburgh has gone," she said, and turned quite pale.
+
+It was too true. Mrs. Vanderburgh had sold her two tickets to the
+"Flying Dutchman," to be presented that evening, and departed from
+Bayreuth.
+
+"It's no use, Polly," Fanny's note ran, "trying to make me have a good
+time. Mamma says we are to go back to Paris; and go we must. You've
+been lovely, and I thank you ever so much, and good-by."
+
+Mother Fisher found Polly, a half-hour later, curled up in a corner of
+the old sofa in her room, her face pressed into the cushion.
+
+"Why, Polly," exclaimed her mother, seeing the shaking shoulders, and,
+bending over her, she smoothed the brown hair gently, "this isn't
+right, child--"
+
+Polly sprang up suddenly and threw her arms around her mother's neck.
+Her face was wet with tears, and she sobbed out, "Oh, if I'd done more
+for her, Mamsie, or been pleasant to Mrs. Vanderburgh, she might have
+stayed."
+
+"You haven't any call to worry, Polly, child," said Mother Fisher,
+firmly. "You did all that could be done--and remember one thing, it's
+very wrong to trouble others as you certainly will if you give way to
+your feelings in this manner."
+
+"Mamsie," exclaimed Polly, suddenly wiping away the trail of tears from
+her cheek, "I won't cry a single bit more. You can trust me, Mamsie, I
+truly won't."
+
+"Trust you," said Mother Fisher, with a proud look in her black eyes,
+"I can trust you ever and always, Polly; and now run to Mr. King and
+let him see a bright face, for he's worrying about you, Polly."
+
+
+
+
+XIX
+
+MR. KING HAS A LITTLE PLAN FOR POLLY
+
+
+"Oh Jasper," exclaimed Polly, clasping her hands, "do you suppose we'll
+ever get to a piano where it's all alone, and nobody wants to play on
+it--"
+
+"But just you and I," finished Jasper. "I declare I don't know. You see
+we don't stay still long enough in any one place to hire a decent one;
+and besides, father said, when we started, that it was better for us to
+rest and travel about without any practising this summer. You know he
+did, Polly."
+
+"I know it," said Polly; "but oh, if we could just play once in a
+while," she added mournfully.
+
+"Well, we can't," said Jasper, savagely; "you know we tried that at
+Brussels, when we thought everybody had gone off. And those half a
+dozen idiots came and stared at us through the glass door."
+
+"And then they came in," added Polly, with a little shiver at the
+recollection. "But that big fat man with the black beard was the worst,
+Jasper." She glanced around as if she expected to see him coming down
+the long parlour.
+
+"Well, he didn't hear much; there didn't any of them," said Jasper;
+"that's some small satisfaction, because you hopped off the piano stool
+and ran away."
+
+"You ran just as fast, I'm sure, Jasper," said Polly, with a little
+laugh.
+
+"Well, perhaps I did," confessed Jasper, bursting into a laugh. "Who
+wouldn't run with a lot of staring idiots flying at one?" he brought up
+in disgust.
+
+"And we forgot the music," went on Polly, deep in the reminiscence,
+"and we wouldn't go back--don't you remember?--until the big fat man
+with the dreadful black beard had gone, for he'd picked it up and been
+looking at it."
+
+"Yes, I remember all about it," said Jasper; "dear me, what a time we
+had! It's enough to make one wish that the summer was all over, and
+that we were fairly settled in Dresden," he added gloomily, as he saw
+her face.
+
+"Oh, no," exclaimed Polly, quickly, and quite shocked to see the
+mischief that she had done.
+
+"We wouldn't have the beautiful summer go a bit faster, Jasper. Why,
+that would be too dreadful to think of."
+
+"But you want to get at your music, Polly."
+
+"I'll fly at it when the time comes," cried Polly, with a wise little
+nod, "never you fear, Jasper. Now come on; let's get Phronsie and go
+out and see the shops."
+
+Old Mr. King in a nook behind the curtain, dropped the newspaper in his
+lap and thought a bit. "Best to wait till we get to Lucerne," he said
+to himself, nodding his white head; "then, says I, Polly, my child, you
+shall have your piano."
+
+And when their party were settling down in the hotel at Lucerne, ending
+the beautiful days of travel after leaving Munich, Jasper's father
+called him abruptly. "See here, my boy."
+
+"What is it, father?" asked Jasper, wonderingly; "the luggage is all
+right; it's gone up to the rooms--all except the portmanteau, and
+Francis will go down to the station and straighten that out."
+
+"I'm not in the least troubled in regard to the luggage, Jasper,"
+replied his father, testily; "it's something much more important than
+the luggage question about which I wish to speak to you."
+
+Jasper stared, well knowing his father's views in regard to the luggage
+question. "The first thing that you must unpack--the very first," old
+Mr. King was saying, "is your music. Don't wait a minute, Jasper, but
+go and get it. And then call Polly, and--"
+
+"Why, father," exclaimed Jasper, "there isn't a single place to play
+in. You don't know how people stare if we touch the piano. We can't
+here, father; there's such a crowd in this hotel."
+
+"You do just as I say, Jasper," commanded his father. "And tell Polly
+to get her music; and then do you two go to the little room out of the
+big parlour, and play to your hearts' content." And he burst into a
+hearty laugh at Jasper's face, as he dangled a key at the end of a
+string, before him.
+
+"Now I do believe, father, that you've got Polly a piano and a little
+room to play in," cried Jasper, joyfully, and pouncing on the key.
+
+"You go along and do as I tell you," said Mr. King, mightily pleased at
+the success of his little plan. "And don't you tell Polly Pepper one
+word until she has taken her music down in the little room," as Jasper
+bounded off on the wings of the wind.
+
+And in that very hotel was the big fat man with the dreadful black
+beard, resting after a long season of hard work.
+
+But Polly and Jasper wouldn't have cared had they known it, as long as
+they had their own delightful little music room to themselves--as they
+played over and over all the dear old pieces, and Polly revelled in
+everything that she was so afraid she had forgotten.
+
+"I really haven't lost it, Jasper!" she would exclaim radiantly, after
+finishing a concerto, and dropping her hands idly on the keys. "And I
+was _so_ afraid I'd forgotten it entirely. Just think, I haven't played
+that for three months, Jasper King."
+
+"Well, you haven't forgotten a bit of it," declared Jasper, just as
+glad as she was. "You didn't make any mistakes, hardly, Polly."
+
+"Oh, yes, I made some," said Polly, honestly, whirling around on the
+piano stool to look at him.
+
+"Oh, well, only little bits of ones," said Jasper; "those don't
+signify. I wish father could have heard that concerto. What a pity he
+went out just before you began it."
+
+But somebody else, on the other side of the partition between the
+little music room and the big parlour, had heard, and he pulled his
+black beard thoughtfully with his long fingers, then pricked up his
+ears to hear more. And it was funny how, almost every day, whenever the
+first notes on the piano struck up in Mr. King's little music room, the
+big fat man, who was so tired with his season of hard work, never
+seemed to think that he could rest as well as in that particular corner
+up against that partition. And no matter what book or paper he had in
+his hand, he always dropped it and fell to pulling his black beard with
+his long fingers, before the music was finished.
+
+And then, "Oh, Polly, come child, you have played long enough," from
+Mother Fisher on the other side of the partition; or old Mr. King would
+say, "No more practising to-day, Miss Polly;" or Phronsie would pipe
+out, "Polly, Grandpapa is going to take us out on the lake; do come,
+Polly." And then it was funnier yet to see how suddenly the big fat man
+with the dreadful black beard seemed to find that particular corner by
+that partition a very tiresome place. And as the piano clicked down its
+cover, he would yawn, and get up and say something in very rapid German
+to himself, and off he would go, forgetting all about his book or
+newspaper, which, very likely, would tumble to the floor, and flap away
+by itself till somebody came and picked it up and set it on the sofa.
+
+One morning old Mr. King, hurrying along with his batch of English mail
+to enjoy opening it in the little music room where Jasper and Polly
+were playing a duet, ran up suddenly against a fat heavy body coming
+around an opposite angle.
+
+"Oh, I beg your pardon, sir," exclaimed Mr. King in great distress, the
+more so as he saw that the stranger's glasses were knocked off his nose
+by the collision. "I do trust they are not broken," he added, in a
+concerned tone, endeavouring to pick them up.
+
+But the big man was before him. "Not a beet, not a beet," he declared,
+adjusting them on his nose again. Then he suddenly grasped old Mr.
+King's hand. "And I be very glad, sir, _very_ glad indeed, dat I haf
+roon into you."
+
+"Indeed!" exclaimed Mr. King, releasing his hand instantly, and all the
+concern dropping out of his face.
+
+"_Very_ glad indeed!" repeated the big man, heartily; then he pulled
+his black beard, and stood quite still a moment.
+
+"If you have nothing more to remark, sir," said Mr. King, haughtily,
+"perhaps you will be kind enough to stand out of my way, and allow me
+to pass. And it would be as well for you to observe more care in the
+future, sir, both in regard to your feet, and your tongue, sir."
+
+"Yes, I am _very_ glad," began the big man again, who hadn't even heard
+Mr. King's tirade, "for now--" and he gave his black beard a final
+twitch, and his eyes suddenly lightened with a smile that ran all over
+his face, "I can speak to you of dis ting dat is in my mind. Your--"
+
+"I want to hear nothing of what is on your mind," declared old Mr.
+King, now thoroughly angry. "Stand aside, fellow, and let me pass," he
+commanded, in a towering passion.
+
+The big man stared in astonishment into the angry face, the smile
+dropping out of his own. "I beg to _ex_cuse myself," he said, with a
+deep bow, and a wave of his long fingers. "Will you pass?" and he moved
+up as tightly as possible to the wall.
+
+Old Mr. King went into the little music room in a furious rage, and
+half an hour afterward Polly and Jasper, pausing to look around, saw
+him tossing and tumbling his letters and newspapers about on the table,
+fuming to himself all the while.
+
+"Father has had bad news!" exclaimed Jasper, turning pale; "something
+about his agents, probably."
+
+"O dear me! and here we have been playing," cried Polly in remorse,
+every vestige of colour flying from her cheek.
+
+"Well, we didn't know," said Jasper, quickly. "But what can we do now,
+Polly?" he turned to her appealingly.
+
+"I don't know," she was just going to say helplessly, but Jasper's face
+made her see that something must be done. "Let's go and tell him we are
+sorry," she said; "that's what Mamsie always liked best if she felt
+badly."
+
+So the two crept up behind old Mr. King's chair: "Father, I'm _so_
+sorry," and "Dear Grandpapa, I'm _so_ sorry," and Polly put both arms
+around his neck suddenly.
+
+"Eh--what?" cried Mr. King, sitting bolt upright in astonishment. "Oh,
+bless me, children, I thought you were playing on the piano."
+
+"We were," said Polly, hurrying around to the side of the table, her
+face quite rosy now, "but we didn't know--" and she stopped short,
+unable to find another word.
+
+"--that you felt badly," finished Jasper. "Oh, father, we didn't know
+that you'd got bad news." He laid his hand as he spoke on the pile of
+tumbled-up letters.
+
+"Bad news!" ejaculated old Mr. King, in perplexity, and looking from
+one to the other.
+
+"No, we didn't," repeated Polly, clasping her hands. "Dear Grandpapa,
+we truly didn't, or we wouldn't have kept on playing all this time."
+
+Mr. King put back his head and laughed long and loud, as he hadn't done
+for many a day, his ill humour dropping off in the midst of it. "The
+letters are all right," he said, wiping his eyes, "never had better
+news. It was an impertinent fellow I met out there, that's all."
+
+"Father, who has dared--" began Jasper, with flashing eyes.
+
+"Don't you worry, my boy; it's all right, the fellow got his quietus;
+besides, he wasn't worth minding," said Mr. King, carelessly. "Why,
+here is your mother," turning to Polly. "Now then, Mrs. Fisher, what is
+it; for I see by your eye some plan is on the carpet."
+
+"Yes, there is," said Mrs. Fisher, coming in with a smile, "the doctor
+is going to take a day off."
+
+"Is that really so?" cried Mr. King, with a little laugh. "What! not
+even going to visit one of his beloved hospitals?" while Polly
+exclaimed, radiantly, "Oh, how perfectly elegant! Now we'll have
+Papa-Doctor for a whole long day!"
+
+Phronsie, who had been close to her mother's gown during the delivery
+of this important news, clasped her hands in a quiet rapture, while
+Polly exclaimed, "Now, Grandpapa, can it be the Rigi?" Jasper echoing
+the cry heartily.
+
+"I suppose it is to be the Rigi," assented old Mr. King, leaning back
+in his chair to survey them all, "that is, if Mrs. Fisher approves.
+We'll let you pick out the jaunting place," turning to her, "seeing
+that it is the doctor's holiday."
+
+"I know that Dr. Fisher wants very much to go up the Rigi," said his
+wife, in great satisfaction at the turn the plans were taking.
+
+"And we'll stay over night, father," cried Jasper, "won't we?"
+
+"Stay over night?" repeated his father, "I should say so. Why, what
+would be the good of our going up at all, pray tell, if we didn't
+devote that much time to it and have a try for a sunrise?"
+
+"We're to go up the Rigi!" exclaimed Polly, giving a little whirl, and
+beginning to dance around the room, repeating, "We're to go up the
+Rigi," exactly as if nobody knew it, and she was telling perfectly
+fresh news.
+
+"Here--that dance looks awfully good--wait for me," cried Jasper. And
+seizing her hands, they spun round and round, Phronsie scuttling after
+them, crying, "Take me, too. I want to dance, Polly."
+
+"So you shall," cried Polly and Jasper together; so they made a little
+ring of three, and away they went, Polly this time crying, "Just think,
+we're going to have the most beautiful sunrise in all this world."
+
+And on the other side of the partition, in his accustomed nook in the
+big parlour, the big fat man with the black beard sat. He pulled this
+same black beard thoughtfully a bit, when Mr. King was telling about
+the impertinent fellow. Then he smiled and jabbered away to himself
+very hard in German; and it wasn't till the King party hurried off to
+get ready for the Rigi trip, that he got up and sauntered off.
+
+And almost the first person that old Mr. King saw on getting his party
+into a car on the funicular railway, was the "impertinent fellow," also
+bound for the top of the Rigi.
+
+"Oh, Grandpapa!" Polly got out of her seat and hurried to him with
+cheeks aflame, when midway up.
+
+"I know--isn't it wonderful!" cried Grandpapa, happy in her pleasure,
+and finding it all just as marvellous as if he hadn't made the ascent
+several times.
+
+"Yes, yes!" cried Polly. "It is all perfectly splendid, Grandpapa; but
+oh, I mean, _did_ you hear what that lady said?" and she dropped her
+voice, and put her mouth close to Grandpapa's ear.
+
+"I'm sure I didn't," said old Mr. King, carelessly, "and I'm free to
+confess I'm honestly glad of it. For if there is one thing I detest
+more than another, Polly, my girl, it is to hear people, especially
+women, rave and gush over the scenery."
+
+"Oh, she didn't rave and gush," cried Polly, in a whisper, afraid that
+the lady heard. "She said, Grandpapa, that Herr Bauricke is at Lucerne;
+just think, Grandpapa, the great Herr Bauricke!"
+
+She took her mouth away from the old gentleman's ear in order to look
+in his face.
+
+"Polly, Polly," called Jasper from his seat on the farther end, "you
+are losing all this," as the train rounded a curve. "Do come back."
+
+"Now, I'm glad of that," exclaimed Grandpapa, in a tone of the greatest
+satisfaction, "for I can ask him about the music masters in Dresden and
+get his advice, and be all prepared before we go there for the winter
+to secure the very best."
+
+"And I can see him, and perhaps hear him play," breathed Polly, in an
+awestruck tone, quite lost to scenery and everything else. Jasper
+leaned forward and stared at her in amazement. Then he slipped out of
+his seat, and made his way up to them to find out what it was all about.
+
+"How did she know?" he asked, as Polly told all she knew; "I'm just
+going to ask her." But the lady, who had caught snatches of the
+conversation, though she hadn't heard Mr. King's part of it, very
+obligingly leaned forward in her seat and told all she knew.
+
+And by the time this was done, they all knew that the information was
+in the American paper printed in Paris, and circulated all over the
+Continent, and that the lady had read it that very morning just before
+setting out.
+
+"The only time I missed reading that paper," observed old Mr. King,
+regretfully.
+
+"And he is staying at our very hotel," finished the lady, "for I have
+seen you, sir, with your party there."
+
+"Another stroke of good luck," thought old Mr. King, "and quite easy to
+obtain the information I want as to a master for Polly and Jasper."
+
+"Now then, children," he said to the two hanging on the conversation,
+"run back to your seats and enjoy the view. This news of ours will
+keep."
+
+So Polly and Jasper ran back obediently, but every step of the toilsome
+ascent by which the car pushed its way to the wonderful heights above,
+Polly saw everything with the words, "Herr Bauricke is at _our_ hotel,"
+ringing through her ears; and she sat as in a maze. Jasper was nearly
+as bad.
+
+And then everybody was pouring out of the cars and rushing for the
+hotel on the summit; all but Mr. King's party and a few others, who had
+their rooms engaged by telegraphing up. When they reached the big
+central hall there was a knot of Germans all talking together, and on
+the outside fringe of this knot, people were standing around and
+staring at the central figure. Suddenly some one darted away from this
+outer circle and dashed up to them. It was the lady from their hotel.
+
+"I knew you'd want to know," she exclaimed breathlessly; "that's Herr
+Bauricke himself--he came up on our train--just think of it!--the big
+man in the middle with the black beard." She pointed an excited finger
+at the knot of Germans.
+
+Old Mr. King followed the course of the finger, and saw his
+"impertinent fellow who wasn't worth minding."
+
+
+
+
+XX
+
+"I SHOULD MAKE HIM HAPPY," SAID PHRONSIE
+
+
+Polly got Jasper away into a side corridor by a beseeching little pull
+on his sleeve. "Oh, just to think," she mourned, "I called that great
+man such unpleasant things--that he was big and fat, and--oh, oh!"
+
+"Well, he _is_ big and fat," declared Jasper. "We can't say he isn't,
+Polly."
+
+"But I meant it all against him," said Polly, shaking her head. "You
+know I did, Jasper," she added remorsefully.
+
+"Yes, we neither of us liked him," said Jasper, "and that's the honest
+truth, Polly."
+
+"And to think it was that _great_ Herr Bauricke!" exclaimed Polly. Then
+her feelings overcame her, and she sank down on the cushioned seat in
+the angle.
+
+Jasper sat down beside her. "I suppose it won't do to say anything
+about people after this until we know them. Will it, Polly?"
+
+"Jasper," declared Polly, clasping her hands, while the rosy colour
+flew over her cheek, "I'm never going to say a single--"
+
+Just then the big form of Herr Bauricke loomed up before them, as he
+turned into the corridor.
+
+Polly shrank up in her corner as small as she could, wishing she was as
+little as Phronsie, and could hop up and run away.
+
+Herr Bauricke turned his sharp eyes on them for a moment, hesitated,
+then came directly up, and stopped in front of them. "I meant--I
+_in_tended to speak to your grandfader first. Dat not seem best _now_."
+The great man was really talking to them, and Polly held her breath,
+not daring to look into his face, but keeping her gaze on his wonderful
+fingers. "My child," those wonderful fingers seized her own, and
+clasped them tightly, "you have great promise, mind you, you know only
+a leedle now, and you must work--_work--work_." He brought it out so
+sharply, that the last word was fairly shrill. "But I tink you will,"
+he added kindly, dropping his tone. Then he laid her fingers gently in
+her lap.
+
+"Oh, she does, sir," exclaimed Jasper, finding his tongue first, for
+Polly was beyond speaking. "Polly works all the time she can."
+
+"Dat is right." Herr Bauricke bobbed his head in approval, so that his
+spectacles almost fell off. "I hear dat, in de music she play. No
+leedle girl play like dat, who doesn't work. I will hear you sometime
+at de hotel," he added abruptly, "and tell you some tings dat will help
+you. To-morrow, maybe, when we go down from dis place, eh?"
+
+"Oh, sir," exclaimed Polly, springing off from her cushion before
+Jasper could stop her. "You are _so_ good--but--but--I cannot," then
+her breath gave out, and she stood quite still.
+
+"Eh?" exclaimed Herr Bauricke, and pushing up his spectacles to stare
+into her flushed and troubled face. "Perhaps I not make my meaning
+clear; I mean I _geef_ you of my time and my best _ad_vice. Now you
+understand--eh?" He included Jasper in his puzzled glance.
+
+"Yes, sir," Jasper made haste to say. "We do understand; and it is so
+very good of you, and Polly will accept it, sir." "For father will make
+it all right with him as to the payment," he reflected easily.
+
+"Ah, now," exclaimed Herr Bauricke, joyfully, a light beaming all over
+his fat face, "dat is someting like--to-morrow, den, we--"
+
+"But, oh, sir," Polly interrupted, "I cannot," and she twisted her
+hands in distress. "I--I--didn't like you, and I said so." Then she
+turned very pale, and her head drooped.
+
+Jasper leaned over, and took her hand. "Neither did I, sir," he said.
+"I was just as bad as Polly."
+
+"You not tink me nice looking--so?" said Herr Bauricke. "Well, I not
+tink so myself, eeder. And I scare you maybe, wid dis," and he twisted
+his black beard with his long fingers. "Ah, so; well, we will forget
+all dis, leedle girl," and he bent down and took Polly's other fingers
+that hung by her side. "And eef you not let me come to-morrow to your
+leedle music room, and tell you sometings to help you learn better, I
+shall know dat you no like me _now_--eh?"
+
+"Oh, sir," Polly lifted her face, flooded with rosy colour up to her
+brown hair, "if you only will forgive me?"
+
+"I no forgeef; I not remember at all," said Herr Bauricke, waving his
+long fingers in the air. "And I go to-morrow to help you, leedle girl,"
+and he strode down the corridor.
+
+Polly and Jasper rushed off, they scarcely knew how, to Grandpapa, to
+tell him the wonderful news,--to find him in a truly dreadful state of
+mind. When they had told their story, he was as much worse as could
+well be imagined.
+
+"Impossible, impossible!" was all he could say, but he brought his hand
+down on the table before him with so much force that Jasper felt a
+strange sinking of heart. What could be the matter?
+
+"Why, children, and you all" (for his whole party was before him),
+exclaimed Mr. King, "Herr Bauricke is that impertinent person who
+annoyed me this morning, and I called him 'fellow' to his face!"
+
+It was so very much worse than Jasper had dreamed, that he collapsed
+into the first chair, all Polly's prospects melting off like dew before
+the sun.
+
+"Hum!" Little Dr. Fisher was the first to speak. He took off his big
+spectacles and wiped them; then put them on his nose and adjusted them
+carefully, and glared around the group, his gaze resting on old Mr.
+King's face.
+
+Polly, who had never seen Jasper give way like this, forgot her own
+distress, and rushed up to him. "Oh, don't, Jasper," she begged.
+
+"You see I can't allow Herr Bauricke to give any lessons or advice to
+Polly after this," went on Mr. King, hastily. "Of course he would be
+paid; but, under the circumstances, it wouldn't do, not in the least.
+It is quite out of the question," he went on, as if some one had been
+contradicting him. But no one said a word.
+
+"Why don't some of you speak?" he asked, breaking the pause. "Dr.
+Fisher, you don't generally keep us waiting for your opinion. Speak out
+now, man, and let us have it."
+
+"It is an awkward affair, surely," began the little doctor, slowly.
+
+"Awkward? I should say so," frowned Mr. King; "it's awkward to the last
+degree. Here's a man who bumps into me in a hotel passage,--though, for
+that matter, I suppose it's really my fault as much as his,--and I
+offer to pick up his spectacles that were dropped in the encounter. And
+he tells me that he is glad that we ran up against each other, for it
+gives him a chance to tell me what is on his mind. As if I cared what
+was on his mind, or on the mind of any one else, for that matter," he
+declared, in extreme irritation. "And I told him to his face that he
+was an impertinent fellow, and to get out of my way. Yes, I did!"
+
+A light began to break on little Dr. Fisher's face, that presently
+shone through his big spectacles, fairly beaming on them all. Then he
+burst into a laugh, hearty and long.
+
+"Why, Adoniram!" exclaimed Mother Fisher, in surprise. Polly turned a
+distressed face at him; and to say that old Mr. King stared would be
+stating the case very mildly indeed.
+
+"Can't you see, oh, can't you see," exploded the little doctor, mopping
+up his face with his big handkerchief, "that your big German was trying
+to tell you of Polly's playing, and to say something, probably pretty
+much the same that he has said to her and to Jasper? O dear me, I
+should like to have been there to see you both," ended Dr. Fisher,
+faintly. Then he went off into another laugh.
+
+"I don't see much cause for amusement," said old Mr. King, grimly, when
+this idea broke into his mind, "for it's a certain fact that I called
+him a fellow, and told him to get out of the way."
+
+"Well, he doesn't bear you any malice, apparently," said the little
+doctor, who, having been requested to speak, saw no reason for
+withholding any opinion he might chance to have, "for, if he did, he
+wouldn't have made that handsome offer to Polly."
+
+"That may be; the offer is handsome enough," answered Mr. King, "that
+is the trouble, it's too handsome. I cannot possibly accept it under
+the awkward circumstances. No, children," he turned to Polly and
+Jasper, as if they had been beseeching him all the while, "you needn't
+ask it, or expect it," and he got out of his chair, and stalked from
+the room.
+
+Jasper buried his face in his hands, and a deep gloom settled over the
+whole party, on all but little Dr. Fisher. He pranced over to Polly and
+Jasper just as merrily as if nothing dreadful had happened. "Don't you
+be afraid, my boy," he said; "your father is a dreadfully sensible man,
+and there's no manner of doubt but that he will fix this thing up."
+
+"Oh, you don't know father," groaned Jasper, his head in his hands,
+"when he thinks the right thing hasn't been done or said. And now Polly
+will miss it all!" And his head sank lower yet.
+
+"Nonsense!" exclaimed Dr. Fisher. Yet he had a dreadful feeling coming
+over him, and he turned to Polly imploringly.
+
+"Oh, I do believe it, Jasper," cried Polly, "what Papa-Doctor says. And
+just look at Mamsie!" she cried, beneath her breath.
+
+And truly Mother Fisher was having a hard time to control herself. That
+Jasper could see as he lifted his head. And the little doctor also saw,
+and skipped back across the room to her side. And Phronsie, feeling
+plunged into the deepest woe by all this dreadful state of affairs,
+that had come too bewilderingly for her to rally to Grandpapa's side,
+first began to cry. And then, thinking better of it, went softly out of
+the door, and no one noticed her when she went--with the tears running
+down her cheeks.
+
+Down the long corridor she hurried, not knowing which way Grandpapa
+went, but turning into the little reading room, she spied him sitting
+by the table. The apartment was otherwise empty. He wasn't reading, not
+even looking at a paper, but sitting bolt upright, and lost in thought.
+
+"Grandpapa," she said, laying a soft little hand on his arm. "Oh, I'm
+so glad I found you." And she nestled up to his side.
+
+"Eh? Oh, Phronsie, child." Old Mr. King put his arm around her, and
+drew her closely to him. "So you came after your old Grand-daddy, did
+you?"
+
+"Yes, I did," said Phronsie, with a glad little cry, snuggling up
+tighter to him, while the tears trailed off down his waistcoat, but not
+before he had seen them.
+
+"Now, Phronsie, you are not to cry any more," he said, with a pang at
+the sight. "You won't, dear; promise me that."
+
+So Phronsie promised; and he held her hands, and, clearing his throat,
+he began, "Well, now I suppose they felt pretty badly, back there in
+the room, your mother and all--eh, Phronsie?"
+
+"Yes, Grandpapa," said Phronsie, her round face falling. Yet she had
+promised not to cry, and, although she had a hard time of it, every
+tear was kept back valiantly.
+
+"And Polly, now--" asked old Mr. King, cautiously, "and Jasper--how
+were they feeling?"
+
+"Grandpapa," Phronsie did not trust herself to reply, but, springing
+up, she laid her rosy little mouth close to his ear. "What does it
+all--the dreadful thing mean?" she whispered.
+
+"It means," old Mr. King whispered back, but very distinctly, "that
+your old Granddaddy is an idiot, Phronsie, and that he has been rude,
+and let his temper run away with him."
+
+"Oh, no, Grandpapa dear," contradicted Phronsie, falling back from him
+in horror. "You couldn't ever be that what you say." And she flung both
+arms around his neck and hugged him tightly.
+
+"What? An idiot? Yes, I have been an idiot of the worst kind," declared
+Mr. King, "and all the rest just as I say; rude and--why, what is the
+matter, Phronsie?" for the little arms clutched him so tightly he could
+hardly breathe.
+
+"Oh, Grandpapa," she wailed, and drawing away a bit to look at him, he
+saw her face convulsed with the effort not to cry. "Don't say such
+things. You are never naughty, Grandpapa dear; you can't be," she
+gasped.
+
+"There, there, there," ejaculated old Mr. King, frightened at the
+effect of his words and patting her yellow hair, at his wits' end what
+to say. So he broke out, "Well, now, Phronsie, you must tell me what to
+do."
+
+Thereupon Phronsie, seeing there was something she could really do to
+help Grandpapa, came out of her distress enough to sit up quite
+straight and attentive in his lap. "You see I spoke rudely to a man,
+and I called him a fellow, and he was a gentleman, Phronsie; you must
+remember that."
+
+"Yes, I will, Grandpapa," she replied obediently, while her eyes never
+wandered from his face.
+
+"And I told him to get out of the way and he did," said Mr. King,
+forcing himself to a repetition of the unpleasant truth. "O dear me,
+nothing could be worse," he groaned.
+
+"And you are sorry, Grandpapa dear?" Phronsie leaned over and laid her
+cheek softly against his.
+
+"Yes, I am, Phronsie, awfully sorry," confessed the old gentleman; "but
+what good will that do now? My temper has made a terrible mess of it
+all."
+
+"But you can tell the gentleman you are sorry," said Phronsie. "Oh,
+Grandpapa dear, do go and tell him now, this very minute." She broke
+away from him again, and sat straight on his knee, while a glad little
+smile ran all over her face.
+
+"I can't--you don't understand--O dear me!" Mr. King set her abruptly
+on the floor, and took a few turns up and down the room. Phronsie's
+eyes followed him with a grieved expression. When she saw the distress
+on his face, she ran up to him and seized his hand, but didn't speak.
+
+"You see, child,"--he grasped her fingers and held them closely,--"it's
+just this way: the gentleman wants to do me a favour; that is, to help
+Polly with her music."
+
+"Does he?" cried Phronsie, and she laughed in delight. "Oh, Grandpapa,
+how nice! And Polly will be so happy."
+
+"But I cannot possibly accept it," groaned old Mr. King; "don't you
+see, child, after treating him so? Why, how could I? The idea is too
+monstrous!" He set off now at such a brisk pace down the room that
+Phronsie had hard work to keep up with him. But he clung to her hand.
+
+"Won't that make the gentleman sorry?" panted Phronsie, trotting along
+by his side.
+
+"Eh--oh, what?" exclaimed old Mr. King, coming to a dead stop suddenly.
+"What's that you say, Phronsie?"
+
+"Won't the gentleman feel sorry?" repeated Phronsie, pushing back the
+waves of yellow hair that had fallen over her face, to look up at him.
+"And won't he feel badly then, Grandpapa?"
+
+"Eh--oh, perhaps," assented Mr. King, slowly, and passing a troubled
+hand across his brow. "Well, now, Phronsie, you come and sit in my lap
+again, and we'll talk it over, and you tell me what I ought to do."
+
+So the two got into the big chair again, and Phronsie folded her hands
+in her lap.
+
+"Now begin," said old Mr. King.
+
+"I should make the gentleman happy, Grandpapa," said Phronsie,
+decidedly.
+
+"You would--no matter what you had to do to bring it about?" asked
+Grandpapa, with a keen pair of eyes on her face. "Eh? think now,
+Phronsie."
+
+"I should make the gentleman happy," repeated Phronsie, and she bobbed
+her head decidedly. "I really should, Grandpapa."
+
+"Then the best way is to have it over with as soon as possible," said
+old Mr. King; "so come on, child, and you can see that the business is
+done up in good shape." He gathered her little fingers up in his hand,
+and setting her once more on the floor, they passed out of the
+apartment.
+
+The door of the private parlour belonging to Mr. King's rooms was flung
+wide open, and into the gloomy interior, for Mother Fisher and Jasper
+were still inconsolable, marched old Mr. King. He was arm in arm, so
+far as the two could at once compass the doorway, with Herr Bauricke;
+while Phronsie ducked and scuttled in as she could, for the big German,
+with ever so many honorary degrees to his name, held her hand fast.
+
+Old Mr. King continued his march up to Mother Fisher. "Allow me to
+introduce Herr Bauricke, Professor and Doctor of Music, of world-wide
+distinction," he said, bowing his courtly old head.
+
+And then Mother Fisher, self-controlled as she had always been,
+astonished him by turning to her husband to supply the answering word.
+
+"Glad to see you!" exclaimed the little doctor, bubbling over with
+happiness, and wringing the long fingers extended. "My wife is overcome
+with delight," which the big German understood very well; and he smiled
+his knowledge of it, as he looked into her black eyes. "She is like to
+mein Frau," he thought, having no higher praise. And then he turned
+quickly to Polly and Jasper.
+
+
+
+
+XXI
+
+ON THE RIGI-KULM
+
+
+For all that grand old Rigi's summit claimed them, it was some time
+before Mr. King's party left the little parlour. Herr Bauricke surely
+didn't want to until he had gotten it settled just what he did mean
+about Polly's music. That she showed great promise, that some faults in
+the way she had been taught were there, but it was by no means too late
+to mend them, that she had spirit and expression and love for the art.
+
+"Ah, dat is eet, after all." Herr Bauricke clasped his long fingers and
+beamed at her, and then swept the entire party. "Lofe, ah, how one must
+lofe eet! Eef not, shame, shame!" His countenance darkened frightfully,
+and he fairly glared at them, as he unclasped his hands and swung one
+over his head, while his black beard vibrated with each word.
+
+"Goodness me!" exclaimed Tom Selwyn, "it takes a musical man to sling
+around. I say, Jasper, I'd like to do a bit of boxing or cricketing
+with him." But Jasper didn't hear or see anything but Herr Bauricke and
+Polly; and, indeed, the whole room was given up to the "musical man"
+and his words.
+
+At last Polly drew a long breath; Grandpapa was taking her hand. "Let
+us all go out and explore a bit," and off they went, the entire party.
+And the "musical man," as Tom still continued to call him in private,
+proved to be as expert in the use of his feet as his fingers, for he
+led them here, there, and everywhere that promised the least chance of
+a good view.
+
+But Polly saw only the glorious future when, on the morrow, Herr
+Bauricke would really show her on the piano how best to study and to
+work! And the rosy glow of sunset wasn't one-half as bright as all her
+dreams.
+
+"Polly," said Phronsie, pulling her hand gently, as she peered up into
+her face, "are you looking at it?"
+
+"What, Pet? Oh, yes," said Polly, starting out of her revery with a
+little laugh, "you mean the sunset?"
+
+"Yes," said Phronsie, "I do mean that. Are you looking at it, Polly?
+Because if you are not looking, I wish you would, Polly."
+
+"Well, I suppose I am looking at it, Phronsie," said Polly, with
+another little laugh, "but perhaps not in just the right way, for you
+see, Phronsie, I can't seem to see anything but just the splendid thing
+that is coming to-morrow. Oh, Phronsie Pepper, just think of that."
+
+"I know," said Phronsie, with a little gurgle of delight at Polly's
+happiness, "and I am so glad, Polly."
+
+"Of course you are," declared Polly, warmly, "just as glad as can be,
+Phronsie," and she threw her arm around her. "And now I'm going to look
+at the sunset in the right way, I hope. Isn't it beautiful, child?"
+
+"Polly," declared Phronsie, suddenly wriggling away from Polly's arm,
+to stand in front of her with a beaming face, "I think it's just as
+beautiful as it can be up top here. I can see right in between that red
+cloud and that little pink teenty one. And I wish I could just go in,
+Polly."
+
+"Wouldn't it be nice?" echoed Polly, enthusiastically.
+
+"What?" asked Adela, hurrying up from a point of rocks below, where she
+had been sketching.
+
+"Oh, to go in between those clouds there and see it all," said Polly.
+
+"Dear me!" exclaimed Adela, "I shouldn't like it. I'd much rather stay
+down here, and sketch it."
+
+"We could go sailing off, oh, ever so far," said Polly, swinging her
+arms to suit the action to the words. "And you'd be stuck to your rock
+here, Adela; while, Phronsie, you and I would sit on the edge of a
+cloud, and let our feet hang over; and oh, Adela, you could sketch us
+then as we went sailing by."
+
+"How that would look!" exclaimed Adela, with such a face that Polly
+burst out into a merry laugh, and Phronsie, joining with her little
+crow of delight and clapping her hands at the idea of such fun, brought
+pretty much the whole party around them.
+
+"What's up?" cried Tom to Jasper, on the way to the girls with some
+fear, for he didn't dare even yet to talk much to Polly. As for Adela,
+he let her severely alone.
+
+"Don't know," said Jasper, "but we'll soon find out," and they did, by
+Phronsie's flying away from Polly and skipping down over the rocks to
+meet them.
+
+"Oh, Jasper, Polly's telling how we would sail on that beautiful
+cloud," announced Phronsie, her yellow hair flying from her face as she
+sped along, heedless of her steps.
+
+"Take care or you'll fall," warned Jasper. "See, your mother is looking
+worried." And, truth to tell, Mrs. Fisher, on a point of rocks a little
+way off with the others, was getting a bit alarmed as she saw the
+progress of her baby.
+
+"I'll take care," said Phronsie, sobering down at thought of Mamsie's
+being troubled, and beginning to pick her way carefully. And Jasper
+gathered up her fingers in his, thinking of the time when she toiled up
+and down the long stairway, when she first came to what was now her
+home, blessed thought! and Polly and he sat down at the foot to watch
+her.
+
+"And so Polly and you are going to try sailing on that cloud there,"
+said Jasper, squinting up at the brilliant sky.
+
+"We aren't really going, Jasper," said Phronsie, shaking her head,
+soberly, "because you see we can't. But Polly's pretending it all; and
+we're to sit on the edge and swing our feet. And Adela is going to make
+a picture of us."
+
+"Whew!" whistled Jasper. "And I say, Polly,"--for now they had
+scrambled up to the two girls,--"isn't there room for us on that cloud
+too?" While Tom kicked pebbles, and wished he knew how to talk to girls.
+
+"Perhaps," said Polly, gaily. "Oh, I suppose that those who couldn't
+get on our cloud could take the next one."
+
+"I'd rather have your cloud, Polly," said Jasper.
+
+"And Grandpapa must come too," cried Phronsie, in alarm at the very
+thought of his being left out. "I want him on our cloud, Polly."
+
+"Yes, and Mamsie and Papa-Doctor," finished Polly, ready for any
+nonsense, she was just bubbling over so with joy at thought of the
+morrow and what it would bring. "Well, it is good the cloud is big,"
+squinting up at the radiant sky.
+
+"And, Tom, you are coming on that cloud-boat."
+
+Jasper pulled him forward with a merry laugh, giving him a clap on the
+back at the same time.
+
+"Eh--oh, I can't--no, thank you," stammered Tom, thus suddenly brought
+into notice. "Excuse me," just as if the invitation had been a _bona
+fide_ one.
+
+Polly never smiled, but Adela giggled right out. Tom's face flushed,
+and he rushed off furiously, determined never to chance it again
+whereby he'd be mortified before girls--not he!
+
+All the gay time was flown, and the red and pink and purple clouds
+looked down upon a sorry, uncomfortable little group. Jasper spoke
+first. "I must go after him," and he dashed down the rocks.
+
+"O dear me, I couldn't help it," said Adela, twisting uncomfortably,
+"it was so silly in him to take it all in earnest."
+
+"He didn't really think we meant it," said Polly, her brown eyes very
+grave. Would Jasper really persuade him to forget that laugh? "But he
+is shy, and he said the first thing that came into his head."
+
+"Boys haven't any right to be shy," said Adela, fussing with her little
+sketching block and pencil, "they are so big and strong."
+
+"Why did Tom run away so fast?" asked Phronsie, only half comprehending.
+
+"Never mind, child," said Polly, with a reassuring pat on her head.
+
+"And isn't Jasper coming back?" asked Phronsie, in great distress.
+
+"Yes, oh, I guess so," said Polly. "Well, there, the pretty glow has
+all faded; see, Phronsie," pointing up to the leaden clouds that no one
+who had failed to see a few moments before could have imagined alive
+with colour. "Now we ought to run over to the others, for they'll be
+going back to the hotel."
+
+"It's all gone," said Phronsie, sadly, looking up at the darkening sky.
+"Polly, where has the pretty red and pink gone to?"
+
+"Oh, I don't know," said Polly, thinking only of Tom, and what a hard
+time Jasper must be having with him. "Take care, Phronsie, don't look
+up now--you'll fall! There, take my hand; now come on."
+
+"O dear me, I didn't mean to laugh," Adela was saying to herself as she
+fell back in the zig-zag path down the rocks. "I wish I
+hadn't--I'll--I'll--" What she meant to do wasn't very clear in her
+mind; what she did do, was to run up to her grandmother's and her room,
+and toss her sketch-book on the table, and herself on the bed, for a
+good hearty cry.
+
+Polly found her there, when they couldn't find her anywhere else, with
+much searching and running about. Little old Mrs. Gray was worrying
+dreadfully, so afraid she had been blown from the rocks; for the wind
+had now risen, and all the travellers were seeking the shelter and
+warmth of the hotel corridor and parlours.
+
+"Oh, Adela, how _could_ you?" Polly was going to say. And then she
+thought that would be the very worst thing in all the world, for
+Adela's shoulders were shaking, and it would only make her cry worse.
+And besides, Polly remembered how she had sometimes given way in just
+this fashion, and how much worse she would have been, had it not been
+for a wise, good mother. So she ran out in the hall. "I must tell her
+grandmother," she said to herself.
+
+"Have you found her?" asked Jasper, looking up from the foot of the
+staircase.
+
+"Yes," said Polly, "I have."
+
+"All right." And Jasper vanished, and Polly went slowly back, wishing
+she could be downstairs with all the dear people, instead of trying to
+comfort this dismal girl. The next moment she was kneeling down by the
+side of the bed, and trying to get hold of one of Adela's hands. But
+Adela bounced over to the farther side, and she cried out angrily,
+"It's all very well for you to say so, because you didn't do it. And
+everybody likes you. O dear me--tee--hee--boo--hoo!"
+
+"But I've often done things just as bad," confessed Polly, "and, Adela,
+I've cried like this, too. But Mamsie--oh, Adela! she made me see it
+was wrong; so I had to stop it, you know."
+
+"How is it wrong?" asked Adela, rolling over, and taking the
+handkerchief away from one eye enough to see Polly Pepper's face. "I
+can cry, I guess, if I want to, without asking anybody."
+
+"Oh, no, you can't," said Polly, decidedly. "I mean no one can."
+
+"Why not, pray tell?" said Adela, sniffing very hard. "My eyes are my
+own, and I shall cry, too, whenever I want to."
+
+"Well, I can't just tell you exactly why you can't cry when you want
+to," said Polly, afraid she wasn't going to say the right word, "but
+Mamsie could if she were here. I'll go and call her, Adela." And Polly
+sprang to her feet. "She'll come, I know."
+
+"Oh, no--no," cried Adela, in mortal alarm. "I don't want her--I mean
+I'd rather have you. You're a girl; and a woman talking at me scares
+me."
+
+"Then you mustn't cry if I stay," said Polly, stopping short, and
+seeing her advantage, "for I surely shall go, Adela," she added firmly,
+"unless you stop crying."
+
+"O dear me." Adela squirmed all over the bed. "I can't stop--I've
+always cried as much as I wanted to. O dear me--boo-hoo-hoo! I
+mean--I'll stop, don't go--" sopping up her wet face with a nervous
+hand. "See, Pol-_ly_!" for Polly had slipped out of the room. Adela
+flew off from the bed. "Polly--Polly, Pol-_ly_!" she called, in a
+piteous little tone.
+
+Polly, halfway down the stairs, looked back. "Oh, you are up," she
+said, with a smile. "Now that's fine; come." And she held out her hand.
+
+"Mercy me, and O my!" cried Adela. "I can't go looking like this; why,
+I'm a perfect sight, I know, Polly Pepper! and my nose feels all bunged
+out of shape and as big!"
+
+"Never mind," said Polly, as reassuringly, "just dash some water over
+it, and it'll be all right. I'll wait here for you."
+
+So Polly stood on her stair while Adela, bemoaning all the way that she
+didn't look fit to be seen, and that she was a perfect sight, and she
+couldn't go down among them all, stumbled back into her room. And
+pretty soon Polly heard a big splash. "O dear me--oh, what shall I do?"
+
+"What _is_ the matter?" cried Polly, deserting her stair, to run in and
+up to the washstand.
+
+"Just see what I've done," exclaimed Adela, holding out one arm. It was
+dripping wet, and the water was running off in a stream and down to
+meet a small puddle where the splash had struck on the floor.
+
+"The pitcher slipped--O dear me--ugh--" cried Adela, wriggling all over.
+
+"Stand still," said Polly, "do, Adela, till I wipe your sleeve dry."
+And she got the towel and began to sop and to pat Adela's arm.
+
+"It never'll feel dry, it's perfectly awful--ugh--Polly Pepper,"
+declared Adela, twisting away from Polly's fingers; "it's just like a
+wet snake--ugh--O dear me! and it gives me the creeps."
+
+"You'll have to put on another waist, I do think," said Polly, hanging
+up the towel, aghast to find herself growing angry at all this delay,
+and with half a mind to run and leave Adela to herself.
+
+"O dear me, and there's this water running all over the floor," cried
+Adela, stepping gingerly over the pool, and trying to pick off the wet
+sleeve from her arm at the same time.
+
+"I'll fix it," said Polly, as cheerily as she could, "while you get
+your waist on." And she sopped the water up. "There, that's done," she
+announced with satisfaction; "now do hurry, Adela."
+
+"I can't get out of this old, horrid, wet sleeve," said Adela, very red
+in the face, and pulling and twitching at it.
+
+"Take care, you'll tear it," warned Polly.
+
+"I don't care if I do," said Adela, peevishly. "O dear me, somebody's
+coming!" With that she flew into the closet and pulled to the door.
+
+"Why, Polly!" exclaimed Mother Fisher, in surprise, "what is the
+matter? We are all waiting to go in to dinner."
+
+"Oh, I'm so sorry," began Polly, feeling as if nothing would be so
+delightful as to have a good cry in Mamsie's arms and tell all the
+story.
+
+"Well, you must come right away," said Mrs. Fisher. "Why, where is
+Adela?" looking around the room.
+
+"I'm here," said Adela, from the closet.
+
+"Come out here, Adela," said Mrs. Fisher. So Adela came out, the wet
+sleeve still on her arm; but she had gotten out of the rest of the
+waist.
+
+"That's too bad," said Mrs. Fisher; and in a minute Adela's wet arm was
+free and nicely dried, and a clean waist being found, it was soon on,
+and then Mother Fisher took up the hairbrush. "We must have this all
+nice and smooth," she said. And Adela stood still, liking it all very
+much; and her hair was brushed, much as if she had been Phronsie, and
+then Mother Fisher released her with a smile. "There, now you are
+ready," she said.
+
+"She didn't scold a bit," said Adela, going after her with Polly down
+the stairs, and forgetting her red eyes and swollen nose.
+
+"Our mother never scolds," declared Polly, with her head very high,
+"never in all this world, Adela Gray."
+
+And at dinner Tom Selwyn looked across the table, and when he caught
+sight of Adela's face, and saw that some one else could feel as badly
+as he could, and he guessed the reason, he made up his mind what he was
+going to do next. And as soon as the meal was over, without giving
+himself time to think, he marched up to Adela. "Say, I didn't much mind
+because you laughed, don't you know," and held out his hand.
+
+"I've been crying ever since," said Adela, "and I didn't mean to laugh."
+
+"I know it," said Tom to the first part of her sentence, and looking at
+her nose. "Well, never mind now, so it's quits, and shake hands."
+
+"I don't know what quits is," said Adela, putting out her hand.
+
+"Oh, it's when things are evened up somehow," said Tom; "not exactly
+that, but it will do well enough by way of explaining."
+
+"And I'm never going to laugh again at anybody," said Adela, lifting
+her red eyes.
+
+"Well, come on, don't you want a game of draughts?" said Tom, awkwardly.
+
+"Draughts?" repeated Adela, very much puzzled. "I don't know it."
+
+"Why, what a whopper!" Tom was going to say, but changed it to, "Why, I
+saw you playing it last night with Polly Pepper."
+
+"Why, no, you didn't," said Adela, not very politely, "that was
+checkers."
+
+"That's the same thing," said Tom, triumphantly, "only you Americans
+call it that funny name."
+
+"Well, I think it's a great deal nicer name than draughts," said Adela;
+"that's silly."
+
+"Well, checkers; that's senseless," retorted Tom, "and, besides, you
+Americans always say 'nice' at everything." Then he looked at her red
+eyes and poor little nose, and added kindly, "Well, never mind, call it
+checkers, then, I don't care; let's have a game," and he rushed for the
+board.
+
+Mrs. Selwyn looked from her corner where she had taken a book, and
+smiled to see him playing a game with a girl. Then she nodded over to
+Jasper, and he smiled back.
+
+And Adela never once thought how she looked. And she beat Tom twice,
+and that quite set her up. And then for the next three games he routed
+her men completely off the board. And, strange to say, she kept her
+temper, and even smiled at the disaster.
+
+"That's a good game." Old Mr. King came up as the last one was going
+on. "Tom, my boy, you play a fine one."
+
+"And she fights well," said Tom, generously. "She beat me twice."
+
+"You don't say so," exclaimed Mr. King. "Well, that's doing pretty
+well, Adela, to get ahead of the English lad. But you don't stand much
+of a chance this time; Tom's got the game, sure." And so it proved in
+less time than it takes to write it.
+
+And then everybody said "good night" to everybody else; for the Alpine
+horn would sound at the earliest dawn to waken the sleepers to see the
+sunrise.
+
+"Mamsie," cried Polly, raising her head suddenly as she cuddled into
+bed, "supposing we shouldn't hear that horn--just supposing it! Oh,
+can't I stay awake? Do let me, Mamsie."
+
+"Your Grandfather has made arrangements for us all to be called," said
+Mrs. Fisher, "so we won't have to depend on the horn, and now you must
+go to sleep just as fast as ever you can. Then you'll be as bright as a
+button in the morning, Polly."
+
+"Mamsie," said Polly, "I don't think Grandpapa has kept from doing
+anything he could to make us happy, do you, Mamsie? not a single thing."
+
+"No," said Mother Fisher, "I don't, Polly."
+
+
+
+
+XXII
+
+POLLY TRIES TO HELP
+
+
+"Mamsie, what shall we do?" Polly clasped her hands in despair, and
+looked down on Phronsie, sleeping away as if she meant to take her own
+time to wake up, regardless of sunrise on the Rigi. "O dear me, and she
+went to bed so early last night on purpose."
+
+"You go right along, Polly," said Mother Fisher. "Put on your golf cape
+over your jacket, child, it's dreadfully cold out there. I shall stay
+with Phronsie, for of course we wouldn't leave her alone with Matilda,
+and all go off for a nice time."
+
+"No, of course not," cried Polly, in horror at the mere thought.
+
+"And she's in such a nice sleep and so warm, that it's a pity to wake
+her up," finished Mrs. Fisher.
+
+"O dear me," cried Polly, in distress, "I'd rather stay, Mamsie, and
+have you go."
+
+"No," said Mrs. Fisher, firmly, "I shall stay, so that is all there is
+about it, Polly. Now run along, child, and tell Matilda to hurry out
+too, for she wants to see the sunrise."
+
+Polly still lingered, until her mother looked up in surprise. "Why,
+Polly," she said, reprovingly.
+
+"O dear me!" exclaimed Polly, "I didn't mean to disobey, Mamsie, I
+really didn't; I'll go." And setting a kiss on Mother Fisher's black
+hair, she ran out on unsteady feet, and with all her comfort gone.
+
+When she joined her group it would have been rather hard to distinguish
+any of them, as everybody was wrapped up in shawls and rugs, if Jasper
+hadn't been a sort of scout in waiting for her and Mrs. Fisher and
+Phronsie. And Tom could easily be picked out, for he hung around in
+Jasper's wake, and besides, he was so very big.
+
+"Where are they?" asked Jasper, looking down the corridor back of her.
+
+"Oh, Mamsie isn't coming, nor Phronsie either, for she's asleep. And
+Mamsie made me come," finished Polly, dismally.
+
+"O dear me," said Jasper, quite gone in sympathy. Tom Selwyn poked his
+head forward to hear, but, as it was something quite beyond his powers
+to help, he thrust his hands into his pockets, and kicked aimlessly on
+the floor.
+
+"Well, come on, Polly," said Jasper, wishing he could lift the gloom
+from Polly's face, and feeling quite dismal himself.
+
+Little Dr. Fisher, muffled up in a big plaid shawl so that only his
+spectacles gleamed in between the folds and his cap, suddenly edged up
+back of Polly, and dropped the folds away from his ears so that he
+could hear what was going on. And when the group hurried out of the
+door, into the cold gray dawn, he was skipping down to his wife's room,
+in the liveliest way imaginable.
+
+Old Mr. King had gone on ahead with the parson, as he couldn't scramble
+so fast. And now he met them with, "Well, are you all here--where's
+Phronsie?"
+
+"Oh, Jasper, I can't tell him," gasped Polly, up on the tiptop bunch of
+rocks, and trying to be glad of the promise of the beautiful sunrise to
+come, for everybody agreed that it was apparently to be the best one
+that had gladdened the hearts of travellers for years. Then she whirled
+around and stared with all her might, "If there isn't Mamsie coming!"
+
+"As true as you live it is!" cried Jasper, with a good look, and
+springing down the rocks to help her up. Tom Selwyn plunged after him,
+getting there first. So in the bustle, nobody answered Mr. King. And
+he, supposing from the merry chatter that Phronsie was in the midst of
+it, concluded it best not to interrupt their fun, even if he could make
+them hear.
+
+"Your father made me come, Polly," said Mrs. Fisher, coming up between
+the two boys. "But I'd so much rather that he saw it." And her downcast
+face looked so very much like Polly, that Jasper thought matters hadn't
+bettered themselves any.
+
+"But, Mamsie," said Polly, creeping up to her with all the comfort she
+could, "it makes him happy, just as it made you happy to have me go."
+
+"I know it," said Mother Fisher, with a sigh, "but he has so few
+pleasures, Polly, and he works so hard." And her gaze wandered off to
+the distant clouds, slowly beginning to break away.
+
+Polly held her breath as they waited and looked, although her heart was
+sad when the wee little streak of light began to come over in the east.
+
+"Isn't that just beautiful!" exclaimed Jasper, trying to enjoy it as
+much as he had expected; "see, Polly, the stars seem going
+out--daylight's coming!"
+
+"I know," said Polly, "so it is." Sure enough, a little strip of gold
+touched up the leaden sky, and spread slowly.
+
+"See, it's turning pink." Mrs. Selwyn's plain, quiet face glowed. "See,
+Polly, look at that peak bathed in colour."
+
+Just then a little voice said, "Oh, isn't that beautiful!" And whirling
+around on her rock, Polly saw little Dr. Fisher staggering along with a
+big bundle in his arms, out of which was peering Phronsie's face.
+
+Mother Fisher had turned too. "Oh, Adoniram!" was all she said, as
+Polly sprang off to meet them.
+
+"Give her to me," cried Tom Selwyn, of course reaching there first,
+before either Polly or Jasper; and before Dr. Fisher quite knew how,
+Phronsie was perched on the broad shoulder, and Tom was prancing up the
+rocky path as easily as if a bird had lighted on his arm.
+
+"She woke up, luckily," said little Dr. Fisher, "and she's bundled up
+so there isn't a chance of her taking cold. Wife, this is grand!" He
+gained her side, and drew her hand under the big shawl.
+
+"You've come just in time," cried Polly, skipping around on her rock to
+the imminent danger of falling on her nose, and varying the exercises
+by cuddling Phronsie's toes, done up in a big bundle.
+
+"I declare if Papa Fisher hasn't tied them up in one of the blankets,"
+she announced merrily.
+
+"A blanket is just as good as anything when the sunrise is waiting for
+you," said the little doctor, coolly.
+
+"Isn't it!" cried Polly, back at him, happily. "Oh--oh!"
+
+Everybody echoed, "Oh-oh!" then stood hushed to silence. A rosy blush
+spread from peak to peak, and all the shadows fell away. Everything
+below, towns, villages, lakes, and forests, stood out in the clear cold
+dawn, and at last the sun burst forth in all his glory.
+
+"I'm so glad that people don't chatter," said Polly, when at last they
+turned away, for the swift clouds had shut it all out. "Did you see
+Phronsie's face, Jasper, when that light burst out?"
+
+"Yes, and father's," answered Jasper. "I expect he'd been looking for
+her; everybody is so bundled up you can hardly find your best friend.
+And then he saw her."
+
+"Yes, and she saw him and called him," said Polly, "didn't you hear
+her?"
+
+"Didn't I, though?" said Jasper; "who could help it? Wasn't father
+pleased when he got up to us, Tom, to think you had Phronsie in such
+good shape? Phronsie, you're in luck," pinching as much of her toes as
+the bundle of blanket would allow; "you've got the best place of any of
+us, up on that perch."
+
+"I like it," said Phronsie, in grave delight, "very much, indeed,"
+surveying them out of the depths of the shawl, "and I wish it needn't
+stop."
+
+"Well, it must," said Polly, with a sigh. "Dear me, see those people
+run."
+
+"Well, it's cold," said Jasper; "let's you and I race to the hotel,
+Polly."
+
+"And the show is over," said Tom, "why shouldn't they run?" as Jasper
+and Polly set off, and he strode after, getting there nearly as soon.
+
+An hour later, Polly, who couldn't get to sleep again, for a nap before
+breakfast, went out to the little balcony window just outside her door,
+where she might sit and write in her journal, and meantime catch any
+chance view that the grey scudding clouds might afford. In this way she
+strove to work off the impatience possessing her for the beautiful hour
+to come after breakfast. "I can hardly believe it now," she thought,
+and she gave herself a little pinch to see if she were really awake;
+"it seems too good to be true to think that the great Professor
+Bauricke is actually going to tell me how to learn to play well!"
+
+"Say," a voice struck upon her ear, "oh, I'm in the most awful
+distress."
+
+Polly clapped her book to, and looked up.
+
+"O dear, dear!" It was a tall, spare woman with a face that had
+something about it like Grandma Bascom's. It must have been the
+cap-frills flapping around her cheeks.
+
+"What can I do for you?" asked Polly, springing up. "Oh, do take my
+chair and sit down and tell me about it."
+
+"Oh, will you help me? The land! I couldn't set when I'm in such
+trouble," declared the old woman. "My senses, I should fly off the
+handle!" Polly, feeling that she was in the presence of some dreadful
+calamity, stood quite still. "You see, me and my sister--she's in
+highstrikes now in there." The old woman tossed her head to indicate a
+room further down the hall, whereat the cap-frills flapped wilder than
+ever. "Bein' as it belonged to both of us, she feels as bad as I do,
+but as I was the one that lost it, why it stands to reason I've got to
+shake around and get it again. Say, will you help me? You've got a pair
+of bright eyes as ever I see in a head; and what's the good of 'em if
+you can't help in trouble like this?"
+
+Polly, feeling that her eyes would never forgive her if she didn't let
+them help on such an occasion, promised.
+
+"What is it you have lost?" she asked.
+
+"Don't you know?" cried the old woman, impatiently. "Mercy me! how many
+times shall I tell you? My buzzom pin; it was took of Pa when he was a
+young man and awful handsome, and I didn't want to leave it in the room
+when we went out, cause somebody might get in, and they'd be sure to
+want it, so I pinned it on my nightcap strings and it's gone, and I
+a-gallivanting round on them rocks, a-looking at the sunrise, and I can
+see that to home all I want to. I must have been crazy."
+
+"Oh, I see; and you want me to go out and help you look for it," said
+Polly, her brow clearing.
+
+"Of course," assented the old woman, impatiently. "Land, your
+intellects ain't as bright as your eyes. My sakes!--how many times do
+you expect me to tell you? I've been a-looking and a-peeking
+everywhere, but my eyes are old, and I don't dare to tell any one to
+help me, for like enough they'd pick it up when I warn't seein', and
+slip Pa in their pocket, and I never'd see him again."
+
+Polly, feeling, if Pa were slipped in a pocket and carried off, it
+would be a calamity indeed, said heartily, "I'll get my jacket and cap
+and come right out."
+
+"She looks honest; I guess I hain't done no harm to tell her about our
+buzzom pin," said the old woman to herself as Polly disappeared. Mamsie
+being asleep, Polly could say nothing to her, but feeling that she
+would allow it if she knew, she threw on her things and ran out to meet
+the old woman, with a shawl tied over her nightcap and a big long cape
+on.
+
+"I tell you she's in highstrikes," said the old woman, going down the
+hall. "That's our room, 37, an' I've seen you an' your folks goin' by,
+so I feel in some ways acquainted. An' if I don't find Pa, I'll be
+flabbergasted myself."
+
+"Do let us hurry," said Polly, her mind now only on Pa. So they went
+down the stairs and out by the door and up the rocky path just where
+the old woman said she and sister Car'line took when they went out to
+see the sunrise.
+
+"An' I wish we'd kept in bed," ejaculated Polly's companion. "I most
+lost my teeth out, they chattered so; and so did Car'line hers. But
+that wouldn't 'a' been nothin' to losin' Pa, cause we could 'a' got
+more teeth; but how could we 'a' got him took when he was nineteen and
+so handsome? There! here we stopped, just at this identical spot!"
+
+"Well, I think we shall find it," said Polly, consolingly. "How did the
+pin look?" she asked, for the first time remembering to ask, and
+beginning to poke around in the crevices.
+
+"My land sakes! I never see such a girl for wanting to be told over and
+over," exclaimed the old woman, irritably, picking up first one ample
+gaiter and then another to warm her cold toes in her hands. "Haven't I
+told you he was awful handsome? Well, he had on his blue coat and big
+brass buttons for one thing, an' his shirt front was ruffled. And--"
+
+"Was it gold around it?" asked Polly, poking away busily.
+
+"Gold? I guess it was; and there was dents in it, where Car'line an' I
+bit into it when we were babies, 'cause mother give it to us when our
+teeth was comin'--'twas better'n a chicken bone, she said."
+
+"Oh," said Polly.
+
+"Well, now you know," said Car'line's sister, "an' don't for mercy's
+sakes ask any more useless questions. I'm most sorry I brung you."
+
+"I might go down and get the boys, Jasper and Tom--they'd love to
+help," said Polly, feeling that she was very much out of place, and
+there was no hope of finding Pa under the circumstances.
+
+The old woman clutched her arm and held her fast. "Don't you say a
+single word about any boys," she commanded. "I hate boys," she
+exploded, "they're the worry of our lives, Car'line and mine,--they get
+into our garden, and steal all our fruit, and they hang on behind our
+chaise when we ride out, and keep me a-lookin' round an' slashin' the
+whip at 'em the whole livelong time; O my--_boys!_"
+
+"What in the world is Polly Pepper doing up on those rocks?" cried
+Jasper, just spying her. "Come on, Tom, and let's see." And they seized
+their caps, and buttoned their jackets against the wind which had just
+sprung up, and dashed off to see for themselves.
+
+"Ugh--you go right away!" screamed Car'line's sister, as their heads
+appeared over the point of rocks, and shaking both hands fiercely at
+them.
+
+"Whew!" whistled Jasper, with his eyes in surprise on Polly.
+
+"And what old party are you?" demanded Tom, finding it easy to talk to
+her, as she was by no means a girl. "And do you own this mountain,
+anyway?"
+
+"Oh, don't," begged Polly. "And Jasper, if you would go away, please,
+and not ask any questions."
+
+"All right," said Jasper, swallowing his disappointment not to know.
+"Come on, Tom, Polly doesn't want us here."
+
+"An' I won't have you here," screamed the old woman, harder than ever.
+"So get away as soon as you can. Why, you are boys!"
+
+"I know it." Tom bobbed his head at her. "We've always been, ma'am."
+
+"An' boys are good for nothing, an' lazy, an' thieves--yes, I wouldn't
+trust 'em." So she kept on as they hurried back over the rocky path.
+
+"That's a tiger for you!" ejaculated Tom. Then he stopped and looked
+back a little anxiously. "Aren't you afraid to leave Polly with her?"
+
+"No," said Jasper; "it would trouble Polly to have us stay." Yet he
+stopped and looked anxious too. "We will wait here."
+
+And after a while, down came the two searchers--the old woman quite
+beside herself now, and scolding every bit of the way,--"that she
+didn't see what bright eyes were for when they couldn't find
+anything--an' now that Pa'd gone sliding down that mountain, they might
+as well give up, she an' Car'line"--when a sudden turn in the path
+brought the boys into view waiting behind the rocks. Then all her fury
+burst upon them.
+
+"See here, now," cried Tom, suddenly squaring up to her and looking at
+the face between the nodding cap-frills, "we are ready to take a
+certain amount of abuse, my friend and I, but we won't stand more, I
+can tell you."
+
+"Oh, don't," began Polly, clasping her hands. "Oh, Tom, _please_ keep
+still. She doesn't know what she's saying, for she's lost her pin with
+her father on."
+
+"Hey?" cried Jasper. "Say it again, Polly," while Tom shouted and
+roared all through Polly's recital.
+
+"Was it an old fright with a long nose in a blue coat and ruffles, and
+as big as a turnip?" he asked between the shouts. While Polly tried to
+say, "Yes, I guess so," and Miss Car'line's sister so far overcame her
+aversion to boys as to seize him by the arm, Tom shook her off like a
+feather. "See here, old party," he cried, "that ancient pin of yours is
+reposing in the hotel office at this blessed moment. Jasper and I,"
+indicating his friend, "ran across it on the rocks up there more than
+an hour ago, and--"
+
+"Oh, Pa's found!" exclaimed the old woman, in a shrill scream of
+delight, beginning to trot down to the hotel office.
+
+"Yes, it would have been impossible for Pa to have got off this
+mountain without making a landslide," said Tom, after her.
+
+
+
+
+XXIII
+
+IN THE SHADOW OF THE MATTERHORN
+
+
+They had been days at dear Interlaken, walking up and down the
+_Hoheweg_, of which they never tired, or resting on the benches under
+the plane and walnut trees opposite their hotel, just sitting still to
+gaze their fill upon the _Jungfrau_. This was best of all--so Polly and
+Jasper thought; and Phronsie was content to pass hour after hour there,
+by Grandpapa's side, and imagine all sorts of pretty pictures and
+stories in and about the snow-clad heights of the majestic mountain.
+
+And the throng of gaily dressed people sojourning in the big hotels,
+and the stream of tourists, passed and repassed, with many a curious
+glance at the stately, white-haired old gentleman and the little
+yellow-haired girl by his side.
+
+"A perfect beauty!" exclaimed more than one matron, with a sigh for her
+ugly girls by her side or left at home.
+
+"She's stunning, and no mistake!" Many a connoisseur in feminine
+loveliness turned for a last look, or passed again for the same purpose.
+
+"Grandpapa," Phronsie prattled on, "that looks just like a little tent
+up there--a little white tent; doesn't it, Grandpapa dear?"
+
+"Yes, Phronsie," said Grandpapa, happily, just as he would have said
+"Yes, Phronsie," if she had pointed out any other object in the snowy
+outline.
+
+"And there's a cunning little place where you and I could creep into
+the tent," said Phronsie, bending her neck like a meditative bird. "And
+I very much wish we could, Grandpapa dear."
+
+"We'd find it pretty cold in there," said Grandpapa, "and wish we were
+back here on this nice seat, Phronsie."
+
+"What makes it so cold up there, Grandpapa, when the sun shines?" asked
+Phronsie, suddenly. "Say, Grandpapa, what makes it?"
+
+"Oh, it's so far up in the air," answered old Mr. King. "Don't you
+remember how cold it was up on the Rigi, and that was about nine
+thousand feet lower?"
+
+"Oh, Grandpapa!" exclaimed Phronsie, in gentle surprise, unable to
+compass such figures.
+
+Mr. King's party had made one or two pleasant little journeys to the
+Lauterbrunnen Valley, staying there and at Mürren, and to Grindelwald
+as well; but they came back to sit on the benches by the walnut and the
+plane trees, in front of the matchless Jungfrau. "And this is best of
+all," said Polly.
+
+And so the days slipped by, till one morning, at the breakfast table,
+Mrs. Selwyn said, "Tomorrow we must say good-by--my boy and I."
+
+"Hey--what?" exclaimed Mr. King, setting his coffee-cup down, not very
+gently.
+
+"Our vacation cannot be a very long one," said Tom's mother, with a
+little smile; "there are my father and my two daughters and my other
+boys in England."
+
+Tom's face was all awry as Mr. King said, "And you mean to say, Mrs.
+Selwyn, that you really must move on to-morrow?"
+
+"Yes; we really must," she said decidedly. "But oh," and her plain,
+quiet face changed swiftly, "you cannot know how sorry we shall be to
+leave your party."
+
+"In that case, Mrs. Fisher,"--old Mr. King looked down the table-length
+to Mamsie,--"we must go too; for I don't intend to lose sight of these
+nice travelling companions until I am obliged to." Tom's face was one
+big smile. "Oh, goody!" exclaimed Polly, as if she were no older than
+Phronsie.
+
+Jasper clapped Tom's back, instead of wasting words.
+
+"So we will all proceed to pack up without more ado after breakfast.
+After all, it is wiser to make the move now, for we are getting so that
+we want to take root in each place."
+
+"You just wait till you get to Zermatt," whispered Polly to Phronsie,
+who, under cover of the talk buzzing around the table, had confided to
+her that she didn't want to leave her beautiful mountain. "Grandpapa is
+going to take us up to the Gorner Grat, and there you can see another
+mountain,--oh, so near! he says it seems almost as if you could touch
+it. And it's all covered with snow, Phronsie, too!"
+
+"Is it as big as my mountain here?" asked Phronsie.
+
+"Yes, bigger, a thousand feet or more," answered Polly, glad that she
+had looked it up.
+
+"Is it?" said Phronsie. "Every mountain is bigger, isn't it, Polly?"
+
+"It seems to be," said Polly, with a little laugh.
+
+"And has it a little white tent on the side, just like my mountain
+here?" asked Phronsie, holding Polly's arm as she turned off to catch
+the chatter of the others.
+
+"Oh, I suppose so," answered Polly, carelessly. Then she looked up and
+caught Mamsie's eye, and turned back quickly. "At any rate, Phronsie,
+it's all peaked on the top--oh, almost as sharp as a needle--and it
+seems to stick right into the blue sky, and there are lots and lots of
+other mountains--oh, awfully high,--and the sun shines up there a good
+deal, and it's too perfectly lovely for anything, Phronsie Pepper."
+
+"Then I want to go," decided Phronsie. "I do so want to see that white
+needle, Polly."
+
+"Well, eat your breakfast," said Polly, "because you know we all have
+ever so much to do to-day to get off."
+
+"Yes, I will," declared Phronsie, attacking her cold chicken and roll
+with great vigour.
+
+"It seems as if the whole world were at Zermatt," said the parson,
+looking out from the big piazza crowded with the hotel people, out to
+the road in front, with every imaginable tourist passing and repassing.
+Donkeys were being driven up, either loaded down to their utmost with
+heavy bags and trunks, or else waiting to receive on their patient
+backs the heavier people. Phronsie never could see the poor animals,
+without such distress coming in her face that every one in the party
+considered it his or her bounden duty to comfort and reassure her. So
+this time it was Tom's turn to do so.
+
+"Oh, don't you worry," he said, looking down into her troubled little
+face where he sat on the piazza railing swinging his long legs, "they
+like it, those donkeys do!"
+
+"Do they?" asked Phronsie, doubtfully.
+
+"Yes, indeed," said Tom, with a gusto, as if he wished he were a
+donkey, and in just that very spot, "it gives them a chance to see
+things, and to hear things, too, don't you know?" went on Tom, at his
+wits' end to know how he was going to come out of his sentences.
+
+"Oh," said Phronsie, yet she sighed as she saw the extremely fat person
+just being hauled up to a position on a very small donkey's back.
+
+"You see, if they don't like it," said Tom, digging his knife savagely
+into the railing, "they have a chance to kick up their heels and
+unsettle that heavy party."
+
+"O dear me!" exclaimed Phronsie, in great distress, "that would hurt
+the poor woman, Tom."
+
+"Well, it shows that the donkey likes it," said Tom, with a laugh,
+"because he doesn't kick up his heels."
+
+"And so," ran on Tom, "why, we mustn't worry, you and I, if the donkey
+doesn't. Just think,"--he made a fine diversion by pointing with his
+knife-blade up to the slender spire of the Matterhorn--"we're going up
+on a little jaunt to-morrow, to look into that fellow's face."
+
+Phronsie got out of her chair to come and stand by his side. "I like
+that white needle," she said, with a gleeful smile. "Polly said it was
+nice, and I like it."
+
+"I should say it was," declared Tom, with a bob of his head. "Phronsie,
+I'd give, I don't know what, if I could climb up there." He thrust his
+knife once more into the railing, where it stuck fast.
+
+"Don't." begged Phronsie, her hand on his sleeve, "go up that big white
+needle, Tom."
+
+"No, I won't; it's safe to promise that," he said grimly, with a little
+laugh. "Good reason why; because I can't. The little mother wouldn't
+sleep nights just to think of it, and I promised the granddaddy that I
+wouldn't so much as think of it, and here I am breaking my word; but I
+can't help it." He twitched his knife out suddenly, sprawled off from
+the railing, and took several hasty strides up and down the piazza.
+
+"Well, that's all right, Phronsie," he said, coming back to get astride
+the railing again; this time he turned a cold shoulder on Phronsie's
+"white needle." "Now, to-morrow, we'll have no end of fun." And he
+launched forth on so many and so varied delights, that Phronsie's
+pleased little laugh rang out again and again, bringing rest to many a
+wearied traveller, tired with the sights, sounds, and scenes of a
+European journey.
+
+"I wish we could stay at this nice place," said Phronsie, the next
+morning, poking her head out over the side of the car, as it climbed
+off from the Riffelalp station.
+
+"Take care, child," said Grandpapa, with a restraining hand.
+
+"You would want to stop at every place," said Polly, from the seat in
+front, with a gay little laugh. "And we never should get on at that
+rate. But then I am just as bad," she confessed.
+
+"So am I," chimed in Jasper. "Dear me, how I wanted to get a chance to
+sketch some of those magnificent curves and rapids and falls in the
+Visp River coming up."
+
+"Oh, that dear, delicious Visp River!" echoed Polly, while Adela began
+to bemoan that it was the best thing they had seen, and the car whizzed
+them by so fast, she couldn't do a thing--O dear!
+
+"I got some snap-shots, but I don't believe they are good for
+anything," said Jasper, "just from the pure perversity of the thing."
+
+"Take my advice," said Tom, lazily leaning forward, "and don't bother
+with a camera anyway."
+
+"As if you expected any one to take up with such a piece of advice,"
+ejaculated Jasper, in high disdain. "Say something better than that,
+Tom, if you want to be heard."
+
+"Oh, I don't expect to be heard, or listened to in the slightest," he
+said calmly. "Anybody who will trot round with a kodak hanging to his
+neck by a villanous strap--can't be--"
+
+"Who's got a villanous strap hanging to his neck?" cried Jasper, while
+the rest shouted as he picked at the fern-box thus hanging to Tom.
+
+"Oh, that's quite a different thing," declared Tom, his face growing
+red.
+
+"I know; one is a kodak, and the other is a fern-box," said Jasper,
+nodding. "I acknowledge they are different," and they all burst out
+laughing again.
+
+"Well, at least," said Tom, joining in the laugh, "you must
+acknowledge, too, that I go off by myself and pick up my wild flowers
+and green things, and I'm not bothering round focussing every living
+thing and pointing my little machine at every freak in nature that I
+see."
+
+"All right," said Jasper, good-naturedly, "but you have the strap round
+your neck all the same, Tom."
+
+And Phronsie wanted to stay at the Riffelberg just as much; and old Mr.
+King was on the point of saying, "Well, we'll come up here for a few
+days, Phronsie," when he remembered Mrs. Selwyn and her boy, and how
+they must get on. Instead, he cleared his throat, and said, "We shall
+see it after dinner, child," and Phronsie smiled, well contented.
+
+But when she reached the Corner Grat station, and took Grandpapa's
+hand, and began to ascend the bridle path to the hotel, she couldn't
+contain herself, and screamed right out, "Oh, Grandpapa, I'd rather
+stay here."
+
+"It _is_ beautiful, isn't it?" echoed old Mr. King, feeling twenty
+years younger since he started on his travels. "Well, well, child, I'm
+glad you like it," looking down into her beaming little face.
+
+"You are very much to be envied, sir. I can't help speaking to you and
+telling you so," said a tall, sober-looking gentleman, evidently an
+English curate off on his vacation, as he caught up with him on the
+ascent, where they had paused at one of the look-offs, "for having that
+child as company, and those other young people."
+
+"You say the truth," replied old Mr. King, cordially; "from the depths
+of my heart I pity any one who hasn't some children to take along when
+going abroad. But then they wouldn't be little Peppers," he added,
+under his breath, as he bowed and turned back to the view.
+
+"There's dear Monte Rosa," cried Polly, enthusiastically. "Oh, I just
+love her."
+
+"And there's Castor and Pollux," said Jasper.
+
+"And there's the whole of them," said Tom, disposing of the entire
+range with a sweep of his hand. "Dear me, what a lot there are, to be
+sure. It quite tires one."
+
+"Oh, anybody but a cold-blooded Englishman!" exclaimed Jasper, with a
+mischievous glance, "to travel with."
+
+"Anything on earth but a gushing American!" retorted Tom, "to go round
+the world with."
+
+"I wish I could sketch a glacier," bemoaned Adela, stopping every
+minute or two, as they wound around the bridle path, "but I can't; I've
+tried ever so many times."
+
+"Wait till we get to the _Mer de Glace_," advised Tom. "You can sit
+down in the middle of it, and sketch away all you want to."
+
+"Well, I'm going to," said Adela, with sudden determination. "I don't
+care; you can all laugh if you want to."
+
+"You can sketch us all," suggested Jasper, "for we shall have horrible
+old stockings on."
+
+"I sha'n't have horrible old stockings on," said Adela, in a dudgeon,
+sticking out her foot. "I wear just the same stockings that I do at
+home, at school in Paris, and they are quite nice."
+
+"Oh, I mean you'll have to put on coarse woollen ones that the peasant
+women knit on purpose,--we all shall have to do the same, on over our
+shoes," explained Jasper.
+
+"O dear me!" cried Adela, in dismay.
+
+"And I think we shall slip and slide a great deal worse with those
+things tied on our feet, than to go without any," said Polly, wrinkling
+up her brows at the idea.
+
+"'Twouldn't be safe to go without them," said Jasper, shaking his head,
+"unless we had nails driven in our shoes."
+
+"I'd much rather have the nails," cried Polly, "oh, much rather,
+Jasper."
+
+"Well, we'll see what father is going to let us do," said Jasper.
+
+"Wasn't that fun snowballing--just think--in July," cried Polly,
+craning her neck to look back down the path toward the Riffelberg
+station.
+
+"Did you pick up some of that snow?" asked Adela.
+
+"Didn't we, though!" exclaimed Jasper. "I got quite a good bit in my
+fist."
+
+"My ball was such a little bit of a one," mourned Polly; "I scraped up
+all I could, but it wasn't much."
+
+"Well, it did good execution," said Tom; "I got it in my eye."
+
+"Oh, did it hurt you?" cried Polly, in distress, running across the
+path to walk by his side.
+
+"Not a bit," said Tom. "I tried to find some to pay you back, and then
+we had to fly for the cars."
+
+The plain, quiet face under the English bonnet turned to Mrs. Fisher as
+they walked up the path together. "I cannot begin to tell you what
+gratitude I am under to you," said Tom's mother, "and to all of you.
+When I think of my father, I am full of thankfulness. When I look at my
+boy, the goodness of God just overcomes me in leading me to your party.
+May I tell you of ourselves some time, when a good opportunity offers
+for a quiet talk?"
+
+"I'd like nothing better," said Mother Fisher, heartily. "If there is
+one person I like more than another, who isn't of our family, or any of
+our home friends, it's Mrs. Selwyn," she had confided to the little
+doctor just a few days before. "She hasn't any nonsense about her, if
+she is an earl's daughter."
+
+"Earl's daughter," sniffed the little doctor, trying to slip a collar
+button into a refractory binding. "Dear me, now that's gone--no,
+'tisn't--that's luck," as the button rolled off into a corner of the
+bureau-top where it was easily captured.
+
+"Let me do that for you, Adoniram," said Mother Fisher, coming up to
+help him.
+
+"I guess you'll have to, wife, if it's done at all," he answered,
+resigning himself willingly to her hands; "the thing slips and slides
+like all possessed. Well, now, I was going to say that I wouldn't hate
+a title so much, if there was a grain of common sense went along with
+it. And that Mrs. Selwyn just saves the whole lot of English nobility,
+and makes 'em worth speaking to, in my opinion."
+
+And after they had their dinner, and were scattered in groups in the
+bright sunshine, sitting on the wooden benches by the long tables, or
+taking photographs, or watching through the big glass some mountain
+climbers on one of the snowy spurs of the Matterhorn, "the good
+opportunity for a quiet talk" came about.
+
+"Now," said Mother Fisher, with a great satisfaction in her voice, "may
+we sit down here on this bench, Mrs. Selwyn, and have that talk?"
+
+Tom's mother sat down well pleased, and folding her hands in her lap,
+this earl's daughter, mistress of a dozen languages, as well as
+mistress of herself on all occasions, began as simply and with as much
+directness as a child.
+
+"Well, you know my father. Let me tell you, aside from the
+eccentricities, that are mere outside matters, and easily explained, if
+you understood the whole of his life, a kinder man never lived, nor a
+more reasonable one. But it was a misfortune that he had to be left so
+much alone, as since my mother's death a dozen years ago has happened.
+It pained me much." A shadow passed over her brow, but it was gone
+again, and she smiled, and her eyes regained their old placid look. "I
+live in Australia with my husband, where my duty is, putting the boys
+as fast as they were old enough, and the little girls as well, into
+English schools. But Tom has always been with my father at the
+vacations, for he is his favourite, as of course was natural, for he is
+the eldest. And though you might not believe it, Mrs. Fisher, my father
+was always passionately fond of the boy."
+
+"I do believe it," said Mother Fisher, quietly, and she put her hand
+over the folded ones. Mrs. Selwyn unclasped hers, soft and white, to
+draw within them the toil-worn one.
+
+"Now, that's comfortable," she said, with another little smile.
+
+"And here is where his eccentricity became the most dangerous to the
+peace of mind of our family," continued Mrs. Selwyn. "My father seemed
+never able to discover that he was doing the lad harm by all sorts of
+indulgence and familiarity with him, a sort of hail-fellow-well-met way
+that surprised me more than I can express, when I discovered it on my
+last return visit to my old home. My father! who never tolerated
+anything but respect from all of us, who were accustomed to despotic
+government, I can assure you, was allowing Tom!--well, you were with
+him on the steamer," she broke off abruptly. The placid look was gone
+again in a flash.
+
+"Yes," said Mother Fisher, her black eyes full of sympathy; "don't let
+that trouble you, dear Mrs. Selwyn; Tom was pure gold down
+underneath--we saw that--and the rest is past."
+
+"Ah,"--the placid look came back as quickly--"that is my only
+comfort--that you did. For father told the whole, not sparing himself.
+Now he sees things in the right light; he says because your young
+people taught it to him. And he was cruelly disappointed because you
+couldn't come down to visit him in his home."
+
+"We couldn't," said Mother Fisher, in a sorry voice, at seeing the
+other face.
+
+"I understand--quite," said Tom's mother, with a gentle pressure of the
+hand she held. "And then the one pleasure he had was in picking out
+something for Polly."
+
+"Oh, if the little red leather case _had_ gone back to the poor old
+man!" ran through Mother Fisher's mind, possessing it at once.
+
+"I don't think his judgment was good, Mrs. Fisher, in the selection,"
+said Mrs. Selwyn, a small pink spot coming on either cheek; "but he
+loves Polly, and wanted to show it."
+
+"And he was so good to think of it," cried Mother Fisher, her heart
+warming more and more toward the little old earl.
+
+"And as he couldn't be turned from it, and his health is precarious if
+he is excited, why, there was nothing to be done about it. And then he
+insisted that Tom and I come off for a bit of a run on the Continent,
+the other children being with him. And as my big boy"--here a loving
+smile went all over the plain face, making it absolutely
+beautiful--"had worried down deep in his heart over the past, till I
+was more troubled than I can tell you, why, we came. And then God was
+good--for then we met you! Oh, Mrs. Fisher!"
+
+She drew her hands by a sudden movement away, and put them on Mother
+Fisher's shoulders. And then that British matron, rarely demonstrative
+with her own children, even, leaned over and kissed Polly's mother.
+
+"I can't see why it's so warm up here," said Polly, racing over to
+their bench, followed by the others. "Dear me, it's fairly hot." And
+she pulled off her jacket.
+
+"Don't do that, Polly," said her mother.
+
+"Oh, Mamsie, it's so very hot," said Polly; but she thrust her arms
+into the sleeves and pulled it on again.
+
+"I know; but you've been running," said Mrs. Fisher, "and have gotten
+all heated up."
+
+"Well, it's perfectly splendid to travel to places where we can run and
+race," said Polly, in satisfaction, throwing herself down on the rocks.
+The others all doing the same thing, Mr. King and the Parson and Mrs.
+Henderson found them, and pretty soon the group was a big one. "Well,
+well, we are all here together, no--where is Mrs. Gray?" asked Mr.
+King, presently.
+
+"She is resting in the hotel," said Mother Fisher, "fast asleep I think
+by this time."
+
+"Yes," said Adela, "she is. I just peeked in on her, and she hasn't
+moved where you tucked her up on the lounge."
+
+"Grandpapa," asked Polly, suddenly, from the centre of the group, "what
+makes it so very warm up here, when we are all surrounded by snow?"
+
+"You ask me a hard thing," said old Mr. King. "Well, for one thing, we
+are very near the Italian border; those peaks over there, you
+know,--follow my walking-stick as I point it,--are in sunny Italy."
+
+"Well, it is just like sunny Italy up here," said Polly, "I think,"
+blinking, and pulling her little cap over her eyes.
+
+"It's all the Italy you will get in the summer season," said Grandpapa.
+"You must wait for cold weather before I take one of you there."
+
+
+
+
+XXIV
+
+THE ROUND ROBIN
+
+
+"Dear me, how the summer is going!" mourned Polly, as they caught on
+the return journey the last glimpse of the roaring, tumbling Visp, and
+not all the craning of the necks could compass another view, as the
+cars drew them away from the rushing river.
+
+"Never mind, Polly," said Jasper, "there's all next summer; and after
+our winter in Dresden, and all our hard work over music, won't it be
+fine, though, to jaunt round again?" and his eyes glistened.
+
+"Dresden!" echoed Polly, sitting quite straight with very red
+cheeks;--"oh, Jasper!"
+
+The magic word, "Dresden," had unlocked visions of months of future
+delight, bringing back every word of dear Herr Bauricke; all the
+instruction he had given her, on those happy days at Lucerne, that
+Polly felt quite sure were engraven deep on her heart to last forever
+and ever.
+
+"And won't I study, though!" exclaimed Polly, to herself, "and make the
+professor that Herr Bauricke has engaged for me, glad that he teaches
+me, oh, won't I!"
+
+"Well, I'm sorry the summer is going," said Adela, "because then I've
+got to leave you at Paris, and go into school."
+
+"But you like your school," said Polly, brightly, "you've said so a
+dozen times, Adela."
+
+"Yes, I do," said Adela, "and I've got some sketches to take back, and
+Mademoiselle will be glad of that."
+
+"And you'll go on drawing and painting until you get to be a great
+artist," ran on Polly, enthusiastically, "and then we'll see something
+you've done, in the Louvre, maybe."
+
+"The Louvre!" cried Adela; "O dear me, Polly Pepper."
+
+"I don't care," said Polly, recklessly, pushing back the little rings
+of brown hair from her brow, "they'll be good enough, the pictures you
+are going to do, to put into the Louvre, anyway, Adela Gray."
+
+Tom Selwyn had been very sober during all this merry chatter; and now
+in his seat across the narrow aisle, he drummed his heels impatiently
+on the floor. His mother looked over at him, and slipping out of her
+seat, went over to him. "Any room here, Tom, for mother?" she said.
+
+"Oh,--ah,--I should say so!" Tom slipped out, gave her the window seat,
+then flew back.
+
+"Now, this is comfy," observed Mrs. Selwyn, as the train sped on. "Tom,
+see here!"
+
+"What's up, little mother?" asked Tom, in surprise, at her unusual
+manner.
+
+"It's just this, Tom. You know we are going to Chamonix and up the _Mer
+de Glace_ with Mr. King's party."
+
+Tom bobbed his head, not allowing himself to exclaim, "But that will be
+only a short journey, now, and we must soon say 'good-by.'"
+
+"Well, I've been thinking that I should like to go on to Geneva, and to
+Paris," continued Mrs. Selwyn, "only you dislike Paris so much, Tom,"
+she added.
+
+"Oh, you're the bulliest--I mean--excuse me--you're no end a brick--oh,
+I mean--I can't say what I mean," brought up Tom, in despair. And he
+ran one long arm around her neck very much to the detriment of her neat
+collar.
+
+"Then you can overcome your dislike to Paris enough to go there?" asked
+his mother, with a little twinkle in her eye.
+
+"My dislike!" roared Tom, "O dear me!" as everybody looked around.
+"Why, I just love Paris!" he finished in an awful whisper, close to the
+plain, black bonnet.
+
+When the news was circulated, as it was pretty soon, that the party was
+not to be broken into at all till Paris was a completed story, the
+jubilation was such as to satisfy even Tom. And as this particular
+party had the car entirely to themselves, it wasn't so very dreadful as
+it seems, and the elder members allowed indulgent smiles at it all.
+
+That night in the market-place at Martigny, Jasper, who was ahead with
+his father, ran back to Polly, and the others lingering behind. "Oh, do
+hurry," he begged, "it's the prettiest sight!"
+
+"Oh, what is it?" cried Polly, as they scampered off.
+
+There, in the centre of the market-place, was a ring of little girls,
+hand-in-hand, singing a little French song, and going round and round
+in a circle. They were of all ages and sizes, the littlest one in a
+blue pinafore, being about three years of age, and so chubby she had to
+be helped along continually by a big girl, evidently her sister. This
+big sister stopped the ring game, every now and then, to kiss the round
+face by the side of her gown; an example that was followed by so many
+of the other girls, that the game seemed to be never quite finished.
+And once in a while, big sister would pick up the chubby, little,
+blue-pinafored maiden and carry her through a considerable portion of
+the game, then down she would put her on her two chubby feet, and away
+they all circled without any break in the proceedings at all.
+
+"Oh! isn't it 'Oats, Peas, Beans, and Barley grow'?" cried Polly, as
+they watched them intently.
+
+"Ever so much like it," said Tom. "See those boys; now they are going
+to make trouble."
+
+"Oh, they sha'n't!" declared Polly. "O dear me!" as one boy drew near,
+on the side next to the travellers, and watching his chance, picked at
+a flying apron or two. But the ring of girls paid no more attention to
+him, than they had to any other outside matters, being wholly absorbed
+in the game. So Polly and the others breathed freely again.
+
+But up came another boy. "O dear me!" cried Polly, aghast. When number
+three put in an appearance, she gave up all hope at once.
+
+"They're jealous chaps," cried Tom, "and are vexed because they can't
+get into the game! Hear them jeer!" And his long arm went out and
+picked a jacket-end of an urchin, who, incautiously regarding such
+quiet travellers as not worth minding, had hovered too near, while
+trying to tease the girls.
+
+"Here, you, sir," cried Tom, with a bit of a shake, and a torrent of
+remarkably good French not to be disregarded; then he burst into a
+laugh. And the urchin laughed too, thinking this much better fun to
+tussle with the tall lad, than to hang around a parcel of girls. And
+presently a woman came and took little blue pinafore off, and then the
+rest of the girls unclasped their hands, and the ring melted away, and
+the game was over.
+
+"I'm glad the girls over here have fun," said Polly, as Grandpapa and
+his party moved off. "Isn't it nice to think they do?"
+
+"It isn't much matter where you live, there's a good deal to be gotten
+out of life; if you only know how," said the parson, thinking busily of
+the little brown house.
+
+Two or three days of rest at Martigny put everybody in good shape, and
+gave them all a bit of time to pick up on many little things that were
+behindhand. Tom looked over all his floral treasures, with their last
+additions made at the Riffelalp, and discarded such as hadn't pressed
+well. And Jasper and Polly rushed up to date with their journals, and
+wrote letters home; and Adela worked up her studies and sketches.
+
+Tom looked on silently when Polly and Jasper were scraping their pens
+in a lively fashion in the little writing room of the hotel. "That's my
+third letter, Polly," announced Jasper, on the other side of the table.
+"Now, I am going to begin on Joel's."
+
+"One, two," said Polly, counting, "why, I thought I'd written three;
+well, this one is most finished, Jasper."
+
+"Yes," said Jasper, glancing over at her, "is that your last page,
+Polly?"
+
+"Yes," said Polly, hurrying away. Then she thought of what Mamsie had
+said, and slackened her speed.
+
+Tom cleared his throat, and tried to speak, but the words wouldn't come
+nicely, so he burst out, "I say, I wish you'd write to my granddaddy,
+both of you," and then he stood quite still, and very red in the face.
+
+Polly looked up quickly, her pen dropping from her fingers, and Jasper
+deserted his fourth letter and stared.
+
+"Why," said Polly, finding her tongue, "we wouldn't dare, Tom Selwyn."
+
+"Dare!" said Tom, delighted to think that no terrible result had really
+ensued from his words, that after they were out, had scared him
+mightily. "Oh, if you knew granddaddy!" And he sank into a chair by the
+table, and played with the heap of picture postal cards that Polly was
+going to address next.
+
+"We might," said Polly, slowly, "write a letter, all of us. A kind of a
+Round Robin thing, you know, and send that."
+
+"So we could," cried Jasper; "how would that do, Tom?"
+
+"The very thing!" exclaimed Tom, striking his hand so heavily on the
+table, that for a minute it looked as if the ink-bottle hopped.
+
+"Take care, there's no reason you should knock things over because you
+are overjoyed," cried Jasper, gaily. "Well, let's leave our letters
+to-day, Polly, and set to on the Round Robin."
+
+"All right," said Polly, glad to think there was anything she could
+really do to please the little old earl, "but would your mother like
+it, Tom?" She stopped slowly in putting her unfinished letter into the
+little writing-case, and looked at him.
+
+"If you think there's a shadow of doubt on that score, I'd best run and
+ask her now." Tom got himself out of the chair, and himself from the
+room, and in an incredibly short space of time, back there he was. "My
+mother says, 'Thank Polly for thinking of it; it will do father more
+good than anything else could possibly do.'"
+
+"I don't suppose you want any more answer," said Tom, quite radiant,
+and looking down at Polly.
+
+"No, only I didn't think first of it," said Polly, in a distressed
+little tone.
+
+"Why, Polly Pepper!" exclaimed Tom, "I certainly heard you say 'Round
+Robin,' when I'll venture to say not a soul of us had even thought of
+it; we certainly hadn't said so."
+
+"Well, you spoke of the letter first," said Polly, unwilling to take
+the credit for all the comfort going to the little old earl, "and I
+shall tell your mother so, Tom."
+
+"But I didn't say 'Round Robin,'" persisted Tom, "wasn't smart enough
+to think of it."
+
+"And let's get to work," cried Jasper, huddling up his three letters.
+"I'll post yours, too, Polly; give them here."
+
+"O dear, my stamps are all gone," said Polly, peering into the little
+box in one corner of her writing-case.
+
+"I've plenty," said Jasper, hurrying off; "I'll stick on two for you."
+
+"Oh, no, Jasper," cried Polly, after him, "you know Mamsie would not
+allow me to borrow."
+
+"It isn't borrowing," said Jasper, turning back slowly. "I'll give them
+to you, Polly."
+
+"But Mamsie said when we started I should get my stamps when I needed
+them," said Polly. "You know she did, Jasper."
+
+"Yes, she did," said Jasper, uncomfortably. Then his face brightened,
+and he said, "And she's right, Polly," while Polly fished a franc out
+of Joel's little money-bag that hung at her belt. "Do get the stamps,
+please, Jasper, and put them on," as he took up her two letters. And
+she gave the bag a little pat for Joel's sake, wishing it was his
+stubby black hair that her fingers could touch.
+
+"Dear me, you are dreadfully particular about taking two postage
+stamps, seems to me," said Adela, who had taken that time, as she
+hadn't any letters to write, to work up one of her studies from memory
+of the Visp.
+
+Tom's blue eyes flashed dangerously, then he cleared his throat,
+whistled, and walked to the window.
+
+"I don't know where we are going to get nice white paper for our 'Round
+Robin,'" said Polly, leaning her elbows on the table, and her chin in
+her hands.
+
+"I know!" ejaculated Tom, whirling on his heel, and dashing out. In he
+came, swinging three or four goodly sheets. "Filched 'em out of the old
+woman's room," he said.
+
+"Oh, Tom!" began Polly.
+
+"I mean, the housekeeper--matron--conciergerie--whatever you call the
+gentle lady who runs this house--was fortunately at our desk where she
+has the pleasure of making up our bills, and I worked on her feelings
+till she parted with 'em," explained Tom.
+
+"Oh!" said Polly; "well, I'm glad she gave them."
+
+"Never you fear but what they'll be in our bills, Polly," said Tom, who
+couldn't believe by this time that he hadn't always known Polly Pepper.
+
+"It's dreadfully thin paper," said Adela, critically, getting off from
+the sofa to pick at one corner of the sheet Polly was beginning to
+divide.
+
+"I'm glad we have any," hummed Polly, happily.
+
+"Thank your stars you have," said Tom, as gaily. And Jasper running in,
+the table was soon surrounded by the makers of the Round Robin, Adela
+deserting her sketch-book and pulling up a chair.
+
+"And Phronsie must come," said Polly, snipping away to get the paper
+the right width. "O dear me, I can't cut it straight. Do you please
+finish it, Jasper."
+
+"That's all right," said Jasper, squinting at it critically,
+"only--just this edge wants a little bit of trimming, Polly." And he
+snipped off the offending points.
+
+"I'll fetch Phronsie," cried Tom, springing off.
+
+"And hurry," cried Polly and Jasper, together, after him.
+
+"Polly," said Phronsie, as Tom came careering in with her on his
+shoulder. "I want to write, too, I do," she cried, very much excited.
+
+"Of course, you shall, Pet. That's just what we want you for," cried
+Polly, clearing a place on the table; "there, do pull up a chair,
+Jasper."
+
+"Now, Phronsie, I think you would better begin, for you are the
+littlest," and she flapped the long strip down in front of her.
+
+"Oh, Polly, you begin," begged Tom.
+
+"No, I think Phronsie ought to," said Polly, shaking her head.
+
+"I want Polly to," said Phronsie, wriggling away from the pen that
+Polly held out alluringly.
+
+"But Polly wants you to," said Jasper. "I really would, Phronsie dear,
+to please her."
+
+To please Polly, being what Phronsie longed for next to pleasing
+Mamsie, she gave a small sigh and took the pen in unsteady fingers.
+
+"Wait a minute, Phronsie!" exclaimed Polly, in dismay, "I believe we've
+made a mistake, Jasper, and got the wrong sheet." And Polly turned off
+with him to examine the rest of the paper.
+
+Phronsie, who hadn't heard what Polly said, her small head being full
+of the responsibility of beginning the important letter, and
+considering, since it was to be done, it was best to have it over with
+as soon as possible, fell to scribbling the letters as fast as she
+could, all of them running down hill.
+
+"Well, I'm glad to see that we haven't made any mistake," cried Polly,
+turning back in relief. "Oh, Phronsie, you haven't begun!"
+
+She spoke so sharply that Phronsie started, and a little drop of ink
+trembling on the point of her pen concluded to hop off. So it did and
+jumped down on the clean white paper to stare up at them all like a
+very bad black eye.
+
+"Oh, see what she's written!" cried Polly, quite aghast, and tumbling
+into her chair, she pointed at the top.
+
+"Deer Mister Erl," scrawled clear across the top.
+
+"I didn't--mean--oh, you said do it, Polly." Phronsie threw herself out
+of her chair, and over into Polly's lap, burrowing and wailing
+piteously.
+
+"O dear me, how could I say anything?" cried Polly, overcome with
+remorse and patting Phronsie's yellow hair; "but it is so very
+dreadful. O dear me! Phronsie, there, there, don't cry. O dear me!"
+
+Tom's mouth trembled. "It's all right. Granddaddy'll like it," he said.
+
+"Oh, Tom Selwyn," gasped Polly, looking up over Phronsie's head, "you
+don't suppose we'd let that letter go."
+
+"I would," said Tom, coolly, running his hands in his pockets. "I tell
+you, you don't know my granddaddy. He's got lots of fun in him," he
+added.
+
+"Phronsie," said Jasper, rushing around the table, "you are making
+Polly sick. Just look at her face."
+
+Phronsie lifted her head where she had burrowed it under Polly's arm.
+When she saw that Polly's round cheeks were really quite pale, she
+stopped crying at once. "Are you sick, Polly?" she asked, in great
+concern.
+
+"I sha'n't be," said Polly, "if you won't cry any more, Phronsie."
+
+"I won't cry any more," declared Phronsie, wiping off the last tear
+trailing down her nose. "Then you will be all well, Polly?"
+
+"Then I shall be all as well as ever," said Polly, kissing the wet
+little face.
+
+When they got ready to begin on the letter again, it was nowhere to be
+found, and Tom had disappeared as well.
+
+"He took it out," said Adela, for the first time finding her tongue. "I
+saw him while you were all talking."
+
+While they were wondering over this and were plunged further yet in
+dismay, Tom came dancing in, waving the unlucky sheet of the Round
+Robin over his head. "My mother says," he announced in triumph, "that
+father will get no end of fun over that if you let it go. It will cheer
+him up."
+
+So that ended the matter, although Polly, who dearly loved to be
+elegant, had many a twinge whenever her eye fell on the letter at which
+Phronsie was now labouring afresh.
+
+"We must put in little pictures," said Polly, trying to make herself
+cheery as the work went busily on.
+
+"Polly, you always do think of the best things!" exclaimed Jasper,
+beaming at her, which made her try harder than ever to smile. "I
+wouldn't feel so badly, Polly," he managed to whisper, when Phronsie
+was absorbed with her work; "he'll like it probably just as father did
+the gingerbread boy."
+
+"But that was different," groaned Polly.
+
+"Pictures!" Tom Selwyn was saying, "oh, there's where I can come in
+fine with assistance. I'm no good in a letter." And again he rushed
+from the room.
+
+"That's three times that boy has gone out," announced Adela, "and he
+joggles the table awfully when he starts. And he made me cut clear into
+that edge. See, Polly." She was trimming the third strip of paper, for
+the Round Robin was to be pasted together and rolled up when it was all
+done.
+
+"He seems to accomplish something every time he goes," observed Jasper,
+drily. "Halloo, just look at him now!"
+
+In came Tom with a rush, and turned a small box he held in his hand
+upside down on the table.
+
+"O dear me!" exclaimed Adela, as her scissors slipped, "now you've
+joggled the table again!" Then she caught Polly's eye. "Aren't those
+pictures pretty?" she burst out awkwardly.
+
+"Aren't they so!" cried Tom, in satisfaction, while Polly oh-ed and
+ah-ed, and Phronsie dropped her pen suddenly making a second blot; only
+as good fortune would have it, it was so near the edge that they all on
+anxious examination decided to trim the paper down, and thus get rid of
+it.
+
+"I don't see how you got so many," said Jasper, in admiration, his
+fingers busy with the heap.
+
+"Oh, I've picked 'em up here and there," said Tom. "I began because I
+thought the kids at home might like 'em. And then it struck me I'd make
+a book like yours."
+
+"Well, do save them now," said Jasper, "and we'll give some of our
+pictures, though the prettiest ones are in our books," he added
+regretfully.
+
+"Rather not--much obliged," Tom bobbed his thanks. "I want to donate
+something to granddaddy, and I tell you I'm something awful at a
+letter."
+
+"All right, seeing you wish it so," said Jasper, with a keen look at
+him, "and these are beauties and no mistake; we couldn't begin to equal
+them."
+
+When the letter was finally unrolled and read to Grandpapa, who strayed
+into the reading room to see what Phronsie was doing, it certainly was
+a beauty. Picture after picture, cut from railroad guide books,
+illustrated papers, and it seemed to Jasper gathered as if by magic,
+with cunning little photographs, broke up the letter, and wound in and
+out with funny and charming detail of some of their journey.
+
+"I wrote that all myself," hummed Phronsie, smoothing her gown, in
+great satisfaction, pointing to the opening of the letter.
+
+"O dear me!" exclaimed Polly, softly, for she couldn't even yet get
+over that dreadful beginning.
+
+"The rest of it is nice," whispered Jasper, "and I venture to say,
+he'll like that the best of all."
+
+Mr. King thought so, too, and he beamed at Phronsie. "So you did," he
+cried; "now that's fine. I wish you'd write me a letter sometime."
+
+"I'm going to write you one now," declared Phronsie. Since Grandpapa
+wanted anything, it was never too soon to begin work on it.
+
+"Do," cried old Mr. King, in great satisfaction. So he put down the
+Round Robin, Adela crying out that she wanted her grandmother to see
+it; and Polly saying that Mamsie, and Papa-Doctor, and the Parson and
+Mrs. Henderson must see it; "and most important of all," said Jasper,
+breaking into the conversation, "Mrs. Selwyn must say if it is all
+right to go."
+
+At that Polly began to have little "creeps" as she always called the
+shivers. "O dear me!" she exclaimed again, and turned quite pale.
+
+"You don't know my mother," exclaimed Tom, "if you think she won't like
+that. She's got lots of fun in her, and she always sees the sense of a
+thing."
+
+"But she's so nice," breathed Polly, who greatly admired Mrs. Selwyn,
+"and so elegant."
+
+Tom bobbed his head and accepted this as a matter of course. "That's
+the very reason she understands things like a shot--and knows how to
+take 'em," he said; "and I tell you, Polly," he declared with a burst
+of confidence that utterly surprised him, "I'd rather have my mother
+than any other company I know of; she's awful good fun!"
+
+"I know it," said Polly, brightly, with a little answering smile.
+"Well, I hope she'll like it."
+
+"Never you fear," cried Tom, seizing the Round Robin; and waving it
+over his head, it trailed off back of him like a very long and broad
+ribbon. "Come on, now, all fall into line!"
+
+"Take care!" cried Jasper, as he ran after with Polly and Adela, "if
+you dare to tear that, sir!" while Phronsie at the big table laboured
+away on her letter, Grandpapa sitting by to watch the proceedings, with
+the greatest interest.
+
+And one look at Mrs. Selwyn's face, as she read that Round Robin, was
+enough for Polly! And then to post it.
+
+"Dear me," said Polly, when that important matter was concluded,
+"suppose anything should happen to it now, before it gets there!"
+
+
+
+
+XXV
+
+ON THE _MER DE GLACE_
+
+
+"Well, we can't all get into one carriage," said Polly, on the little
+brick-paved veranda of the hotel, "so what is the use of fussing,
+Adela?"
+
+"I don't care," said Adela, "I'm going to ride in the same carriage
+with you, Polly Pepper, so there!" and she ran her arm in Polly's, and
+held it fast.
+
+Jasper kicked his heel impatiently against one of the pillars where the
+sweetbrier ran; then he remembered, and stopped suddenly, hoping nobody
+had heard. "The best way to fix it is to go where we are put," he said
+at last, trying to speak pleasantly.
+
+"No, I'm going with Polly," declared Adela, perversely, holding Polly
+tighter than ever.
+
+"I'm going with you, Polly," cried Phronsie, running up gleefully,
+"Grandpapa says I may."
+
+"Well, so am I," announced Adela, loudly.
+
+Tom Selwyn gave a low whistle, and thrust his hands in his pockets, his
+great and only comfort on times like these.
+
+"Anything but a greedy girl," he sniffed in lofty contempt.
+
+Meanwhile the horses were being put in the carriages, the stable men
+were running hither and thither to look to buckle and strap, and a lot
+of bustle was going on that at any other time would have claimed the
+boys. Now it fell flat, as a matter of interest.
+
+"Halloo--k-lup!" The drivers gave the queer call clear down in their
+throats, and hopped to their places on the three conveyances, and with
+a rattle and a flourish the horses now spun around the fountain in the
+little courtyard to come up with a swing to the veranda.
+
+"Now, then," said Grandpapa, who had been overseeing every detail,
+"here we are," running his eyes over his party; "that's right," in
+great satisfaction. "I never saw such a family as I have for being
+prompt on all occasions. Well then, the first thing I have to do is to
+get you settled in these carriages the right way."
+
+Adela, at that, snuggled up closer than ever to Polly, and gripped her
+fast.
+
+"Now, Mrs. Fisher," said old Mr. King, "you'll ride with Mrs. Selwyn in
+the first carriage, and you must take two of the young folks in with
+you."
+
+"Oh, let Polly and me go in there!" cried Adela, forgetting her
+wholesome fear of the stately old gentleman in her anxiety to get her
+own way.
+
+"Polly is going with me and Phronsie," said Mr. King. "Hop in, Adela,
+child, and one of you boys."
+
+Tom ducked off the veranda, while Adela, not daring to say another
+syllable, slowly withdrew her arm from Polly's and mounted the carriage
+step, with a miserable face.
+
+"Come on, one of you boys," cried Mr. King, impatiently. "We should
+have started a quarter of an hour ago--I don't care which one, only
+hurry."
+
+"I can't!" declared Tom, flatly, grinding his heel into the pebbles,
+and looking into Jasper's face.
+
+"Very well,"--Jasper drew a long breath,--"I must, then." And without
+more ado, he got into the first carriage and they rattled off to wait
+outside the big gate till the procession was ready to start.
+
+Old Mrs. Gray, the parson's wife and the parson, and little Dr. Fisher
+made the next load, and then Grandpapa, perfectly delighted that he had
+arranged it all so nicely, with Polly and Phronsie, climbed into the
+third and last carriage, while Tom swung himself up as a fourth.
+
+"They say it is a difficult thing to arrange carriage parties with
+success," observed Mr. King. "I don't find it so in the least," he
+added, complacently, just on the point of telling the driver to give
+the horses their heads. "But that is because I've such a fine party on
+my hands, where each one is willing to oblige, and--"
+
+"Ugh!" exclaimed Tom Selwyn, with a snort that made the old gentleman
+start. "I'm going to get out a minute--excuse me--can't explain." And
+he vaulted over the wheel.
+
+"Bless me, what's come to the boy!" exclaimed Mr. King; "now he's
+forgotten something. I hope he won't be long."
+
+But Tom didn't go into the hotel. Instead, he dashed up to carriage
+number one. "Get out," he was saying to Jasper, and presenting a very
+red face to view. "I'm going in here."
+
+"Oh, no," said Jasper; "it's all fixed, and I'm going to stay here."
+And despite all Tom could say, this was the sole reply he got. So back
+he went, and climbed into old Mr. King's carriage again, with a very
+rueful face.
+
+Old Mr. King viewed him with cold displeasure as the driver smacked his
+whip and off they went to join the rest of the party.
+
+"You must go first," sang out the little doctor, as Grandpapa's
+carriage drove up; "you are the leader, and we'll all follow you."
+
+"Yes, yes," shouted the parson, like a boy.
+
+And the occupants of carriage number one saying the same thing,
+Grandpapa's conveyance bowled ahead; and he, well pleased to head the
+procession, felt some of his displeasure at the boy sitting opposite to
+him dropping off with each revolution of the wheels.
+
+But Tom couldn't keep still. "I didn't want to come in this carriage,
+sir!" he burst out.
+
+"Eh! what?" Old Mr. King brought his gaze again to bear upon Tom's face.
+
+"Well, you are here now," he said, only half comprehending.
+
+"Because Jasper won't take the place," cried Tom, setting his teeth
+together in distress. "That's what I got out for."
+
+"Oh, I see," said Mr. King, a light beginning to break through.
+
+Tom wilted miserably under the gaze that still seemed to go through and
+through him, and Polly looked off at her side of the carriage, wishing
+the drive over the _Tête Noire_ was all ended. Old Mr. King turned to
+Phronsie at his side.
+
+"Well, now," he said, taking her hand, "we are in a predicament,
+Phronsie, for it evidently isn't going to be such an overwhelming
+success as I thought."
+
+"What is a predicament?" asked Phronsie, wrenching her gaze from the
+lovely vine-clad hills, which she had been viewing with great
+satisfaction, to look at once into his face.
+
+"Oh, a mix-up; a mess generally," answered Grandpapa, not pausing to
+choose words. "Well, what's to be done, now,--that is the question?"
+
+Tom groaned at sight of the face under the white hair, from which all
+prospect of pleasure had fled. "I was a beastly cad," he muttered to
+himself.
+
+Phronsie leaned over Mr. King's knee. "Tell me," she begged, "what is
+it, Grandpapa?"
+
+"Oh, nothing, child," said Grandpapa, with a glance at Polly's face,
+"that you can help, at least."
+
+Polly drew a long breath. "Something must be done," she decided. "Oh, I
+know. Why, Grandpapa, we can change before we get to the halfway
+place," she cried suddenly, glad to think of something to say. "Can't
+we? And then we can all have different places."
+
+"The very thing!" exclaimed Mr. King, his countenance lightening.
+"Come, Tom, my boy, cheer up. I'll put Jasper and every one else in the
+right place soon. Here you, stop a bit, will you?"--to the driver.
+
+"K-lup!" cried the driver, thinking it a call to increase speed; so the
+horses bounded on smartly for several paces, and no one could speak to
+advantage.
+
+"Make him hold up, Tom!" commanded Mr. King, sharply. And Tom knowing
+quite well how to accomplish this, Grandpapa soon stood up in the
+carriage and announced, "In half an hour, or thereabout, if we come to
+a good stopping-place, I shall change some of you twelve people about
+in the carriages. Pass the word along."
+
+But Adela didn't ride with Polly. For rushing and pushing as the change
+about was effected, to get her way and be with Polly, she felt her arm
+taken in a very light but firm grasp.
+
+"No, no, my dear,"--it was old Mr. King,--"not that way. Here is your
+place. When a little girl pushes, she doesn't get as much as if she
+waits to be asked."
+
+"It had to be done," he said to himself, "for the poor child has had no
+mother to teach her, and it will do her good." But he felt sorry for
+himself to be the one to teach the lesson. And so they went over the
+_Tête Noire_ to catch the first sight of Mont Blanc.
+
+      *      *      *      *      *
+
+"I'm going to have a donkey for my very own," confided Phronsie,
+excitedly, the next morning, to Jasper, whom she met in the little
+sun-parlour.
+
+"No!" cried Jasper, pretending to be much amazed, "you don't say so,
+Phronsie!"
+
+"Yes, I am," she cried, bobbing her yellow head. "Grandpapa said so; he
+really did, Jasper. And I'm going to ride up that long, big mountain on
+my donkey." She pointed up and off, but in the wrong direction.
+
+"Oh, no, Phronsie, that isn't the way we are going. The Montanvert is
+over here, child," corrected Jasper.
+
+"And I'm going to ride my donkey," repeated Phronsie, caring little
+which way she was going, since all roads must of course lead to
+fairy-land, "and we're going to see the water that's frozen, and
+Grandpapa says we are to walk over it; but I'd rather ride my donkey,
+Jasper," confided Phronsie, in a burst of confidence.
+
+"I guess you'll be glad enough to get off from your donkey by the time
+you reach the top of Montanvert," observed Jasper, wisely.
+
+"Well, now, Phronsie, we are not going for a day or two, you know, for
+father doesn't wish us to be tired."
+
+"I'm not a bit tired, Jasper," said Phronsie, "and I do so very much
+wish we could go to-day."
+
+"O dear me!" exclaimed Jasper, with a little laugh, "why, we've only
+just come, Phronsie! It won't be so very long before we'll be off.
+Goodness! the time flies so here, it seems to me we sha'n't hardly turn
+around before those donkeys will be coming into this yard after us to
+get on their backs."
+
+But Phronsie thought the time had never dragged so in all her small
+life; and, although she went about hanging to Grandpapa's hand as sweet
+and patient as ever, all her mind was on the donkeys; and whenever she
+saw one,--and the street was full, especially at morning and in the
+late afternoon, of the little beasts of burden, clattering up the stony
+roads,--she would beg to just go and pat one of the noses, if by chance
+one of the beasts should stand still long enough to admit of such
+attention.
+
+"Oh, no, Phronsie," expostulated old Mr. King, when this pleasing
+little performance had been indulged in for a half a dozen times. "You
+can't pat them all; goodness me, child, the woods are full of them," he
+brought up in dismay.
+
+"Do they live in the woods?" asked Phronsie, in astonishment.
+
+"I mean, the place--this whole valley of Chamonix is full of donkeys,"
+said Grandpapa, "so you see, child, it's next to impossible to pat all
+their noses."
+
+"I hope I'm going to have that dear, sweet little one," cried Phronsie,
+giving up all her mind, since the soft noses couldn't be patted, to
+happy thoughts of to-morrow's bliss. "See, Grandpapa," she pulled his
+hand gently, "to ride up the mountain on."
+
+"Well, you'll have a good one, that is, as good as can be obtained,"
+said the old gentleman; "but as for any particular one, why, they're
+all alike to me as two peas, Phronsie."
+
+But Phronsie had her own ideas on the subject, and though on every
+other occasion agreeing with Grandpapa, she saw good and sufficient
+reason why every donkey should be entirely different from every other
+donkey. And when, on the next morning, their procession of donkeys
+filed solemnly into the hotel yard, she screamed out, "Oh, Grandpapa,
+here he is, the very one I wanted! Oh, may I have him? Put me up, do!"
+
+"He's the worst one of the whole lot," groaned Grandpapa, his eye
+running over the file, "I know by the way he puts his vicious old feet
+down. Phronsie, here is a cunning little fellow," he added, artfully
+trying to lead her to one a few degrees better, he fondly hoped. But
+Phronsie already had her arms up by her particular donkey's neck, and
+her cheek laid against his nose, and she was telling him that he was
+her donkey, for she thought Grandpapa would say "Yes." So what else
+could he do, pray tell, but say "Yes"? And she mounted the steps, and
+was seated, her little brown gown pulled out straight, and the saddle
+girth tightened, and all the other delightful and important details
+attended to, and then the reins were put in her overjoyed hands.
+
+She never knew how it was all done, seeing nothing, hearing nothing of
+the confusion and chatter, of the mounting of the others, her gaze
+fixed on the long ears before her, and only conscious that her very own
+donkey was really there, and that she was on his back. And it was not
+until they started and the guide who held her bridle loped off into an
+easy pace, by the animal's head, that she aroused from her dream of
+bliss as a sudden thought struck her. "What is my donkey's name?" she
+asked softly.
+
+The man loped on, not hearing, and he wouldn't have understood had he
+heard.
+
+"I don't believe he has any name," said old Mr. King just behind.
+"Phronsie, is your saddle all right? Do you like it, child?" all in one
+breath.
+
+"I like it very much," answered Phronsie, trying to turn around.
+
+"Don't do that, child," said Grandpapa, hastily. "Sit perfectly still,
+and on no account turn around or move in the saddle."
+
+"I won't, Grandpapa," she promised, obediently, and presently she began
+again, "I want to know his name, Grandpapa, so that I can tell my pony
+when I get home."
+
+"Oh, well, we'll find out," said Grandpapa. "Here you, can't you tell
+the name of that donkey?" he cried to the guide holding Phronsie's
+bridle. "Oh, I forgot, he doesn't understand English," and he tried it
+in French.
+
+But this was not much better, for old Mr. King, preferring to use none
+but the best of French when he employed any, was only succeeding in
+mystifying the poor man so that he couldn't find his tongue at all, but
+stared like a clod till the old gentleman's patience was exhausted.
+
+At last Jasper, hearing what the trouble was, shouted out something
+from his position in the rear, that carried the meaning along with it,
+and Phronsie the next minute was delighted to hear "Boolah," as the
+guide turned and smiled and showed all his teeth at her, his pleasure
+was so great at discovering that he could really understand.
+
+"Why, that's the name of my donkey," said Polly, patting the beast's
+rough neck. "He told me so when he helped me to mount."
+
+"So it is mine," announced Jasper, bursting into a laugh. "I guess they
+only have one name for the whole lot."
+
+"Well, don't let us tell Phronsie so," said Polly, "and I shall call
+mine 'Greybeard' because he's got such a funny old stiff beard and it
+is grey."
+
+"And I shall christen mine 'Boneyard,'" declared Jasper, "for he's got
+such a very big lot of bones, and they aren't funny, I can tell you."
+
+And so with fun and nonsense and laughter, as soon as they wound around
+by the little English church and across the meadows, and struck into
+the pine wood, the whole party of twelve, Grandpapa and all, began to
+sing snatches from the newest operas down to college songs. For
+Grandpapa hadn't forgotten his college days when he had sung with the
+best, and he had the parson on this occasion to keep him company, and
+the young people, of course, knew all the songs by heart, as what young
+person doesn't, pray tell! So the bits and snatches rolled out with a
+gusto, and seemed to echo along the whole mountain side as the
+procession of sure-footed animals climbed the steep curves.
+
+"Oh, Polly, your donkey is going over," exclaimed Adela, who rode the
+second in the rear after Polly; "he flirts his hind legs right over the
+precipice every time you go round a curve."
+
+"Well, he brings them round all right," said Polly, composedly; and,
+with a little laugh, "Oh, isn't this too lovely for anything!" she
+cried, with sparkling eyes.
+
+"Well, don't let him," cried Adela, huddling up on her donkey, and
+pulling at the rein to make him creep closer to the protecting earth
+wall.
+
+"Na--na," one of the guides ran up to her, shaking his head. Adela,
+fresh from her Paris school had all her French, of the best kind too,
+at her tongue's end, but she seemed to get on no better than Mr. King.
+
+"My French is just bad enough to be useful," laughed Jasper. So he
+untangled the trouble again, and made Adela see that she really must
+not pull at her bridle, but allow the donkey to go his own gait, for
+they were all trained to it.
+
+"Your French is just beautiful," cried Polly. "Oh, Jasper, you know
+Monsieur always says--"
+
+"Don't, Polly," begged Jasper, in great distress.
+
+"No, I won't," promised Polly, "and I didn't mean to. But I couldn't
+help it, Jasper, when you spoke against your beautiful French."
+
+"We've all heard you talk French, Jasper, so you needn't feel so cut up
+if Polly should quote your Monsieur," cried Tom, who, strange to say,
+no matter how far he chanced to ride in the rear, always managed to
+hear everything.
+
+"That's because we are everlastingly turning a corner," he explained,
+when they twitted him for it, "and as I'm near the end of the line I
+get the benefit of the doubling and twisting, for the front is always
+just above me. So don't say anything you don't want me to hear, old
+fellow," he sang out to Jasper on the bridle path "just above," as Tom
+had said.
+
+"Now, don't you want to get off?" cried Jasper, deserting his donkey,
+and running up to Phronsie, as they reached the summit and drew up
+before the hotel.
+
+"Oh, somebody take that child off," groaned old Mr. King, accepting the
+arm of the guide to help him dismount, "for I can't. Every separate and
+distinct bone in my body protests against donkeys from this time forth
+and forevermore. And yet I've got to go down on one," he added ruefully.
+
+"No, I don't want to get down," declared Phronsie, still holding fast
+to the reins; "can't I sit on my donkey, Jasper, while you all walk
+over on the frozen water?"
+
+"Oh, my goodness, no!" gasped Jasper. "Why, Phronsie, you'd be tired to
+death--the very idea, child!"
+
+"No," said Phronsie, shaking her yellow hair obstinately, "I wouldn't
+be tired one single bit, Jasper. And I don't want to get down from my
+donkey."
+
+"Well, if you didn't go over the _Mer de Glace_, why, we couldn't any
+of us go," said Jasper, at his wits' end how to manage it without
+worrying his father, already extremely tired, he could see, "and that's
+what we've come up for--"
+
+Phronsie dropped the reins. "Take me down, please, Jasper," she said,
+putting out her arms.
+
+"How are you now, father?" cried Jasper, running over to him when he
+had set Phronsie on the ground.
+
+"It's astonishing," said old Mr. King, stretching his shapely limbs,
+"but all that dreadful sensation I always have after riding on one of
+those atrocious animals is disappearing fast."
+
+"That's good," cried Jasper, in delight. "Well, I suppose we are all
+going to wait a bit?" he asked, and longing to begin the tramp over the
+_Mer de Glace_.
+
+"Wait? Yes, indeed, every blessed one of us," declared his father.
+"Goodness me, Jasper, what are you thinking of to ask such a question,
+after this pull up here? Why, we sha'n't stir from this place for an
+hour."
+
+"I supposed we'd have to wait," said Jasper, rushing off over the
+rocks, feeling how good it was to get down on one's feet again, and run
+and race. And getting Polly and Tom and Adela, they ran down where the
+donkeys were tethered and saw them fed, and did a lot of exploring; and
+it didn't seem any time before an Alpine horn sounded above their
+heads, and there was Grandpapa, tooting away and calling them to come
+up and buy their woollen socks; for they were going to start.
+
+So they scrambled up, and picked out their socks, and, each seizing a
+pair in one hand and an alpenstock with a long, sharp spike on the end
+in the other, they ran off down the zigzag path to the glacier, two or
+three guides helping the others along. At the foot of the rocky path
+the four drew up.
+
+"O dear, it's time to put on these horrible old stockings," grumbled
+Adela, shaking hers discontentedly.
+
+"'Good old stockings,' you'd much better say," broke in Jasper.
+
+"They're better than a broken neck," observed Tom, just meaning to ask
+Polly if he could put hers on for her. But he was too slow in getting
+at it, and Jasper was already kneeling on the rocks and doing that very
+thing.
+
+"Now I'm all ready," announced Polly, stamping her feet, arrayed in
+marvellous red-and-white striped affairs. "Thank you, Jasper. Oh, how
+funny they feel!"
+
+"Shall I help you?" asked Tom, awkwardly enough, of Adela.
+
+"Oh, I don't want them on, and I don't mean to wear them," said Adela,
+with a sudden twist. "I'm going to throw them away."
+
+"Then you'll just have to stay back," said Jasper, decidedly, "for no
+one is to be allowed on that glacier who doesn't put on a pair."
+
+"I won't slip--the idea!" grumbled Adela. Yet she stuck out her foot,
+and Tom, getting down on his knees, suppressed a whistle as he securely
+tied them on. Then the boys flew into theirs instanter.
+
+"Mine are blue," said Phronsie, as the others filed slowly down the
+winding path between the rocks, and she pointed to the pair dangling
+across her arm. "I am so very glad they are blue, Grandpapa."
+
+"So am I, Pet," he cried, delighted to find that he was apparently as
+agile as the parson. No one could hope to equal little Dr. Fisher, who
+was here, there, and everywhere, skipping about among the rocks like a
+boy let loose from school.
+
+"Well, well, the children are all ready," exclaimed old Mr. King,
+coming upon the four, impatient to begin their icy walk.
+
+"Didn't you expect it?" cried little Dr. Fisher, skipping up.
+
+"Well, to say the truth, I did," answered old Mr. King, with a laugh.
+"Now, Phronsie, sit down on that rock, and let the guide tie on your
+stockings." So Phronsie's little blue stockings were tied on, and after
+Grandpapa had gallantly seen that everybody else was served, he had his
+pulled on over his boots and fastened securely, and the line of march
+was taken up.
+
+"You go ahead, father," begged Jasper, "and we'll all follow."
+
+So old Mr. King, with Phronsie and a guide on her farther side, led the
+way, and the red stockings and the brown and the black, and some of
+indescribable hue, moved off upon the _Mer de Glace_.
+
+"It's dreadfully dirty," said Adela, turning up her nose. "I thought a
+glacier was white when you got up to it."
+
+"Oh, I think it is lovely!" cried Polly; "and that green down in the
+crevasse--look, Adela!"
+
+"It's a dirty green," persisted Adela, whose artistic sense wouldn't be
+satisfied. "O dear me!" as her foot slipped and she clutched Mrs.
+Henderson, who happened to be next.
+
+"Now, how about the woollen stockings?" asked Tom, while Polly and
+Jasper both sang out, "Take care," and "Go slowly."
+
+Adela didn't answer, but stuck the sharp end of her alpenstock smartly
+into the ice.
+
+"Something is the matter with my stocking," at last said the parson's
+wife, stopping and holding out her right foot.
+
+The guide nearest her stopped, too, and kneeling down on the ice, he
+pulled it into place, for it had slipped half off.
+
+"Now be very careful," warned Grandpapa, "and don't venture too near
+the edge," as he paused with Phronsie and the guide. The others, coming
+up, looked down into a round, green pool of water that seemed to stare
+up at them, as if to say, "I am of unknown depth, so beware of me."
+
+"That gives me the 'creeps,' Polly, as you say," Mrs. Henderson
+observed. "Dear me, I shall never forget how that green water looks;"
+and she shivered and edged off farther yet. "Supposing any one _should_
+fall in!"
+
+"Well, he'd go down right straight through the globe, seems to me,"
+said Tom, with a last look at the pool as they turned off, "It looks as
+if it had no end, till one would fetch up on the other side."
+
+"I love to hop over these little crevasses," said Polly, and suiting
+the action to the word.
+
+"Something is the matter with my stocking again," announced Mrs.
+Henderson to the guide, presently. "I am sorry to trouble you, but it
+needs to be fixed."
+
+He didn't understand the words, but there was no mistaking the foot
+thrust out with the woollen sock, now wet and sodden, half off again.
+So he kneeled down and pulled it on once more.
+
+Before they reached the other side, the parson's wife had had that
+stocking pulled on six times, until at last, the guide, finding no more
+pleasure in a repetition of the performance, took a string from his
+pocket, and bunching up in his fist a good portion of the stocking
+heel, he wound the string around it and tied it fast, cut off the
+string, and returned the rest to his pocket.
+
+"Why do you tie up the heel?" queried Mrs. Henderson. "I should think
+it much better to secure it in front." But he didn't understand, and
+the rest were quite a good bit in advance, and hating to give trouble,
+she went on, the stocking heel sticking out a few inches. But she kept
+it on her foot, so that might be called a success.
+
+The little Widow Gray was not going over the _Mauvais Pas_, neither was
+Mrs. Selwyn, as she had traversed it twice before. So, on reaching the
+other side, they were just about bidding good-by to the others, when,
+without a bit of warning, the parson's wife, in turning around, fell
+flat, and disappeared to the view of some of them behind a boulder of
+ice.
+
+All was confusion in an instant. The guides rushed--everybody
+rushed--pellmell to the rescue; Tom's long legs, as usual, getting him
+there first. There she was in a heap, in a depression of ice and snow
+and water.
+
+"I'm all right, except"--and she couldn't help a grimace of pain--"my
+foot."
+
+The little doctor swept them all to one side, as they seated her on one
+of the boulders of ice. "Humph! I should think likely," at sight of the
+tied-up stocking heel. "You stepped on that, and it flung you straight
+as a die and turned your foot completely over."
+
+"Yes," said Mrs. Henderson. Then she saw the guide who had tied the
+stocking looking on with a face of great concern. "Oh, don't say
+anything, it makes him feel badly," she mumbled, wishing her foot
+wouldn't ache so.
+
+Little Dr. Fisher was rapidly untying the unlucky stocking; and,
+whipping off the boot, he soon made sure that no ligaments were broken.
+Then he put on the boot and the woollen sock, being careful to tie it
+in front over the instep, and whipping out his big handkerchief he
+proceeded to bandage the ankle in a truly scientific way. "Now, then,
+Mrs. Henderson, you are all right to take the walk slowly back to the
+hotel."
+
+Parson Henderson took his wife's hand. "Come, Sarah," he said, gently
+helping her up.
+
+"Oh, you are going over the _Mauvais Pas_," she cried in distress at
+the thought of his missing it.
+
+"Come, Sarah," he said gently, keeping her hand in his.
+
+"I'll go back with her too," said little Dr. Fisher.
+
+"Oh, Adoniram!" exclaimed his wife, but it was under her breath, and no
+one heard the exclamation.
+
+"I think Dr. Fisher ought to go with the other party; he will be needed
+there," Mrs. Selwyn was saying, in her quiet way. "And I will bathe
+Mrs. Henderson's foot just as he says it should be done, so good-by,"
+and any one looking down with a field glass from the Montanvert hotel,
+could have seen at this point, two parties, one proceeding to the
+_Mauvais Pas_ and the _Chapeau_, and the other of three ladies, the
+parson and a guide, wending their way slowly on the return across the
+crevasses.
+
+
+
+
+XXVI
+
+"WELL, HERE WE ARE IN PARIS!"
+
+
+Notwithstanding all the glory of the shops, and the tempting array of
+the jewellery and trinkets of every description therein displayed,
+after a few days of sailing on the exquisite lake, and some walks and
+drives, Polly, down deep in her heart, was quite ready to move on from
+Geneva. And, although she didn't say anything, old Mr. King guessed as
+much, and broke out suddenly, "Well, are you ready to start, Polly?"
+
+"Yes, Grandpapa," she answered. "I have the presents for the girls. I'm
+all ready."
+
+"Why, Polly, you haven't anything for yourself," Mother Fisher
+exclaimed, as Polly ran into her room and told the news--how Grandpapa
+said they were to pack up and leave in the morning. "You haven't bought
+a single thing."
+
+"Oh, I don't want anything," said Polly. "I've so many things at home
+that Grandpapa has given me. Mamsie, isn't this pin for Alexia just too
+lovely for anything?"
+
+She curled up on the end of the bed, and drew it out of its little box.
+"I think she'll like it," with anxious eyes on Mother Fisher's face.
+
+"Like it?" repeated her mother. "How can she help it, Polly?"
+
+"I think so too," said Polly, happily, replacing it on the bed of
+cotton, and putting on the cover to look over another gift.
+
+Mrs. Fisher regarded her keenly. "Well, now, Polly," she said,
+decidedly, "I shall go down and get that chain we were looking at. For
+you do need that, and your father and I are going to give it to you."
+
+"Oh, Mamsie," protested Polly, "I don't need it; really, I don't."
+
+"Well, we shall give it to you," said Mother Fisher. Then she went over
+to the bed and dropped a kiss on Polly's brown hair.
+
+"Mamsie," exclaimed Polly, springing off the bed, and throwing her arms
+around her mother's neck, "I shall love that chain, and I shall wear it
+just all the time because you and Papa-Doctor gave it to me."
+
+When they neared Paris, Adela drew herself up in her corner of the
+compartment. "I expect you'll stare some when you get to Paris, Polly
+Pepper."
+
+"I've been staring all the time since we started on our journey, Adela,
+as hard as I could," said Polly, laughing.
+
+"Well, you'll stare worse than ever now," said Adela, in an important
+way. "There isn't anything in all this world that isn't in Paris," she
+brought up, not very elegantly.
+
+"I don't like Paris." Tom let the words out before he thought.
+
+"That's just because you are a boy," sniffed Adela. "Oh, Polly, you
+ought to see the shops! When Mademoiselle has taken us into some, I
+declare I could stay all day in one. Such dreams of clothes and
+bonnets! You never saw such bonnets, Polly Pepper, in all your life!"
+She lifted her hands, unable to find words enough.
+
+"And the parks and gardens, I suppose, are perfectly lovely," cried
+Polly, feeling as if she must get away from the bonnets and clothes.
+
+"Yes, and the Bois de Boulogne to drive in, that's elegant. Only
+Mademoiselle won't take us there very often. I wish I was rich, and I'd
+have a span of long-tailed, grey horses, and drive up and down there
+every day."
+
+Polly laughed. "Well, I should like the tram-ways and the stages," said
+Polly.
+
+"Oh, those don't go into the Bois de Boulogne," cried Adela, in a tone
+of horror. "Why, Polly Pepper, what are you thinking of?" she exclaimed.
+
+This nettled Tom. "Of something besides clothes and bonnets," he broke
+out. Then he was sorry he had spoken.
+
+"Well, there's the Louvre," said Polly, after an uncomfortable little
+pause.
+
+"Yes," said Adela, "that's best of all, and it doesn't cost anything;
+so Mademoiselle takes us there very often."
+
+"I should think it would be," cried Polly, beaming at her, and
+answering the first part of Adela's sentence. "Oh, Adela, I do so long
+to see it."
+
+"And you can't go there too often, Polly," said Jasper.
+
+"It's the only decent thing in Paris," said Tom, "that I like, I mean;
+that, and to sail up and down on the Seine."
+
+"We'll go there the first day, Polly," said Jasper, "the Louvre, I
+mean. Well, here we are in Paris!" And then it was all confusion, for
+the guards were throwing open the doors to the compartments, and
+streams of people were meeting on the platform, in what seemed to be
+inextricable confusion amid a babel of sounds. And it wasn't until
+Polly was driving up in the big cab with her part of Mr. King's
+"family," as he called it, through the broad avenues and boulevards,
+interspersed with occasional squares and gardens, and the beautiful
+bridges here and there across the Seine, gleaming in the sunshine, that
+she could realise that they were actually in Paris.
+
+And the next day they did go to the Louvre. And Adela, who was to stay
+a day or two at the hotel with them before going back into her school,
+was very important, indeed. And she piloted them about, the parson and
+Mrs. Henderson joining their group; the others, with the exception of
+the little Widow Gray, who stayed at home to look over Adela's clothes,
+and take any last stitches, going off by themselves.
+
+"I do want to see the Venus de Milo," said Polly, quite gone with
+impatience. "Oh, Adela, these paintings will wait."
+
+"Well, that old statue will wait, too," cried Adela, pulling her off
+into another gallery. "Now, Polly, Mademoiselle says, in point of art,
+the pictures in here are quite important."
+
+"Are they?" said poor Polly, listlessly.
+
+"Yes, they are," said Adela, twitching her sleeve, "and Mademoiselle
+brings us in this room every single time we come to the Louvre."
+
+"It's the early French school, you know," she brought up glibly.
+
+"Well, it's too early for us to take it in," said Tom. "Come, I'm for
+the Venus de Milo. It's this way;" and Adela was forced to follow,
+which she did in a discontented fashion.
+
+"Oh!" cried Polly, catching her breath, and standing quite still as she
+caught sight of the wonderful marble, instinct with life, at the end of
+the long corridor below stairs. "Why, she's smiling at us," as the
+afternoon sunshine streamed across the lovely face, to lose itself in
+the folds of the crimson curtain in the background.
+
+The parson folded his arms and drew in long breaths of delight. "It's
+worth fifty journeys over the ocean to once see that, Sarah," he said.
+
+"Do come back and look at the pictures," begged Adela, pulling Polly's
+arm again after a minute or two.
+
+"Oh, don't!" exclaimed Polly, under her breath. "Oh, she's _so_
+beautiful, Adela!"
+
+"Well, it's much better to see the pictures," said Adela. "And then we
+can come here again to-morrow."
+
+"Oh, I haven't seen this half enough," began Polly, "and I've wanted to
+for so long." Then she glanced at Adela's face. "Well, all right," she
+said, and turned off, to come directly into the path of Grandpapa, with
+Phronsie clinging to his hand, and the rest of his part of the "family"
+standing in silent admiration.
+
+"We thought we'd come here first," said old Mr. King. "I don't mean to
+see anything else to-day. The Venus de Milo is quite enough for me.
+To-morrow, now, we'll drop in again, and look at some of the pictures."
+
+"There is beauty enough in that statue," said a lady, who just passed
+them, to the gentleman with her, "to satisfy any one; but living beauty
+after all is most appealing. Just look at that child's face, Edward."
+
+They were guilty of standing in a niche at a little remove, and
+studying Phronsie with keen, critical eyes.
+
+"It's a wonderful type of beauty," said Edward; "yellow hair and brown
+eyes,--and such features."
+
+"I don't care about the features," said the lady, "it's the expression;
+the child hasn't a thought of herself, and that's wonderful to begin
+with."
+
+"That's about it," replied Edward, "and I suppose that's largely where
+the beauty lies, Evelyn."
+
+"Let us walk slowly down the corridor again," said Evelyn, "and then
+come up; otherwise we shall attract attention to be standing here and
+gazing at them."
+
+"And I'd like to see that little beauty again," remarked Edward, "I'll
+confess, Evelyn."
+
+So Evelyn and Edward continued to gaze at intervals at the living
+beauty, and Mr. King and his party were absorbed in the marble beauty;
+and Adela was running over in her mind how she meant to have Polly
+Pepper all to herself at the visit to the Louvre the next afternoon,
+when she would show her the pictures she specially liked.
+
+But they didn't any of them go to the Louvre that next day, as it
+happened. It was so beautifully bright and sunshiny, that Grandpapa
+said it would be wicked to pass the day indoors; so they had all the
+morning in a walk, and a sail on the Seine,--and that pleased Tom,--and
+all the afternoon, or nearly all, sitting up in state in carriages,
+driving up and down the Bois de Boulogne. And _that_ pleased Adela.
+
+And when they tired of driving, old Mr. King gave orders for the
+drivers to rest their horses. And then they all got out of the
+carriages, and walked about among the beautiful trees, and on the
+winding, sheltered paths.
+
+"It's perfectly lovely off there," said Polly, "and almost like the
+country," with a longing glance off into the green, cool shade beyond.
+So they strolled off there, separating into little groups; Polly and
+Jasper in front, and wishing for nothing so much as a race.
+
+"I should think we might try it," said Jasper; "there is no one near to
+see. Come on, Polly, do."
+
+"I suppose we ought not to," said Polly, with a sigh, as Adela overtook
+them.
+
+"Ought not to what?" she asked eagerly.
+
+"Jasper and I were wanting to run a race," said Polly.
+
+"Why, Polly Pepper! You are in Paris!" exclaimed Adela, quite shocked.
+
+"I know it," said Polly, "and I wish we weren't. O dear! this seems
+just like the country, and--"
+
+Just then a child screamed. "That's Phronsie!" exclaimed Polly, her
+cheek turning quite white. And she sped back over the path.
+
+"Oh, no, Polly," Jasper tried to reassure her, as he ran after her.
+They were having their race, after all, but in a different way from
+what they had planned.
+
+"Dear me! you are running!" said Adela, who hadn't got it into her head
+what for, as she didn't connect the scream with any of their party. And
+she walked just as fast as she could to catch up with them. As that was
+impossible, she gave a hasty glance around the shrubbery, and seeing no
+one to notice her, she broke out into a lively run.
+
+"Yes, Phronsie," Grandpapa was saying, as the young people had left
+them, and the others had wandered off to enjoy the quiet, shady paths,
+"this place was the old Fôret de Rouvray. It wasn't a very pretty place
+to come to in those days, what with the robbers and other bad people
+who infested it. And now let us go and find a seat, child, and I'll
+show you one or two little pictures I picked up in the shop this
+morning; and you can send them in your next letter, to Joel and David,
+if you like."
+
+Old Mr. King took out his pocket-book, and had just opened it, when a
+man darted out from the thick shrubbery behind him, cast a long,
+searching glance around, and quick as lightning, threw himself against
+the stately old gentleman, and seized the pocket-book.
+
+It was then that Phronsie screamed long and loud.
+
+"What ho!" exclaimed Mr. King, starting around to do battle; but the
+man was just disappearing around the clump of shrubbery.
+
+"Which way?" Tom Selwyn dashed up. It didn't seem as if Phronsie's cry
+had died on her lips.
+
+Old Mr. King pointed without a word. And Polly and Jasper were close at
+hand. Polly flew to Phronsie, who was clinging to Grandpapa's hand, and
+wailing bitterly. "What is it? Oh! what is it?" cried Polly.
+
+"My pocket-book," said Grandpapa; "some fellow has seized it, and
+frightened this poor child almost to death." He seemed to care a great
+deal more about that than any loss of the money.
+
+"Which way?" cried Jasper, in his turn, and was off like a shot on
+getting his answer.
+
+Tom saw the fellow slink with the manner of one who knew the ins and
+outs of the place well,--now gliding, and ducking low in the sparser
+growth, now making a bold run around some exposed curve, now dashing
+into a dense part of the wood.
+
+"I'll have you yet!" said Tom, through set teeth; "I haven't trained at
+school for nothing!"
+
+A thud of fast-flying feet in his rear didn't divert him an instant
+from his game, although it might be a rescue party for the thief, in
+the shape of a partner,--who could tell? And realising, if he caught
+the man at all, he must do one of his sprints, he covered the ground by
+a series of flying leaps,--dashed in where he saw his prey rush; one
+more leap with all his might, and--"I have you!" cried Tom.
+
+The man under him, thrown to the ground by the suddenness of Tom's leap
+on him, was wriggling and squirming with all the desperation of a
+trapped creature, when the individual with the flying footsteps hove in
+sight. It was Jasper. And they had just persuaded the robber that it
+would be useless to struggle longer against his fate, when the parson,
+running as he hadn't run for years, appeared to their view. And after
+him, at such a gait that would have been his fortune, in a professional
+way, was the little doctor. His hat was gone, and his toes scarcely
+seemed to touch the ground. He was last at the scene, simply because
+the news had only just reached him as he sauntered leisurely up to meet
+Mr. King in his promenade.
+
+When the thief saw him, he looked to see if any more were coming, and
+resigned himself at once and closed his eyes instinctively.
+
+He was a miserable-looking man--tall, thin, and stoop shouldered--they
+saw, when they got him on his feet. Unkempt and unwashed, his long,
+black hair hung around a face sallow in the extreme. And he shook so,
+as Tom and Jasper marched him back, escorted by the body-guard of the
+parson and the little doctor, that the two boys put their hands under
+his arms to help him along.
+
+"Well--well--well!" ejaculated Mr. King, as he saw this array. Polly
+gathered Phronsie's other hand in hers, while she clung closer than
+ever to Grandpapa.
+
+"Here's your pocket-book," said Tom, handing the article over; "he
+hasn't spent much."
+
+"Don't, Tom," said Jasper, "joke about it."
+
+"Can't help it," said Tom. "Well, now, shall we turn him over to the
+_sergents de ville?"_
+
+"Turn him over?" repeated Mr. King. "I should say so," he added drily,
+"and give him the best recommendation for a long term, too. What else
+is there to do, pray tell?"
+
+"Grandpapa," suddenly cried Phronsie, who hadn't taken her eyes from
+the man's face, "what are you going to do--where is he going?"
+
+"We are going to hand him over to the police, child," answered old Mr.
+King, harshly. "And as soon as possible, too."
+
+"Grandpapa, perhaps he's got some little children at home; ask him,
+Grandpapa, do."
+
+"No, no, Phronsie," said Mr. King, hastily. "Say no more, child; you
+don't understand. We must call the _sergents de ville."_
+
+At the words _sergents de ville_ the man shivered from head to foot,
+and wrenched his hands free from the boys' grasp to tear open his poor
+coat, and show a bare breast, covered with little, apparently, but the
+skin drawn over the bones. He didn't attempt to say anything.
+
+"Oh, my goodness!" exclaimed old Mr. King, starting backward and
+putting up his hands to his face to shut out the sight. "Cover it up,
+man--bless me--no need to ask him a question. Why, the fellow is
+starving."
+
+His little children--four of them--his wife--all starving--hadn't a bit
+to eat since, he could scarcely say when, it seemed so very long ago
+since he had eaten last--it all came out in a torrent of words that
+choked him, and like the true Frenchman that he was, he gestured in a
+way that told the story with his face and his fingers, as well as with
+his tongue.
+
+A _sergent de ville_ strolled by and looked curiously at the group, but
+as Mr. King met his eye coolly, and the party seemed intelligent and
+well able to take care of themselves, it wasn't necessary to tender his
+services--if they were talking to a worthless vagabond.
+
+"Hum--hum--very bad case; very bad case, indeed!" Mr. King was
+exploding at intervals, while the torrent was rushing on in execrable
+French as far as accent went. No one else of the spellbound group could
+have spoken if there had been occasion for a word. Then he pulled out
+the pocket-book again, and taking out several franc notes of a good
+size, he pressed them between the man's dirty fingers. "Go and get
+something to eat," was all he said, "and take care of the children."
+
+
+
+
+XVII
+
+"I'VE FOUND HIM!" EXCLAIMED JASPER
+
+
+And for the next few days Phronsie talked about the poor man, and
+wished they could see his children, and hoped he had bought them some
+nice things to eat, and worried over him because he was all skin and
+bones.
+
+"Ah! the bones were real, even if the children aren't," Grandpapa would
+say to himself. "Well, I suppose I have been taken in, but at least the
+fellow hasn't starved to death."
+
+And then off they would go sight-seeing as fast as possible, to take up
+the mind of Phronsie, who watched for Grandpapa's poor man in every
+wretched creature she saw. And there were plenty of them.
+
+And then Adela went back to school, happy in the thought of the little
+pile of sketches she had to show as her summer's work, and with ever so
+many studies and bits to finish up under Mademoiselle's direction; and
+little old Mrs. Gray, breathing blessings on Mr. King's head, departed
+for her English country home.
+
+"Now, then, I have ever so much shopping to do," announced old Mr.
+King, briskly, "and I shall want you to help me, Phronsie."
+
+"I'll help you, Grandpapa," promised Phronsie, well pleased, and
+gravely set herself to the task.
+
+So they wandered away by themselves, having the most blissful of times,
+and coming home to the hotel, they would gaily relate their adventures;
+and Phronsie would often carry a little parcel or two, which it was her
+greatest delight to do; and then the trail of big boxes would follow
+them as they were sent home to the hotel to tell of their experiences
+in the shops.
+
+"And Grandpapa is going to get me a new doll," announced Phronsie, on
+one of these days.
+
+"Do you mean a peasant doll to add to the collection?" asked Polly; for
+old Mr. King had bought a doll in the national costume in every country
+in which they had travelled, and they had been packed away, together
+with the other things as fast as purchased, and sent off home across
+the sea.
+
+"Yes," said Phronsie. "I do, Polly, and it's to be a most beautiful
+French doll--oh!"
+
+And sure enough, Mr. King, who knew exactly what kind of a doll he
+meant to purchase, and had kept his eyes open for it, stumbled upon it
+by a piece of rare good luck in a shop where he least expected to find
+it.
+
+"Oh, may I carry her home, Grandpapa?" begged Phronsie, hanging over
+the doll in a transport. "Please don't have her shut up in a box--but
+do let me carry her in my arms."
+
+"Oh, Phronsie, she's too big," objected Mr. King, "and very heavy."
+
+"Oh, Grandpapa, she's not heavy," cried Phronsie, not meaning to
+contradict, but so anxious not to have her child sent home shut up in a
+box, that she forgot herself.
+
+"Well, I don't know but what you may," said Grandpapa, relenting. "I
+will call a cab after we get through with this next shop," he
+reflected, "and it won't hurt her to carry the doll that short
+distance." So they came out of the shop, and deciding to take a short
+cut, they started across the boulevard, he taking the usual precaution
+to gather Phronsie's hand in his.
+
+As they were halfway across the street, with its constant stream of
+pedestrians and vehicles, a sudden gust of wind flapped the doll's pink
+silk cape up against Phronsie's eyes, and taking her hand away from
+Grandpapa's a second to pull down the cape, for she couldn't see, she
+slipped, and before she knew it, had fallen on top of the doll in the
+middle of the street.
+
+A reckless cabby, driving as only a French cabman can, came dashing
+down the boulevard directly in her path, while a heavily loaded omnibus
+going in the opposite direction was trying to get out of his way. Ever
+so many people screamed; and some one pulled Mr. King back as he
+started to pick her up. It was all done in an instant, and every person
+expected to see her killed, when a long, gaunt individual in a shabby
+coat dashed in among the plunging horses, knocked up the head of the
+one belonging to the reckless cabby, swung an arm at the other pair to
+divert their course, and before any one could quite tell how, he picked
+up Phronsie and bore her to the curbstone. Some one got Mr. King to the
+same point, too exhausted with fright to utter a word.
+
+When he came out of his shock, the shabby man was standing by Phronsie,
+the crowd that saw nothing in the incident to promise further
+diversion, having melted away, and she was holding his hand, her
+little, mud-stained face radiant with happiness. "Oh, Grandpapa," she
+piped out, "it's your poor man!"
+
+"The dickens it is!" exploded Mr. King. "Well, I'm glad to find you.
+Here, call a cab, will you? I must get this child home; that's the
+first thing to be done."
+
+The shabby man hailed a cab, but the cabman jeered at him and whirled
+by. So the old gentleman held up his hand; Phronsie all this time,
+strange to say, not mentioning her doll, and Mr. King, who wouldn't
+have cared if a hundred dolls had been left behind, not giving it a
+thought. Now she looked anxiously on all sides. "Oh, where is she,
+Grandpapa dear?" she wailed, "my child; where is she?"
+
+"Never mind, Phronsie," cried Mr. King, "I'll get you another one
+to-morrow. There, get in the cab, child."
+
+"But I want her--I can't go home without my child!" And Phronsie's lip
+began to quiver. "Oh, there she is, Grandpapa!" and she darted off a
+few steps, where somebody had set the poor thing on the pavement,
+propped up against a lamp-post.
+
+"Oh, you can't carry her home," said Mr. King, in dismay at the muddy
+object splashed from head to foot, with the smart pink cape that had
+been the cause of the disaster, now torn clear through the middle, by
+the hoof of a passing horse. He shuddered at the sight of it. "Do leave
+it, Phronsie, child."
+
+"But she's sick now and hurt; oh, Grandpapa, I can't leave my child,"
+sobbed Phronsie, trying with all her might to keep the tears back. All
+this time the shabby man stood silently by, looking on.
+
+A bright thought struck the old gentleman. "I'll tell you, Phronsie,"
+he said quickly. "Give the doll to this man for one of his little
+children; they'll take care of it, and like it."
+
+"Oh, Grandpapa!" screamed Phronsie, skipping up and down and clapping
+her muddy little hands, then she picked up the doll and lifted it
+toward him. "Give my child to your little girl, and tell her to take
+good care of it," she said.
+
+As Phronsie's French had long been one of Grandpapa's special
+responsibilities in the morning hours, she spoke it nearly as well as
+Polly herself, so the man grasped the doll as he had seized the money
+before.
+
+"And now," said Mr. King, "you are not going to run away this time
+without telling me--oh, bless me!"
+
+This last was brought out by an excited individual rushing up over the
+curbstone to get out of the way of a passing dray, and the
+walking-stick which he swung aloft as a protection, coming into
+collision with Mr. King's hat, knocked it over his eyes.
+
+"A thousand pardons, Monsieur!" exclaimed the Frenchman, bowing and
+scraping.
+
+"You may well beg a thousand pardons," cried Mr. King, angrily, "to go
+about in this rude fashion through the street."
+
+"A thousand pardons," repeated the Frenchman, with more _empressement_
+than before, and tripping airily on his way.
+
+When old Mr. King had settled his hat, he turned back to the man. "Now
+tell me--why--" The man was nowhere to be seen.
+
+"It surely does look bad," said the old gentleman to himself as he
+stepped into the cab with Phronsie; "that man's children are a myth.
+And I wanted to do something for them, for he saved Phronsie's life!"
+
+This being the only idea he could possibly retain all the way home to
+the hotel, he held her closely within his arm, Phronsie chattering
+happily all the way, how the little girl she guessed was just receiving
+the doll, and wondering what name she would give it, and would she wash
+its face clean at once, and fix the torn and muddy clothes?
+
+"Oh, yes, yes, I hope so," answered Grandpapa, when she paused for an
+answer. Jasper came running out as the cab drove into the court. "Oh!"
+he exclaimed, at sight of Phronsie's face, then drove the words on his
+tongue back again, as he lifted her out.
+
+"Give her to Polly to fix up a bit," said his father. "She's all right,
+Jasper, my boy, I can't talk of it now. Hurry and take her to Polly."
+
+And for the following days, Mr. King never let Phronsie out of his
+sight. A new and more splendid doll, if possible, was bought, and all
+sorts and styles of clothes for it, which Phronsie took the greatest
+delight in caring for, humming happily to herself at the pleasure the
+poor man's little girl was taking at the same time with her other child.
+
+"Grandpapa," she said, laying down the doll carefully on the sofa, and
+going over to the table where Mr. King had just put aside the
+newspaper, "I do wish we could go and see that poor man and all his
+children--why didn't he tell us where he lived?"
+
+"The dickens!" exclaimed old Mr. King, unguardedly, "because the fellow
+is an impostor, Phronsie. He saved your life," and he seized Phronsie
+and drew her to his knee, "but he lied about those children. O dear
+me!" And he pulled himself up.
+
+"Then he hasn't any little children?" said Phronsie, opening her eyes
+very wide, and speaking very slowly.
+
+"Er-oh-I don't know," stammered Grandpapa; "it's impossible to tell,
+Phronsie."
+
+"But you don't believe he has any," said Phronsie, with grave
+persistence, fastening her brown eyes on his face.
+
+"No, Phronsie, I don't," replied old Mr. King, in desperation. "If he
+had, why should he run in this fashion when I was just asking him where
+he lived?"
+
+"But he didn't hear you, Grandpapa," said Phronsie, "when the man
+knocked your hat off."
+
+"Oh, well, he knew enough what I wanted," said Mr. King, who, now that
+he had let out his belief, was going to support it by all the reasons
+in his power. "No, no, Phronsie, it won't do; the fellow was an
+impostor, and we must just accept the fact, and make the best of it, my
+child."
+
+"But he told a lie," said Phronsie, in horror, unable to think of
+anything else.
+
+"Well." Mr. King had no words to say on that score, so he wisely said
+nothing.
+
+"That poor man told a lie," repeated Phronsie, as if producing a wholly
+fresh statement.
+
+"There, child, I wouldn't think anything more of it," said Grandpapa,
+soothingly, patting her little hand.
+
+"Grandpapa," said Phronsie, "I've given away my child, and she's sick
+because she fell and hurt her, and there isn't any little girl,
+and--and--that poor man told a lie!" And she flung herself up against
+Grandpapa's waistcoat, and sobbed as if her heart would break.
+
+Old Mr. King looked wildly around for Polly. And as good fortune would
+have it, in she ran. This wasn't very strange, for Polly kept nearly as
+close to Phronsie in these days, as Grandpapa himself.
+
+"Here, Polly," he called brokenly, "this is something beyond me. You
+must fix it, child."
+
+"Why, Phronsie!" exclaimed Polly, in dismay, and her tone was a bit
+reproachful. "Crying? Don't you know that you will make Grandpapa very
+sick unless you stop?"
+
+Phronsie's little hand stole out from over her mouth where she had been
+trying to hold the sobs back, and up to give a trembling pat on old Mr.
+King's cheek.
+
+"Bless you, my child," cried Grandpapa, quite overcome, so that Polly
+said more reproachfully, "Yes, very sick indeed, Phronsie, unless you
+stop this minute. You ought to see his face, Phronsie."
+
+Phronsie gathered herself up out of his arms, and through a rain of
+tears looked up at him.
+
+"Are you sick, Grandpapa?" she managed to ask.
+
+"Yes, dear; or I shall be if you don't stop crying, Phronsie," said Mr.
+King, pursuing all the advantage so finely gained.
+
+"I'll stop," said Phronsie, her small bosom heaving. "I really will,
+Grandpapa."
+
+"Now, you are the very goodest child," exclaimed Polly, down on her
+knees by Grandpapa's side, cuddling Phronsie's toes, "the very most
+splendid one in all this world, Phronsie Pepper."
+
+"And you'll be all well, Grandpapa?" asked Phronsie, anxiously.
+
+"Yes, child," said old Mr. King, kissing her wet face; "just as well as
+I can be, since you are all right."
+
+"And, oh, Grandpapa, can't we go to Fontainebleau to-day?" begged Polly.
+
+"Phronsie, just think--it will be precisely like the country, and we
+can get out of the carriages, and can run and race in the forest. Can't
+we, Grandpapa?"
+
+"All you want to," promised Grandpapa, recklessly, and only too
+thankful to have something proposed for a diversion. "The very thing,"
+he added enthusiastically. "Now, Polly and Phronsie, run and tell all
+the others to get ready, just as fast as they can, and we'll be off.
+Goodness me, Jasper, what makes you run into a room in this fashion?"
+
+"I've found him!" exclaimed Jasper, dashing in, and tossing his cap on
+the table, and his dark hair back from his forehead. "And he's all
+right--as straight as a die," he panted.
+
+"Now what in the world are you talking of?" demanded his father, in
+extreme irritation. "Can't you make a plain statement, and enlighten us
+without all this noise and confusion, pray tell?"
+
+Polly, who had Phronsie's hand in hers, just ready to run off, stood
+quite still with glowing cheek.
+
+"Oh, I do believe--Grandpapa--it is--it is!"--she screamed
+suddenly--"your poor man! Isn't it, Jasper--isn't it?" she cried,
+turning to him.
+
+"Yes, Polly," said Jasper, still panting from his run up the stairs;
+"and do hurry, father, and see for yourself; and we'll all go to him.
+I'll tell you all about it on the way."
+
+When Mr. King comprehended that the man was found, and that he was "all
+right," as Jasper vehemently repeated over and over, he communicated
+that fact to Phronsie, whose delight knew no bounds, and in less time
+than it takes to write it, Tom, who was the only one of the party to be
+collected on such short notice, had joined them, and they were bowling
+along in a big carriage, Jasper as guide, to the spot where the man was
+waiting.
+
+"You see it was just this way," Jasper was rapidly telling off. "I was
+going down by the Madeleine, and I thought I would bring Phronsie some
+flowers; so I stopped at the market, and I couldn't find a little pot
+of primroses I wanted, though I went the whole length; and at last,
+when I had given up, I saw just one in front of a woman who sat at the
+very end."
+
+"Do hurry, Jasper, and get to the conclusion," said his father,
+impatiently.
+
+Polly dearly loved to have the story go on in just this way, as she
+leaned forward, her eyes on Jasper's face, but she said nothing, only
+sighed.
+
+"Well," said Jasper, "I'll tell it as quickly as I can, father. And
+there were a lot of children, father, all round the woman where she sat
+on a box, and she was tying in a bunch some flowers that were huddled
+in her lap, and the children were picking out the good ones for her;
+and just then a man, who was bending over back of them all, breaking
+off some little branches from a big green one, straightened up
+suddenly, and, father, as true as you live," cried Jasper, in intense
+excitement, "it was your poor man!"
+
+"The children?" asked Mr. King, as soon as he could be heard for the
+excitement.
+
+"Are all his," cried Jasper, "and he took the money you gave him, and
+set his wife up in the flower business down in front of the Madeleine.
+Oh! and Phronsie, the doll you gave him was sitting up on another box,
+and every once in a while the littlest girl would stop picking out the
+flowers in her mother's lap, and would run over and wipe its face with
+her apron."
+
+
+
+
+XXVIII
+
+"WELL, I GOT HIM HERE," SAID THE LITTLE EARL
+
+
+They were really on their way to see the little old earl, after all!
+How it came about, Mr. King, even days after it had all been decided,
+couldn't exactly remember. He recalled several conversations in Paris
+with Tom's mother, who showed him bits of letters, and one in
+particular that somehow seemed to be a very potent factor in the plan
+that, almost before he knew it, came to be made. And when he held out,
+as hold out he did against the acceptance of the invitation, he found
+to his utmost surprise that every one, Mother Fisher and all, was
+decidedly against him.
+
+"Oh, well," he had declared when that came out, "I might as well give
+in gracefully first as last." And he sat down at once and wrote a very
+handsome note to the little old earl, and that clinched the whole
+business.
+
+And after the week of this visit should be over, for old Mr. King was
+firmness itself on not accepting a day more, they were to bid good-by
+to Mrs. Selwyn and Tom, and jaunt about a bit to show a little of Old
+England to the Hendersons, and then run down to Liverpool to see them
+off, and at last turn their faces toward Dresden, their winter
+home--"and to my work!" said Polly to herself in delight.
+
+So now here they were, actually driving up to the entrance of the park,
+and stopping at the lodge-gate.
+
+An old woman, in an immaculate cap and a stiff white apron over her
+best linsey-woolsey gown which she had donned for the occasion, came
+out of the lodge and courtesied low to the madam, and held open the big
+gate.
+
+"How have you been, Mrs. Bell?" asked Mrs. Selwyn, with a kind smile,
+as the carriage paused a bit.
+
+"Very well, my lady," said Mrs. Bell, her round face glowing with
+pride. "And the earl is well, bless him! and we are glad to welcome you
+home again, and Master Tom."
+
+"And I'm glad enough to get here, Mrs. Bell," cried Tom. "Now drive on
+at your fastest, Hobson."
+
+Hobson, who knew very well what Master Tom's fastest gait was,
+preferred to drive through the park at what he considered the dignified
+pace. So they rolled on under the stately trees, going miles, it seemed
+to Polly, who sat on the back seat with Tom.
+
+He turned to her, unable to conceal his impatience. "Anybody would
+think this pair were worn out old cobs," he fumed. "Polly, you have no
+idea how they can go, when Hobson lets them out. What are you wasting
+all this time for, crawling along in this fashion, Hobson, when you
+know we want to get on?"
+
+Thus publicly addressed, Hobson let the handsome bays "go" as Tom
+expressed it, and they were bowled along in a way that made Polly turn
+in delight to Tom.
+
+"There--that's something like!" declared Tom. "Don't you like it,
+Polly?" looking into her rosy face.
+
+"Like it!" cried Polly, "why, Tom Selwyn, it's beautiful. And these
+splendid trees--" she looked up and around. "Oh, I never saw any so
+fine."
+
+"They're not half bad," assented Tom, "these oaks aren't, and we have
+some more, on the other end of the park, about five miles off, that--"
+
+"Five miles off!" cried Polly, with wide eyes. "Is the park as big as
+that, Tom?"
+
+He laughed. "That isn't much. But you'll see it all for yourself," he
+added. Then he rushed off into wondering how his dogs were. "And, oh,
+you'll ride with the hounds, Polly!"
+
+Just then some rabbits scurried across the wood, followed by several
+more pattering and leaping through the grass.
+
+"Oh, Tom, see those rabbits!" cried Polly, excitedly.
+
+"Yes, the warrens are over yonder," said Tom, bobbing his head in the
+right direction.
+
+"What?" asked Polly, in perplexity.
+
+"Rabbit-warrens; oh, I forgot, you haven't lived in England. You seem
+so much like an English girl, though," said Tom, paying the highest
+compliment he knew of.
+
+"Well, what are they?" asked Polly, quite overcome by the compliment
+coming from Tom.
+
+"Oh, they are preserves, you know, where the rabbits live, and they are
+not allowed to be hunted here."
+
+"Oh, do you ever hunt rabbits?" cried Polly, in horror, leaning out of
+her side of the big coach to see the scurrying little animals.
+
+"Not often," said Tom, "we mostly ride after the fox. You'll ride with
+the hounds, Polly," he cried with enthusiasm. "We'll have a hunt while
+you're here, and we always wind up with a breakfast, you know. Oh,
+we'll have no end of sport." He hugged his long arms in huge
+satisfaction.
+
+And away--and away over the winding road and underneath the stately
+trees, rolled the big coach, to be followed by the other carriages,
+like a dream it seemed to Polly, and more than ever, when at last they
+stopped in front of a massive pile of buildings with towers and arches
+and wings.
+
+And the little old earl was kissing her rosy cheek in the most courtly
+fashion, and saying while he shook her hand in his long fingers, "And
+how do you do, my dear?" And Mrs. Selwyn was by his other side. And Tom
+was screeching out, "How do you do, Granddaddy!" And then, "Oh, Elinor
+and Mary!" to two quiet, plain-looking girls standing in the
+background. And "Ah, how d'ye kids!" as the faces of his two small
+brothers appeared. And Polly forgot all about the fact that she was in
+an earl's house, and she laughed and chatted; and in two minutes one of
+Tom's sisters was on either side of her, and the small boys in front,
+and the little groups were moving in and out of the old hall, as
+Grandpapa and the rest came in, and the head housekeeper in a black
+silk gown that seemed quite able to stand alone, and a perfect relay of
+stiff figures in livery were drawn up underneath the armour hanging on
+the wall.
+
+And the little old earl worked his way up to her, and he had Grandpapa
+on his arm. "Well, I got him here," he said with twinkling eyes, and a
+chuckle.
+
+But the next morning--oh, the next morning!--when Polly tried to
+compass as much of the thronging attractions as she could, and Jasper
+was at his wits' end whenever he was appealed to, to decide what he
+wanted to do first--"cricket," or "punting on the river," that ran
+through the estate, or "riding through the park, and to the village
+owned by his grandfather"? "I always go see the tenantry as soon as I
+get home," said Tom, simply.
+
+"Oh, then, let us go there by all means," said Jasper, quickly.
+
+"I mean--oh, I'm no end awkward," exclaimed Tom, breaking off, his face
+covered with confusion. "It's not necessary to go at once; we can fetch
+up there to-morrow."
+
+"Oh, do let us go, Tom," begged Polly, clasping her hands. "I should
+dearly love most of all to see the tenantry and those dear little
+cottages." And so that was decided upon.
+
+And Tom had his beloved hunt, several of the gentry being asked. And
+Polly rode a special horse selected by the little old earl himself.
+
+"It's perfectly safe; he has an excellent disposition," he declared to
+old Mr. King, "and he'll carry her all right."
+
+"I'm not afraid," said Mr. King, "the child rides well."
+
+"So she must--so she must, I was sure of it," cried the little old
+earl, with a series of chuckles. And he busied himself especially with
+seeing her mounted properly when the party gathered on the lawn in
+front of the old hall. The hounds were baying and straining at the
+leashes, impatient to be off; the pink hunting-coats gave dashes of
+colour as their owners moved about over the broad green sward,--under
+the oaks,--and Polly felt her heart beat rapidly with the exhilarating
+sights and sounds. It was only when they were off, and Tom riding up by
+her side expatiated on the glory of running down the fox and "being in
+at the death," that the colour died down on her cheek.
+
+"Oh, Tom!" she said, reining in her horse. If he hadn't been the
+possessor of a good disposition, he certainly would have bolted in his
+disappointment at being pulled up so abruptly. "It's so cruel to kill
+the poor fox in that way."
+
+"Eh--what!" exclaimed Tom, not hearing the words, falling back to her
+side, consternation all over his face. "Why, I never knew Meteor to
+break in this way before."
+
+"Oh, it isn't his fault," said Polly, hastily, and patting her horse's
+neck. "I pulled him up. Oh, Tom, it's all so very cruel."
+
+"Eh?" said Tom, in a puzzled way.
+
+"To kill the fox in this way," said Polly, her heart sinking as she
+thought how dreadful it was for her to object, when visiting, to
+anything her host might plan. "O dear me!" and she looked so distressed
+that Tom turned comforter at once.
+
+"We all do it," he was saying, as Jasper rode up.
+
+"Anything the matter?" he asked in great concern. "What's happened?"
+
+"Nothing," said Tom, "only Polly doesn't like the fox-hunt."
+
+"It's so cruel," cried Polly, turning to Jasper, with a little pink
+spot coming in either cheek. "I ought to have thought of it before, but
+I didn't; it only seemed so very splendid to be rushing along with the
+horses and dogs. But to chase that poor fox to death--O dear me!"
+
+"We'll go back," suggested Tom, in distress; "don't be afraid, Polly,
+I'll make it all right with granddaddy." He concealed as best he might
+his awful disappointment as the echoes of the horn, the baying of the
+dogs, and now and then a scrap of chatter or a peal of laughter was
+borne to them on the wind.
+
+"Polly," said Jasper, in a low voice, "it isn't quite right, is it, to
+disturb the party now? Just think, Tom will go back with us."
+
+The pink spots died out on Polly's cheek. "No, Jasper," she said, "it
+isn't right. Tom, you needn't say one word about going back, for I am
+going on." She gave the rein to Meteor and dashed off.
+
+"We'll have a race through the park some day, Polly," called Tom, as he
+sped after her, "without any fox."
+
+"Too bad, Polly, you weren't in at the death," said the little old
+earl, sympathisingly, when at the hunt-breakfast following, the brush
+dangling to a victorious young lady's belt, had been admired as an
+extremely fine one. "Never mind; better luck next time, little girl."
+
+But the fête to the tenantry, oh! that was something like, and more to
+Polly's taste, when this annual affair, postponed while Tom's mother
+and Tom were away, took place. For days before, the preparations had
+been making, the stewards up to their eyes in responsibility to carry
+out the plans of the little old earl, who meant on this occasion to
+outdo all his former efforts, and show his American friends how an
+Englishman treats those under his care.
+
+Oh, the big joints of beef, the haunches of venison, the fowls, the
+meat pies and the gooseberry tarts, the beer and the ale, and the tea
+for the old women, with nuts and sweeties for the children! Oh, Polly
+knew about it all, as she went about with the little old earl while he
+gave his orders, her hand in his, just as if she were no older than
+Phronsie, and not such a tall, big girl.
+
+And Mrs. Selwyn was busy as a bee, and Mother Fisher was just in her
+element here, in helping her; for flannel petticoats were to be given
+out, and stuff frocks, and pieces of homespun, and boots and shoes, as
+prizes for diligent and faithful service; or an order for coals for the
+coming winter for some poor cottager, or packages of tea, or some other
+little comfort. And before any of them quite realised it, the days flew
+by, and in two more of them the King party would be off.
+
+"It's perfectly useless to mention it," said the little old earl, quite
+confident in his power to influence old Mr. King to remain when he saw
+how happily everything was running on. "My dear sir, you were asked for
+a fortnight."
+
+"And I accepted for a week," retorted Mr. King, "and I go when that
+time is up. We've had a visit--I can't express it to you, what a fine
+time--as near to perfection as it is possible for a visit to be; but
+day after to-morrow we surely must leave."
+
+Tom was so despondent, as well as the old earl, that it was necessary
+to cheer him up in some way. "Just think what a splendid thing for us
+to be in the midst of that fête for the peasantry," exclaimed Polly,
+with sparkling eyes. "It's quite too lovely for our last day."
+
+But Tom wasn't to be raised out of his gloom in this way. "We've had
+only one game of cricket," he said miserably.
+
+"And one afternoon at tennis, and we've been out punting on the river
+three times," said Polly.
+
+"What's that? only a bagatelle," sniffed Tom, "compared to what I meant
+to do."
+
+"Well, let's have the race on horseback this afternoon," proposed
+Polly, "down through the park, that you said you were going to have,
+Tom. Wouldn't that be nice?"
+
+"Do," urged Jasper. "It would be so capital, Tom."
+
+"All right," assented Tom, "if you'd really rather have that than
+anything else; but it seems as if I ought to think up something more
+for the last afternoon, but the fête; and that doesn't count."
+
+"Oh, nothing could be finer," declared Polly, and Jasper joined. So Tom
+rushed off to the stables to give the orders. And Polly on Meteor was
+soon flying up and down with the boys, and Elinor and Mary. And the two
+small lads trotted after on their Shetland ponies, in and out the
+winding roads of the park confines, without any haunting fear of a poor
+red fox to be done to death at the end.
+
+And on the morrow, the sun condescended to come out in all his glory,
+upon the groups of tenantry scattered over the broad lawns. There were
+games in abundance for the men and boys; and others for the children.
+There were chairs for the old women, and long benches for those who
+desired to sit under the spreading branches of the great oaks to look
+on. And there were cups of tea, and thin bread and butter passed around
+by the white-capped maids, superintended by the housekeeper and the
+butler, quite important in their several functions. This was done to
+appease the hunger before the grand collation should take place later.
+And there was music by the fiddlers on the upper terrace, and there
+was,--dear me, it would take quite too long to tell it all!
+
+And at last, the order was given to fall into line, and march around
+the long tables resplendent with their cold joints and hot joints;
+their pasties, and tarts, and cakes, and great flagons of ale. And over
+all was a wealth of bloom from the big old English gardens in the rear
+of the old hall. The posies filled Polly with delight, as she and Tom's
+sisters and Phronsie had gathered them under the direction of the
+gardeners in the early morning; and then--oh, best of all--Mrs. Selwyn
+had allowed her to give the finishing touches to them as they became
+the decoration for the feast.
+
+And the little old earl called the large assemblage to order, and the
+vicar asked the grace, and the feast was begun!
+
+And then one of the tenants found his feet, and leaning on his staff,
+he thanked the Earl of Cavendish for all his goodness, and he hoped
+there would be many blessings in store for 'im and 'is, and sank on his
+bench again, mopping his face with his big red handkerchief.
+
+And then the little old earl responded in as pretty a speech as could
+well be imagined, in which he forgot nothing that he ought to say. And
+there were many "God bless 'ims!" to follow it, and then there were
+cries of "Master Tom, Master Tom," who appeared to be an immense
+favourite; and the earl, well pleased, pulled him forward, saying, "Go
+ahead, youngster, and give it to them."
+
+And Tom, extremely red in the face, tried to duck away, but found
+himself instead in front of the longest table, with everybody looking
+at him. And he mumbled out a few words and bobbed his head. And every
+one was just as well pleased. And then they gave cheer on cheer for the
+earl, and as many more for his oldest grandson. And then the little old
+earl raised his hand and said, "And now, my men, give a rousing good
+one for my dear American friends!"
+
+And didn't they do it!
+
+And on the following morning, the old hall, with its towers and its
+wings, had only the memory of the happy week to sustain it.
+
+      *      *      *      *      *
+
+Jasper ran up to Polly on the deck. "We ought to go," he said, "the
+order has been given to leave the steamer."
+
+"Yes, Polly," said Mother Fisher, "we must go, child."
+
+"Give my love to dear Grandma Bascom," said Polly, for about the
+fiftieth time. "Oh, Mrs. Henderson, and don't forget to take over the
+new cap just as soon as you can, will you?"
+
+"I won't forget," promised the parson's wife.
+
+"And take mine to my dear Mrs. Beebe," begged Phronsie, twitching
+gently at Mrs. Henderson's sleeve, "and tell her I got pink ribbon
+because I know she loves that best."
+
+"I won't forget," said Mrs. Henderson, again.
+
+"Oh, and give the big handkerchief to my dear Mr. Beebe," said
+Phronsie, "please, Mrs. Henderson, to tie his throat up in, because,
+you know, he says it gets so cold when he goes out."
+
+"I'll remember every single thing," promised the parson's wife. "Don't
+you worry, children. Oh, how we hate to leave you, only we are going to
+see our boys. We really are, Polly!" And her eyes shone.
+
+"Polly! Polly!" called Jasper.
+
+"All off who aren't going!" roared the order out again.
+
+"Polly!" The little doctor seized one arm and Phronsie's hand. "There
+now, here you are!" and whisked them off, amid "good-by--good-by"--and
+a flutter of handkerchiefs.
+
+"And give my love to dear Grandma Bascom," piped Phronsie, on the wharf
+by old Mr. King's side, as the big steamer slowly pushed from its
+moorings.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Five Little Peppers Abroad, by Margaret Sidney
+
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Five Little Peppers Abroad, by Margaret Sidney
+
+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: Five Little Peppers Abroad
+
+Author: Margaret Sidney
+
+Illustrator: Fanny Y. Cory
+
+Posting Date: April 30, 2013 [EBook #6987]
+Release Date: November, 2004
+First Posted: February 20, 2003
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FIVE LITTLE PEPPERS ABROAD ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Michelle Shephard, Charles Franks and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+FIVE LITTLE PEPPERS ABROAD
+
+by
+
+MARGARET SIDNEY
+
+
+Illustrated by FANNY Y. CORY
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+When the friends of the Pepper family found that the author was firm in
+her decision to continue their history no further, they brought their
+appeals for the details of some of those good times that made the
+"little brown house" an object-lesson.
+
+In these appeals, the parents were as vigorous as the young people for
+a volume of the stories that Polly told, to keep the children happy in
+those hard days when her story-telling had to be a large factor in
+their home-life; and also for a book of their plays and exploits,
+impossible to be embodied in the continued series of their history, so
+that all who loved the "Five Little Peppers" might the better study the
+influences that shaped their lives.
+
+Those requests were complied with; the author realising that the
+detailed account held values, by which stronger light might be thrown
+on the family life in the "little brown house."
+
+And now the pressure is brought to bear for a book showing the Little
+Peppers over the ocean, recorded in "Five Little Peppers Midway." And
+the author is very glad to comply again; for foreign travel throws a
+wholly different side-light upon the Pepper family. So here is the book.
+
+It is in no sense to be taken as a story written for a
+guide-book,--although the author lives in it again her repeated
+enjoyment of the sights and scenes which are accurately depicted. A
+"Baedeker," if carefully studied, is really all that is needed as a
+constant companion to the traveller; while for supplementary helps and
+suggestions, there are many valuable books along the same line. This
+volume is given up to the Peppers; and they must live their own lives
+and tell their own story while abroad just as they choose.
+
+As the author has stated many times, her part is "simply to set down
+what the Peppers did and said, without trying to make them say or do
+anything in particular." And so over the ocean they are just as much
+the makers of their own history as when they first opened the door of
+the "little brown house" to
+
+                                 MARGARET SIDNEY.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+CHAPTER
+
+      I. OVER THE OCEAN
+     II. TWO ENGLISH FRIENDS
+    III. PHRONSIE GOES VISITING
+     IV. STEAMER LIFE
+      V. A FISH STORY AND OTHER THINGS
+     VI. A LITTLE SURPRISE
+    VII. OFF FOR HOLLAND
+   VIII. "WE WILL COME AGAIN AND STAY A WEEK"
+     IX. A BOX FOR THE PEPPER BOYS
+      X. DANGER
+     XI. THE TWO BIRTHDAYS IN OLD HOLLAND
+    XII. THE HENDERSON BOX
+   XIII. "THE CLEANEST PLACE IN ALL HOLLAND"
+    XIV. THE ISLAND OF MARKEN
+     XV. MR. KING DOES HIS DUTY
+    XVI. "LET US FLY AT THOSE BOOKS"
+   XVII. POLLY WROTE A NICE LITTLE NOTE
+  XVIII. BAYREUTH AND OLD FRIENDS
+    XIX. MR. KING HAS A LITTLE PLAN FOR POLLY
+     XX. "I SHOULD MAKE HIM HAPPY," SAID PHRONSIE
+    XXI. ON THE RIGI-KULM
+   XXII. POLLY TRIES TO HELP
+  XXIII. IN THE SHADOW OF THE MATTERHORN
+   XXIV. THE ROUND ROBIN
+    XXV. ON THE _MER DE GLACE_
+   XXVI. "WELL, HERE WE ARE IN PARIS!"
+  XXVII. "I'VE FOUND HIM!" EXCLAIMED JASPER
+ XXVIII. "WELL, I GOT HIM HERE," SAID THE LITTLE EARL
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+"Now don't you want to get off?"
+
+He clung to his pear with both hands and ate away with great
+satisfaction
+
+"Fan-ny!--the Earl of Cavendish!" She could go no further
+
+Phronsie sat opposite him
+
+"Mamsie's got her two bothers," said Polly
+
+"Look at that girl!"
+
+She picked up the skirt of her gown
+
+Phronsie ducked and scuttled in as she could
+
+
+
+
+_Five Little Peppers Abroad_
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+OVER THE OCEAN
+
+
+"Dear me," said Polly, "I don't see wherever she can be, Jasper. I've
+searched just everywhere for her." And she gave a little sigh, and
+pushed up the brown rings of hair under her sailor cap.
+
+"Don't worry, Polly," said Jasper, with a reassuring smile. "She's with
+Matilda, of course. Come, Polly, let's you and I have a try at the
+shuffle-board by ourselves, down on the lower deck."
+
+"No, we can't," said Polly, with a dreadful longing at her heart for
+the charms of a game; "that is, until we've found Phronsie." And she
+ran down the deck. "Perhaps she is in one of the library corners,
+though I thought I looked over them all."
+
+"How do you know she isn't with Matilda, Polly?" cried Jasper, racing
+after, to see Polly's little blue jacket whisking ahead of him up the
+companion-way.
+
+"Because"--Polly stopped at the top and looked over her shoulder at
+him--"Matilda's in her berth. She's awfully seasick. I was to stay with
+Phronsie, and now I've lost her!" And the brown head drooped, and Polly
+clasped her hands tightly together.
+
+"Oh, no, she can't be lost, Polly," said Jasper, cheerfully, as he
+bounded up the stairs and gained her side; "why, she couldn't be!"
+
+"Well, anyway, we can't find her, Jasper," said Polly, running on. "And
+it's all my fault, for I forgot, and left her in the library, and went
+with Fanny Vanderburgh down to her state-room. O dear me!" as she sped
+on.
+
+"Well, she's in the library now, most likely," said Jasper, cheerfully,
+hurrying after, "curled up asleep in a corner." And they both ran in,
+expecting to see Phronsie's yellow head snuggled into one of the
+pillows.
+
+But there was no one there except a little old gentleman on one of the
+sofas back of a table, who held his paper upside down, his big
+spectacles on the end of his nose, almost tumbling off as he nodded
+drowsily with the motion of the steamer.
+
+"O dear me!" exclaimed Polly; "now we shall wake him up," as they
+tiptoed around, peering in every cosey corner and behind all the tables
+for a glimpse of Phronsie's little brown gown.
+
+"No danger," said Jasper, with a glance over at the old gentleman;
+"he's just as fast asleep as can be. Here, Polly, I think she's
+probably tucked up in here." And he hurried over to the farther side,
+where the sofa made a generous angle.
+
+Just then in stalked a tall boy, who rushed up to the little old
+gentleman. "Here, Granddad, wake up." And he shook his arm smartly.
+"You're losing your glasses, and then there'll be a beastly row to pay."
+
+"O dear me!" cried Polly aghast, as she and Jasper whirled around.
+
+"Hey--what--what!" exclaimed the old gentleman, clutching his paper as
+he started forward. "Oh,--why, I haven't been asleep, Tom."
+
+"Ha! Ha! tell that to the marines," cried Tom, loudly, dancing in
+derision, "You've been sleeping like a log. You'd much better go down
+and get into your state-room. But give me a sovereign first." He held
+out his hand as he spoke. "Hurry up, Granddad!" he added impatiently.
+
+The old gentleman put his hand to his head, and then rubbed his eyes.
+
+"Bustle up," cried the boy, with a laugh, "or else I'll run my fist in
+your pocket and help myself."
+
+"Indeed, you won't," declared the old gentleman, now thoroughly awake.
+
+"Ha! Ha!" laughed the boy. "You see if I won't, Granddad." Yet he
+dropped his imperious tone, and waited, though impatiently, while the
+big pocket-book was drawn out.
+
+"What do you want with money on board the boat?" demanded the old
+gentleman.
+
+"Give me a sovereign, Granddad," cried Tom, controlling his impatience
+as best he might, with many a cross look at the wrinkled old face under
+the white hair.
+
+His Grandfather slowly drew out the coin, and Tom twitched it eagerly
+from the long, thin fingers.
+
+"I don't see how you can need money on board the boat," repeated the
+old gentleman.
+
+"Never you mind what I want it for, Grand-daddy," said Tom, laughing
+loudly and shaking the sovereign at him as he ran off; "that's my
+business, and not yours."
+
+Polly had not taken her eyes off their faces. Now she turned toward
+Jasper. "Oh, how very dreadful!" she gasped--then would have given
+everything if she had kept still, for the old gentleman whirled around
+and saw them for the first time.
+
+"Hey--who are you--and what are you listening there for--hey?" he
+demanded sharply. He had little black eyes, and they now snapped in a
+truly dreadful way at them.
+
+"We came to find her little sister," said Jasper, politely, for Polly
+was quite beyond speaking.
+
+"Sister? I don't know anything about your sister," said the old
+gentleman, irascibly. "And this room isn't a place for children, I can
+tell you," he added, as if he owned the library and the whole ship.
+
+Jasper made no reply.
+
+"Phronsie isn't here." Polly clasped her hands again tighter than ever.
+"And, oh, Jasper!" and she looked at the angry old face before them
+with pitying eyes.
+
+"What I say to my grandson, Tom, and what he says to me, is our own
+business!" exclaimed the old gentleman in a passion, thumping the table
+with his clenched hand. "And no one else has a right to hear it."
+
+"I am so very sorry we heard it," said Polly, the colour which had
+quite gone from her cheek now rushing back. "And we are going right
+away, sir."
+
+"You would much better," said the old man, nodding angrily. "And you,
+boy, too; I suppose you think yourself better than my Tom. But you are
+not--not a bit of it!" And suddenly he tried to start to his feet, but
+lurched heavily against the table instead.
+
+Polly and Jasper rushed over to him. "Lean on me, sir," said Jasper,
+putting both arms around him, while Polly ran to his other side, he was
+shaking so dreadfully.
+
+The old gentleman essayed to wave them off. "Let me alone," he said
+feebly; "I'm going after my grandson, Tom." His voice sank to a
+whisper, and his head dropped to his breast. "He's got money--he's
+always getting it, and I'm going to see what he's doing with it."
+
+"Polly," said Jasper, "you help me put him back on the sofa; there,
+that's it," as the old man sank feebly down against the cushions; "and
+then I'll run and find his grandson."
+
+It was just the time when everybody seemed to be in the state-rooms, or
+out on deck in steamer chairs, so Polly sat there at the old man's
+head, feeling as if every minute were an hour, and he kept gurgling,
+"Tom's a bad boy--he gets money all the time, and I'm going to see what
+he's doing with it," with feeble waves of his legs, that put Polly in a
+fright lest he should roll off the sofa at every lurch of the steamer.
+
+"Tom is coming," at last she said, putting her hand on the hot
+forehead. "Please stay still, sir; you will be sick."
+
+"But I don't want Tom to come," cried the old gentleman, irritably.
+"Who said I wanted him to come? Hey?" He turned up his head and looked
+at her, and Polly's hand shook worse than ever when the little snapping
+eyes were full on her face, and she had all she could do to keep from
+running out of the room and up on deck where she could breathe freely.
+
+"I am so sorry," she managed to gasp, feeling if she didn't say
+something, she should surely run. "Does your head feel better?" And she
+smoothed his hot forehead gently just as Phronsie always did
+Grandpapa's when it ached. And when she thought of Phronsie, then it
+was all she could do to keep the tears back. Where could she be? And
+would Jasper never come back?
+
+And just then in ran Tom with a great clatter, complaining noisily
+every step of the way. "I told you you'd much better get off to your
+stateroom, Granddad!" he exclaimed. "Here, I'll help you down there."
+And he laid a hasty hand on the feeble old arm.
+
+"I think he is sick," said Polly, gently. Jasper came hurrying in.
+"Phronsie is all right," he had time to whisper to Polly.
+
+"Oh, Jasper!" the colour rushed into her cheek that had turned quite
+white. "I am so glad."
+
+"Nonsense!" exclaimed Tom, abruptly. "It's only one of his crotchets.
+You don't know; he gets up plenty of 'em on occasion."
+
+"What did you want a sovereign for?" asked the old gentleman,
+querulously, taking his sharp little eyes off Polly to fasten them on
+his grandson's face. "Say, I _will_ know."
+
+"And I say no matter," retorted Tom, roughly. "And you ought to come
+down to your state-room where you belong. Come, Granddad!" And he tried
+again to lay hold of his arm. But the little old gentleman sank back,
+and looked up at Polly again. "I think I'll stay here," he said.
+
+"I say," began the boy, in an embarrassed way, "this is dreadfully
+rough on you," and then he looked away from Polly to Jasper. "And if
+you knew him as well as I do," nodding his head at his Grandfather,
+"you wouldn't get in such a funk."
+
+Polly was busy smoothing the hot forehead under the white hair, and
+appeared not to notice a word he said.
+
+"Your Grandfather really appears ill," said Jasper. "And the doctor
+might give him something to help him."
+
+Tom burst into a short laugh and kicked his heel against the table.
+"Hoh! hoh! I say, you don't know him; oh, what muffs you are! He's well
+enough, only he's determined not to go to his state-room where he
+belongs, but to kick up a row here."
+
+"Very well," said Jasper, coolly, "since you are determined to do
+nothing for his relief, I shall take it upon myself to summon the
+doctor." He stepped to a table a bit further off, and touched the
+electric button back of it.
+
+"Here, don't do that," remonstrated Tom, springing forward. But it was
+too late, and the steward who attended to calls on the library stepped
+in.
+
+"It isn't the hour for giving out books," he began.
+
+Tom was stamping his foot impatiently, and scowling at Jasper,
+alternately casting longing glances out the nearest port-hole.
+
+"It isn't books we want," said Jasper, quickly, "but this old
+gentleman"--whose head was now heavily sunken on his breast, and whose
+cheek was quite white--"appears to be very ill, and to need the doctor."
+
+"Is that so?" The steward leaned over and peered into the old face.
+"Well, he doesn't look just right, and that's a fact. Is he your
+father?"
+
+"Oh, no," said Jasper, quickly, "I don't know who he is. But, do hurry,
+for he's sick, and needs the doctor at once."
+
+"I'll get Dr. Jones." Off ran the steward toward the surgeon's cabin.
+
+"See what you've done," cried Tom, in a towering passion. "Kicked up a
+pretty mess--when I tell you I've seen my Grandfather just as bad a
+hundred times."
+
+Jasper made no reply, and Polly continued to stroke gently the poor
+head.
+
+"Well--well--well!" exclaimed Mr. King, coming in, "to be sure, it's
+very stupid in me not to think of looking in the library for both of
+you before. O dear me--bless me!" And he came to a dead stop of
+astonishment.
+
+"Father," cried Jasper, "this poor man seems very ill."
+
+"Oh, yes," breathed Polly, pitifully, "he really is, Grandpapa." And
+she put out her hand to seize one of Mr. King's. "And Jasper has sent
+for the doctor."
+
+"And none too soon, I should say," remarked Mr. King, grimly, with a
+keen glance into the old man's face. "Raise his feet a little higher,
+Jasper; put a pillow under them; there, that's it. Well, the doctor
+should be hurried up." He glanced quickly around. "Here, you boy,"
+seeing Tom, "run as you never have run before, and tell the doctor to
+come quickly."
+
+"There isn't any need," began Tom.
+
+"Do you _go_!" commanded Mr. King, pointing to the door. And Tom went.
+
+"Father, that boy is his grandson," said Jasper, pointing to the sick
+man.
+
+Mr. King stared into Jasper's face, unable to make a reply.
+
+"He is," declared Polly. "Oh, Grandpapa, he really is!" Then she buried
+her flushed face up against Mr. King's arm.
+
+"There is no need to waste words," said Mr. King, finding his tongue.
+"There, there, Polly, child," fondling her brown head, "don't feel
+badly. I'm sure you've done all you could."
+
+"'Twas Jasper; he did it all--I couldn't do anything," said Polly.
+
+"Oh, Polly, you did everything," protested Jasper.
+
+"Yes, yes, I know, you both did," said Mr. King. "Well, here's the
+doctor, thank the Lord!"
+
+And then when nobody wanted them, the library seemed to be full of
+people, and the news spreading out to the decks, many of the passengers
+got out of their steamer chairs, and tried to swarm into the two
+doorways.
+
+Tom, who never knew how he summoned Dr. Jones, being chiefly occupied
+in astonishment at finding that he obeyed a command from a perfect
+stranger, did not come back to the library, but kept himself with the
+same amazed expression on his face, idly kicking his heels in a quiet
+corner of the deck near by. He never thought of such a thing as being
+worried over his Grandfather, for he couldn't remember when the old
+gentleman hadn't been subject to nervous attacks; but somehow since "a
+row," as he expressed it, "had been kicked up," it was just as well to
+stay in the vicinity and see the end of it. But he wasn't going
+inside--no, not he!
+
+After awhile, Tom was just beginning to yawn, and to feel that no one
+could expect him to waste time like that, and probably his Grandfather
+was going to sleep it out on the sofa, and the stupid doctor would find
+that there was nothing the matter, only the old man was nervous. "And
+I'm going back to the fellows," decided Tom, shaking his long legs.
+
+"Oh, here you are!" cried Jasper, running up to him. "Come quickly,"
+seizing his arm.
+
+"Hey, here, what are you about?" roared Tom at him, shaking off the
+hand.
+
+"You must excuse me for wasting no ceremony," said Jasper, sternly. It
+struck Tom that he looked very much like the old gentleman who had told
+him to _go!_ "Your Grandfather is very ill; something is the matter
+with his heart, and the doctor has sent me for you. He says he may not
+live an hour." It was necessary to tell the whole of the dreadful
+truth, for Tom was still staring at him in defiance.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+TWO ENGLISH FRIENDS
+
+
+"I don't want you," muttered the old gentleman, feebly, turning his
+head away from Tom, and then he set his lips tightly together. But he
+held to Polly's hand.
+
+"You would better go out," Dr. Jones nodded to Tom. "It excites him."
+
+The second time Tom was told to go. He stood quite still. "He's my
+Grandfather!" he blurted out.
+
+"Can't help it," said Dr. Jones, curtly; "he's my patient. So I tell
+you again it is imperative that you leave this room." Then he turned
+back to his work of making the sick man comfortable without taking any
+more notice of the boy.
+
+Tom gave a good long look at as much of his Grandfather's face as he
+could see, then slunk out, in a dazed condition, trying to make himself
+as small as possible. Jasper found him a half hour afterward, hanging
+over the rail away from curious eyes, his head buried on his arms.
+
+"I thought you'd like to know that your Grandfather is better," said
+Jasper, touching the bent shoulder.
+
+"Get away, will you?" growled Tom, kicking out his leg, unmindful where
+it struck.
+
+"And the doctor has gotten him into his state-room, and he is as
+comfortable as he could be made." Jasper didn't add that Dr. Jones had
+asked him to come back, and that the old man was still insisting that
+Polly should hold his hand.
+
+"In that case," declared Tom, suddenly twitching up his head, "I will
+go down there." His face was so drawn that Jasper started, and then
+looked away over the sea, and did not appear to notice the clenched
+hand down by the boy's side.
+
+"I--I--didn't know he was sick." Tom brought it out in gusts, and his
+face worked worse than ever in his efforts not to show his distress.
+The only thing he could do was to double up his hand tighter than ever,
+as he tried to keep it back of him.
+
+"I understand," nodded Jasper, still looking off over the blue water.
+
+"And now I'll go down," said Tom, drawing a long breath and starting
+off. Oh! and Dr. Jones had said the last thing to Jasper as he rushed
+off with the good news to Tom, "On no account let that boy see his
+Grandfather. I won't answer for the consequences if you do."
+
+"See here," Jasper tore his gaze off from the shimmering water. "The
+doctor doesn't--doesn't think you ought to see your Grandfather now."
+
+"Hey!" cried Tom, his drawn lips flying open, and his big blue eyes
+distending in anger. "He's my Grandfather. I rather think I shall do as
+I've a mind to," and he plunged off.
+
+"Tom!" Jasper took long steps after him. "Beg your pardon, this is no
+time for thinking of anything but your Grandfather's life. Dr. Jones
+said you were not to see him at present." The truth must be told, for
+in another moment the boy would have been off on the wings of the wind.
+
+"And do you think that I will mind in the least what that beastly
+doctor says?" cried Tom, getting redder and redder in the face, his
+rage was so great. "Hoh! no, sir."
+
+"Then your Grandfather's life will be paid as a sacrifice," said Jasper
+calmly. And he stood quite still; and surveyed the boy before him.
+
+Neither spoke. It seemed to Jasper an age that they stood there in
+silence. At last Tom wavered, put out his hand unsteadily, leaned
+against a steamer chair, and turned his face away.
+
+"Let us do a bit of a turn on the deck," said Jasper, suddenly,
+overcoming by a mighty effort his repugnance to the idea.
+
+Tom shook his head, and swallowed hard.
+
+"Oh, yes," said Jasper, summoning all the cheerfulness he could muster
+to his aid. "Come, it's the very thing to do, if you really want to
+help your Grandfather."
+
+Tom raised his head and looked at him. "I never supposed the old man
+was sick," he said brokenly, and down went his head again, this time
+upon his hands, which were grasping the top of the chair.
+
+"I don't believe you did," answered Jasper. "But come, Tom, let's walk
+around the deck; we can talk just as well meanwhile."
+
+Two or three young men, with cigarettes in their mouths, came
+sauntering up. "Tom Selwyn, you're a pretty fellow--"
+
+Tom raised his head and looked at them defiantly.
+
+"To give us the slip like this," cried one, with a sneer, in which the
+others joined, with a curious look at Jasper.
+
+"Well, come on now," said one. "Yes--yes--come along," said another;
+"we've waited long enough for you to get back."
+
+"I'm not coming," declared Tom, shortly.
+
+"Not coming back? Well--" One of the young men said something under his
+breath, and the first speaker turned on his heel, tossing his cigarette
+over the railing.
+
+"No," said Tom, "I'm not coming. Did you hear me?"
+
+"I believe I had that pleasure," said the last named, "as I am not
+deaf. Come on, fellows; our little boy has got to wait on his
+Grandpappy. Good-by, kid!" He snapped his fingers; the other two
+laughed derisively, and sauntered off down the deck as they came.
+
+Tom shook with passion. "I'd like to walk," he said, drawing a long
+breath, and setting off unsteadily.
+
+"All right," said Jasper, falling into step beside him.
+
+Meantime the old gentleman, in his large handsome state-room, showed no
+sign of returning to the consciousness that had come back for a brief
+moment. And he held to Polly's hand so tightly, as she sat at the head
+of the berth, that there was no chance of withdrawing her fingers had
+she so desired. And Father Fisher with whom Dr. Jones had of course
+made acquaintance, before the steamer fairly sailed, sat there keeping
+watch too, in a professional way, the ship's doctor having called him
+in consultation over the case. And Phronsie, who had been in deep
+penitence because she had wandered off from the library with another
+little girl, to gaze over the railing upon the steerage children below,
+thereby missing Polly, was in such woe over it all that she was allowed
+to cuddle up against Polly's side and hold her other hand. And there
+she sat as still as a mouse, hardly daring to breathe. And Mr. King,
+feeling as if, after all, the case was pretty much under his
+supervision, came softly in at intervals to see that all was well, and
+that the dreadful boy was kept out.
+
+And the passengers all drifted back to their steamer chairs, glad of
+some new topic to discuss, for the gossip they had brought on board was
+threadbare now, as they were two days at sea. And the steamer sailed
+over the blue water that softly lapped the stout vessel's side,
+careless of the battle that had been waged for a life, even then
+holding by slender threads. And Fanny Vanderburgh, whose grandfather
+was a contemporary in the old business days in New York with Mr. King,
+and who sat with her mother at the next table to the King party, spent
+most of her time running to Mrs. Pepper's state-room, or interviewing
+any one who would be able to give her the slightest encouragement as to
+when she could claim Polly Pepper.
+
+"O dear me!" Fanny cried, on one such occasion, when she happened to
+run across Jasper. "I've been down to No. 45 four times this morning,
+and there's nobody there but that stupid Matilda, and she doesn't know
+or won't tell when Polly will get through reading to that tiresome old
+man. And they won't let me go to his state-room. Mrs. Fisher and your
+father are there, too, or I'd get them to make Polly come out on deck.
+We all want her for a game of shuffle-board."
+
+Jasper sighed. So did he long for a game of shuffle-board. Then he
+brought himself up, and said as brightly as he could: "Mr. Selwyn begs
+Polly to stay, and won't have any one else read to him, Miss
+Vanderburgh, so I don't see as it can be helped. He's been very sick,
+you know."
+
+Fanny Vanderburgh beat the toe of her boot on the deck floor. "It's a
+perfect shame. And that horrible old man, he's so seedy and
+common--just think of it--and spoiling all our fun!"
+
+Jasper looked off over the sea, and said nothing.
+
+"As for that dreadful boy, his grandson, I think he's a boor. Goodness
+me--I hope nobody will introduce him. I'm sure I never'll recognise him
+afterward."
+
+Jasper turned uneasily. "Please, Mr. King, do make Polly listen to
+reason," begged Fanny. "There isn't another girl on board I care to go
+with--at least not in the way I would with her. The Griswolds are well
+enough to play games with, and all that; but you know what I mean. Do
+make her come out with us this morning, and listen to reason," she
+repeated, winding up helplessly.
+
+"But I think she is just right," said Jasper, stoutly.
+
+"Right!" cried Fanny, explosively; "oh, how can you say so, Mr. Jasper!
+Why, she is losing just every bit of the fun."
+
+"I know it," said Jasper, with a twinge at the thought. "Well, there is
+nothing more to be said or done, Miss Vanderburgh, since Polly has
+decided the matter. Only I want you to remember that I think she is
+just right about it."
+
+Fanny Vanderburgh pouted her pretty lips in vexation. "At least, don't
+try to get that dreadful boy into our own set to play games," she cried
+venomously, "for I won't speak to him. He's a perfect boor. 'Twas only
+yesterday he brushed by me like a clumsy elephant, and knocked my book
+out of my hand, and never even picked it up. Think of that, Mr. King!"
+
+"I know--that was dreadful," assented Jasper, in dismay at the obstacle
+to the plan he had formed in his own mind, to do that very thing he was
+now being warned against. "But you see, Miss Vanderburgh, he's all
+upset by his Grandfather's sickness."
+
+"And I should think he would be," cried Fanny Vanderburgh, with spirit.
+"Mrs. Griswold says she's heard him domineering over the old man, and
+then his Grandfather would snarl and scold like everything. She has the
+next state-room, you know. I don't see how those Selwyns can afford
+such a nice cabin," continued Fanny, her aristocratic nose in the air,
+"they look so poor. Anyway that boy is a perfect beast, Mr. King."
+
+"He's very different now," said Jasper, quickly. "He had no idea his
+Grandfather was so poorly. Now I'll tell you, Miss Vanderburgh," Jasper
+turned sharply around on his heel so that he faced her. It was
+necessary with a girl like her to state plainly what he had to say, and
+to keep to it. "I am going to ask Tom Selwyn to play games with all us
+young people. If it distresses you, or any one else, so that you cannot
+join, of course I will withdraw, and I know Polly will, and we will get
+up another circle that will play with him."
+
+It was almost impossible to keep from laughing at Fanny's face, but
+Jasper was very grave as he waited for an answer. "O dear me, Mr.
+Jasper," she cried, "haven't I told you I don't really care for any one
+on board but Polly Pepper, and Mamma doesn't want me to mix up much
+with those Griswolds?" She lowered her voice and glanced over her
+shoulder. "It would make it so awkward if they should be much in New
+York, and we should meet. So of course I've got to do as Polly and you
+do. Don't you see?--it's awfully hard on me, though," and she clasped
+her hands in vexation.
+
+"Very well, then," said Jasper; "now that's decided. And seeing it is,
+why the next thing to do, is to bring Tom down, and we'll get up a game
+of shuffle-board at once. He's not needed by his Grandfather now." He
+didn't think it necessary to add, "for the old gentleman won't see him,
+and Tom is forbidden the room by the doctor."
+
+Fanny's aristocratic nose went up in alarm, and her whole face was
+overspread with dismay. It was one thing to anticipate evil, and quite
+another to find it precipitated upon one. "I--I don't--believe I can
+play this morning, Mr. Jasper," she began hurriedly, for the first time
+in her young life finding herself actually embarrassed. She was even
+twisting her fingers.
+
+"Very well," said Jasper, coolly, "then I understand that you will not
+play with us at any time, for, as we begin to-day, we shall keep on. I
+will set about getting up another party at once." He touched his yacht
+cap lightly, and turned off.
+
+"I'll go right down on the lower deck with you now." Fanny ran after
+him, her little boot heels clicking excitedly on the hard floor. "The
+steward has marked it all for us. I got him to, while I ran to find
+Polly so as to engage the place," she added breathlessly.
+
+"That's fine," said Jasper, a smile breaking over the gloom on his
+face; "now we'll have a prime game, Miss Vanderburgh."
+
+Fanny swallowed hard the lump in her throat, and tried to look
+pleasant. "Do you go and collect the Griswolds," cried Jasper,
+radiantly, "and I'll be back with Tom," and he plunged off. It was all
+done in a minute. And the thing that had been worrying him--how to get
+Tom into good shape, and to keep him there--seemed fixed in the best
+way possible. But Tom wouldn't go. Nothing that Jasper could do or say
+would move him out of the gloom into which he was cast, and at last
+Jasper ran down for a hurried game with the party awaiting him, to whom
+he explained matters in the best way he could.
+
+At last, old Mr. Selwyn was able to emerge from his state-room. Mr.
+King and he were the best of friends by this time, the former always,
+when Polly read aloud, being one of the listeners. At all such hours,
+indeed, and whenever Polly went to sit by the invalid, Phronsie would
+curl up at Polly's side, and fondle the doll that Grandpapa gave her
+last, which had the honour to take the European trip with the family.
+Phronsie would smooth the little dress down carefully, and then with
+her hand in Polly's, she would sit motionless till the reading was
+over. Mamsie, whose fingers could not be idle, although the big mending
+basket was left at home, would be over on the sofa, sewing busily; and
+little Dr. Fisher would run in and out, and beaming at them all through
+his spectacles, would cry cheerily, "Well, I declare, you have the most
+comfortable place on the whole boat, Mr. Selwyn." Or Dr. Jones, whom
+Polly thought, next to Papa Fisher, was the very nicest doctor in all
+the world, would appear suddenly around the curtain, and smile approval
+through his white teeth. At last on the fifth day out, the old man was
+helped up to sun himself in his steamer chair on deck. And then he had
+a perfect coterie around him, oh-ing and ah-ing over his illness, and
+expressing sympathy in every shape, for since Mr. King and his party
+took him up, it was quite the thing for all the other passengers to
+follow suit.
+
+When a few hours of this sort of thing had been going on, the old man
+called abruptly to Polly Pepper, who had left him, seeing he had such
+good company about him, and had now skipped up with Jasper to toss him
+a merry word, or to see if his steamer rug was all tucked in snugly
+around him.
+
+"See here, Polly Pepper, do you play chess?"
+
+"What, sir?" Polly thought she had not heard correctly.
+
+"Do you play chess, I say?" demanded old Mr. Selwyn, bringing his sharp
+little eyes to bear on her.
+
+"No, sir, that is--only a little," stammered Polly.
+
+"Well, that will do for a start," the old gentleman nodded in
+satisfaction. "And I'll give you some points later on about the game.
+Well, and you play backgammon, of course." He didn't wait for her to
+answer, but finished, "These people here drive me almost crazy, asking
+me how I feel, and what was the matter with me, and all that rubbish.
+Now, I'm going into the library, and you shall go too, and we'll have a
+game of backgammon."
+
+He flung back his steamer rug with a determined hand.
+
+Jasper began, "Oh, Polly!" in dismay, but she broke in, "Yes, indeed, I
+do play backgammon, Mr. Selwyn, and it will be fine to have a game."
+And together they helped him up and into a cosey corner of the library.
+
+"There, now," said Polly, with a final little pat on the sofa pillows
+tucked up at his back. "I believe you are as comfortable as you can be,
+Mr. Selwyn."
+
+"Indeed I am," he declared.
+
+"And now, Jasper, do get the backgammon board," cried Polly. "There it
+is over there," spying it on a further table.
+
+Old Mr. Selwyn cast a hungry glance on it as it was brought forward,
+and his sharp little eyes sparkled, as Polly threw it open. He even
+chuckled in delight as he set the men.
+
+Tom Selwyn came up to the door, and standing in its shadow, looked in.
+Jasper flung himself down on the sofa by the old gentleman's side to
+watch the game. Suddenly he glanced up, caught sight of Tom, although
+the latter's head was quickly withdrawn, and jumping up, he dashed
+after him.
+
+"Here--see here, Tom!" he called to the big figure before him, making
+good time down the stairs. "I can't go chasing you all over the boat in
+this fashion. Stop, will you?"
+
+"What do you want?" demanded Tom, crossly, feeling it impossible to
+elude such a pursuer, and backing up against a convenient angle.
+
+"I want you to come up into the library and watch the game. Do, it'll
+be the best time,"--he didn't say "to make it all up."
+
+"Can't," said Tom, "he won't see me."
+
+"Oh, yes, he will; I almost know he will," declared Jasper, eagerly
+feeling this minute as if the most unheard-of things were possible.
+
+"And beside, your sister--I mean the Pepper girl--Miss Pepper--" Tom
+corrected himself clumsily. "She can't bear me--I won't come."
+
+"Oh, yes, she can now," said Jasper, just as eagerly, "especially since
+I've told her all you've told me."
+
+"Well, I hate girls anyway," declared Tom, in his most savage fashion;
+"always have hated 'em, and always shall. I won't come!"
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+PHRONSIE GOES VISITING
+
+
+"Grandpapa," said Phronsie, softly, as she clung to his hand, after
+they had made the descent to the lower deck, "I think the littlest one
+can eat some of the fruit, don't you?" she asked anxiously.
+
+"Never you fear," assented old Mr. King, "that child that I saw
+yesterday can compass anything in the shape of food. Why, it had its
+mouth full of teeth, Phronsie; it was impossible not to see them when
+it roared."
+
+"I am so glad its teeth are there," said Phronsie, with a sigh of
+satisfaction, as she regarded her basket of fruit, "because if it
+hadn't any, we couldn't give it these nice pears, Grandpapa."
+
+"Well, here we are," said Mr. King, holding her hand tightly. "Bless
+me--are those your toes, young man?" this to a big chubby-faced boy,
+whose fat legs lay across the space as he sprawled on the deck; "just
+draw them in a bit, will you?--there. Well, now, Phronsie, this way.
+Here's the party, I believe," and he led her over to the other side,
+where a knot of steerage passengers were huddled together. In the midst
+sat a woman, chubby faced, and big and square, holding a baby. She had
+a big red shawl wrapped around her, in the folds of which snuggled the
+baby, who was contentedly chewing one end of it, while his mother had
+her eyes on the rest of her offspring, of which there seemed a good
+many. When the baby saw Phronsie, he stopped chewing the old shawl and
+grinned, showing all the teeth of which Mr. King had spoken. The other
+children, tow headed and also chubby, looked at the basket hanging on
+Phronsie's arm, and also grinned.
+
+"There is the baby!" exclaimed Phronsie, in delight, pulling
+Grandpapa's hand gently. "Oh, Grandpapa, there he is."
+
+"That's very evident," said the old gentleman. "Bless me!" addressing
+the woman, "how many children have you, pray tell?"
+
+"Nine," she said. Then she twitched the jacket of one of them, and the
+pinafore of another, to have them mind their manners, while the baby
+kicked and crowed and gurgled, seeming to be all teeth.
+
+"I have brought you some fruit," said Phronsie, holding out her basket,
+whereat all the tow headed group except the baby crowded each other
+dreadfully to see all there was in it. "I'm sorry the flowers are gone,
+so I couldn't bring any to-day. May the baby have this?" holding out a
+pear by the stem.
+
+The baby settled that question by lunging forward and seizing the pear
+with two fat hands, when he immediately sank into the depths of the old
+shawl again, all his teeth quite busy at work. Phronsie set down her
+basket on the deck, and the rest of the brood emptied it to their own
+satisfaction. Their mother's stolid face lighted up with a broad smile
+that showed all her teeth, and very white and even they were.
+
+"Grandpapa," said Phronsie, turning to him and clasping her hands, "if
+I only might hold that baby just one little bit of a minute," she
+begged, keenly excited.
+
+"Oh, Phronsie, he's too big," expostulated Mr. King, in dismay.
+
+"I can hold him just as easy, Grandpapa dear," said Phronsie, her lips
+drooping mournfully. "See." And she sat down on a big coil of rope near
+by and smoothed out her brown gown. "Please, Grandpapa dear."
+
+"He'll cry," said Mr. King, quickly. "Oh, no, Phronsie, it wouldn't do
+to take him away from his mother. You see it would be dreadful to set
+that child to roaring--very dreadful indeed." Yet he hung over her in
+distress at the drooping little face.
+
+"He won't cry." The mother's stolid face lighted up a moment. "And if
+the little lady wants to hold him, he'll sit there."
+
+"May I, Grandpapa?" cried Phronsie, her red lips curling into a happy
+smile. "Oh, please say I may, Grandpapa dear," clasping her hands.
+
+"The family seems unusually clean," observed Mr. King to himself. "And
+the doctor says there's no sickness on board, and it's a very different
+lot of steerage folks going this way from coming out, all of which I've
+settled before coming down here," he reflected. "Well, Phronsie--yes--I
+see no reason why you may not hold the baby if you want to." And before
+the words were hardly out of his mouth, the chubby-faced woman had set
+the fat baby in the middle of the brown gown smoothed out to receive
+him. He clung to his pear with both hands and ate away with great
+satisfaction, regardless of his new resting-place.
+
+"Just come here!" Mrs. Griswold, in immaculately fitting garments,
+evidently made up freshly for steamer use, beckoned with a hasty hand
+to her husband. "It's worth getting up to see." He flung down his novel
+and tumbled out of his steamer chair. "Look down there!"
+
+"_Whew!_" whistled Mr. Griswold; "that _is_ a sight!"
+
+"And that is the great Horatio King!" exclaimed Mrs. Griswold under her
+breath; "down there in that dirty steerage--and look at that
+child--Reginald, did you ever see such a sight in your life?"
+
+"On my honour, I never have," declared Mr. Griswold, solemnly, and
+wanting to whistle again.
+
+"Sh!--don't speak so loud," warned Mrs. Griswold, who was doing most of
+the talking herself. And plucking his sleeve, she emphasised every word
+with fearful distinctness close to his ear. "She's got a dirty steerage
+baby in her lap, and Mr. King is laughing. Well, I never! O dear me,
+here come the young people!"
+
+Polly and Jasper came on a brisk trot up the deck length. "Fifteen
+times around make a mile, don't they, Jasper?" she cried.
+
+"I believe they do," said Jasper, "but it isn't like home miles, is it,
+Polly?"--laughing gaily--"or dear old Badgertown?"
+
+"I should think not," replied Polly, with a little pang at her heart
+whenever Badgertown was mentioned. "We used to run around the little
+brown house, and see how many times we could do it without stopping."
+
+"And how many did you, Polly?" asked Jasper,--"the largest number, I
+mean."
+
+"Oh, I don't know," said Polly, with a little laugh; "Joel beat us
+always, I remember that."
+
+"Yes, Joe would get over the ground, you may be sure," said Jasper, "if
+anybody could."
+
+Polly's laugh suddenly died away and her face fell. "Jasper, you don't
+know," she said, "how I do want to see those boys."
+
+"I know," said Jasper, sympathisingly, "but you'll get a letter, you
+know, most as soon as we reach port, for they were going to mail it
+before we left."
+
+"And I have one every day in my mail-bag," said Polly, "but I want to
+_see_ them so, Jasper, I don't know what to do." She went up to the
+rail at a remove from the Griswolds and leaned over it.
+
+"Polly," said Jasper, taking her hand, "you know your mother will feel
+dreadfully if she knows you are worrying about it."
+
+"I know it," said Polly, bravely, raising her head; "and I won't--why
+Jasper Elyot King!" for then she saw Grandpapa and Phronsie and the
+steerage baby.
+
+Jasper gave a halloo, and waved his hand, and Polly danced up and down
+and called, and waved her hands too. And Phronsie gave a little crow of
+delight. "See, Grandpapa, there they are; I want Polly--and Jasper,
+too." And old Mr. King whirled around. "O dear me! Come down, both of
+you," which command it did not take them long to obey.
+
+"Well, I never did in all my life," ejaculated Mrs. Griswold, "see
+anything like that. Now if some people"--she didn't say "we"--"should
+do anything like that, 'twould be dreadfully erratic and queer. But
+those Kings can do anything," she added, with venom.
+
+"It's pretty much so," assented Mr. Griswold, giving a lazy shake.
+"Well, I'm going back to my chair if you've got through with me,
+Louisa." And he sauntered off.
+
+"Don't go, Reginald," begged his wife; "I haven't got a soul to talk
+to."
+
+"Oh, well, you can talk to yourself," said her husband, "any woman
+can." But he paused a moment.
+
+"Haven't those Pepper children got a good berth?" exclaimed Mrs.
+Griswold, unable to keep her eyes off from the small group below. "And
+their Mother Pepper, or Fisher, or whatever her name is--I declare it's
+just like a novel, the way I heard the story from Mrs. Vanderburgh
+about it all."
+
+"And I wish you'd let me get back to my book, Louisa," exclaimed Mr.
+Griswold, tartly, at the mention of the word "novel," beginning to look
+longingly at his deserted steamer chair, "for it's precious little time
+I get to read on shore. Seems as if I might have a little peace at sea."
+
+"Do go back and read, then," said his wife, impatiently; "that's just
+like a man,--he can't talk of anything but business, or he must have
+his nose in a book."
+
+"We men want to talk sense," growled her husband, turning off. But Mrs.
+Griswold was engrossed in her survey of Mr. King and the doings of his
+party, and either didn't hear or didn't care what was remarked outside
+of that interest.
+
+Tom Selwyn just then ran up against some one as clumsily as ever. It
+proved to be the ship's doctor, who surveyed him coldly and passed on.
+Tom gave a start and swallowed hard, then plunged after him. "Oh, I
+say."
+
+"What is it?" asked Dr. Jones, pausing.
+
+"Can I--I'd like--to see my Grandfather, don't you know?"
+
+Dr. Jones scanned him coolly from top to toe. Tom took it without
+wincing, but inwardly he felt as if he must shake to pieces.
+
+"If you can so conduct yourself that your Grandfather will not be
+excited," at last said the doctor,--what an age it seemed to Tom,--"I
+see no reason why you shouldn't see your Grandfather, and go back to
+your state-room. But let me tell you, young man, it was a pretty close
+shave for him the other day. Had he slipped away, you'd have had that
+on your conscience that would have lasted you for many a day." With
+this, and a parting keen glance, he turned on his heel and strode off.
+
+Tom gave a great gasp, clenched his big hands tightly together, took a
+long look at the wide expanse of water, then disappeared within.
+
+In about half an hour, the steerage baby having gone to sleep in
+Phronsie's arms, the brothers and sisters, finding, after the closest
+inspection, nothing more to eat in the basket, gathered around the
+centre of attraction in a small bunch.
+
+"I hope they won't wake up the baby," said Phronsie, in gentle alarm.
+
+"Never you fear," said old Mr. King, quite comfortable now in the
+camp-chair one of the sailors had brought in response to a request from
+Jasper; "that child knows very well by this time, I should imagine,
+what noise is."
+
+But after a little, the edge of their curiosity having been worn off,
+the small group began to get restive, and to clamour and pull at their
+mother for want of something better to do.
+
+"O dear me!" said Phronsie, in distress.
+
+"Dear, dear!" echoed Polly, vainly trying to induce the child next to
+the baby to get into her lap; "something must be done. Oh, don't you
+want to hear about a funny cat, children? I'm going to tell them about
+Grandma Bascom's, Jasper," she said, seeing the piteous look in
+Phronsie's eyes.
+
+"Yes, we do," said one of the boys, as spokesman, and he solemnly
+bobbed his tow head, whereat all the children then bobbed theirs.
+
+"Sit down, then," said Polly, socially making way for them, "all of you
+in a circle, and I'll tell you of that very funny cat." So the whole
+bunch of tow-headed children sat down in a ring, and solemnly folded
+their hands in their laps. Jasper threw himself down where he could
+edge himself in. Old Mr. King leaned back and surveyed them with great
+satisfaction. So Polly launched out in her gayest mood, and the big
+blue eyes in the round faces before her widened, and the mouths flew
+open, showing the white teeth; and the stolid mother leaned forward,
+and her eyes and mouth looked just like those of her children, only
+they were bigger; and at last Polly drew a long breath and wound up
+with a flourish, "And that's all."
+
+"Tell another," said one of the round-eyed, open-mouthed children,
+without moving a muscle. All the rest sat perfectly still.
+
+"O dear me," said Polly, with a little laugh, "that was such a good
+long one, you can't want another."
+
+"I think you've gotten yourself into business, Polly," said Jasper,
+with a laugh. "Hadn't we better go?"
+
+Polly gave a quick glance at Phronsie. "Phronsie dear," she said, "let
+us go up to our deck now, dear. Shall we?"
+
+"Oh, no, Polly, please don't go yet," begged Phronsie, in alarm, and
+patting the baby softly with a gentle little hand. Polly looked off at
+Grandpapa. He was placidly surveying the water, his eyes occasionally
+roving over the novel and interesting sights around. On the other side
+of the deck a returning immigrant was bringing out a jew's-harp, and
+two or three of his fellow-passengers were preparing to pitch quoits.
+Old Mr. King was actually smiling at it all. Polly hadn't seen him so
+contented since they sailed.
+
+"I guess I'll tell another one, Jasper," she said. "Oh, about a dog,
+you wanted, did you?" nodding at the biggest boy.
+
+"Yes," said the boy, bobbing his tow head, "I did;" and he unfolded and
+folded his hands back again, then waited patiently.
+
+So Polly flew off on a gay little story about a dog that bade fair to
+rival Grandma Bascom's cat for cleverness. He belonged to Mr. Atkins
+who kept store in Badgertown, and the Pepper children used to see a
+good deal of him, when they took home the sacks and coats that Mamsie
+sewed for the storekeeper. And in the midst of the story, when the
+stolid steerage children were actually laughing over the antics of that
+remarkable dog, Jasper glanced up toward the promenade deck, took a
+long look, and started to his feet. "Why, Polly Pepper, see!" He
+pointed upward. There, on the curve, were old Mr. Selwyn and Tom
+walking arm in arm.
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+STEAMER LIFE
+
+
+And after that, it was "My grandson, Thomas," on all occasions, the old
+gentleman introducing the boy to the right and to the left, as he
+paraded the deck, his old arm within the younger one. And the little,
+sharp black eyes snapped proudly and the white head was held up, as he
+laughed and chattered away sociably to the passengers and the ship's
+crew, at every good opportunity.
+
+"Yes, my grandson, Thomas, is going back to school. We've been running
+about in your country a bit, and the boy's mother went home first with
+the other children--" Polly heard him say as the two paused in front of
+her steamer chair.
+
+"Indeed!" ejaculated Mrs. Vanderburgh, as he addressed her, and raising
+her eyebrows with a supercilious glance for his plain, unprepossessing
+appearance. "Yes, Madam, and glad shall I be to set my foot on Old
+England again Hey, Tom, my boy, don't you say so?"
+
+Tom looked off over the sea, but did not speak.
+
+Neither did Mrs. Vanderburgh answer, but turned her face away in
+disdain that was very plainly marked.
+
+"Home is the best place, Madam," declared old Mr. Selwyn emphatically.
+"Well, Old England is our home, and nothing will induce me to leave it
+again, I can assure you."
+
+Again Mrs. Vanderburgh did not reply, but looked him up and down in
+cold silence. Old Mr. Selwyn, not appearing to notice, chattered on. At
+last she deliberately turned her back on him.
+
+"Isn't he common and horrid?" whispered Fanny Vanderburgh, in the
+steamer chair next to Polly, thrusting her face in between her and her
+book. And she gave a little giggle.
+
+"Hush!" said Polly, warningly, "he will hear you."
+
+"Nonsense--it's impossible; he is rattling on so; and do look at
+Mamma's face!"
+
+He didn't hear, but Tom did; and he flashed a glance--dark and
+wrathful--over at the two girls, and started forward, abruptly pulling
+his Grandfather along.
+
+"O dear me!" exclaimed Polly, in distress, dropping her book in her
+lap; "now he _has_ heard."
+
+"Oh, that dreadful boy," said Fanny, carelessly, stretching out in her
+steamer chair comfortably; "well, who cares? he's worse than his
+Grandfather."
+
+"Yes, he has heard," repeated Polly, sorrowfully looking after the two,
+Tom still propelling the old gentleman along the deck at a lively rate;
+"now, what shall we do?"
+
+"It isn't of the least consequence if he has heard," reiterated Fanny,
+"and Mamma has been frightfully bored, I know. Do tell us, Mamma," she
+called.
+
+Mrs. Vanderburgh turned away from the rail, where she had paused in her
+constitutional when addressed by the old gentleman, and came up to the
+girls.
+
+"Do sit down, Mamma, in your steamer chair," begged Fanny; "I'll tuck
+you up in your rug." And she jumped lightly out of her own chair.
+"There, that's nice," as Mrs. Vanderburgh sank gracefully down, and
+Fanny patted and pulled the rug into shape. "Now tell us, wasn't he the
+most horrible old bore?"
+
+As she cuddled back into her own nest, Mrs. Vanderburgh laughed in a
+very high-bred manner. "He was very amusing," she said.
+
+"Amusing! I should say so!" cried Fanny. "I suppose he would have told
+you all his family history if he had stayed. O dear me, he is such a
+common, odious old person."
+
+Polly twisted uneasily under her rug.
+
+Mrs. Vanderburgh glanced into the steamer chair on the other side. It
+had several books on top of the rug. "I don't believe he can take that
+seat," she said; "still, Fanny, I think it would be well for you to
+change into it, for that old man may take it into his head, when he
+makes the turn of the deck, to drop into it and give us the whole of
+his family history."
+
+"Horrors!" ejaculated Fanny, hopping out of her chair again. "I'll make
+sure that he doesn't. And yet I did so want to sit next to Polly
+Pepper," she mourned, ensconcing herself under the neighbouring rug,
+and putting the books on the floor by her side.
+
+"Don't do that; give them to me," said her mother; "I'll put them in
+your chair unless Miss Polly will take that place, only I don't like to
+disturb you, dear," she said with a sweet smile at Polly.
+
+"Why, that would make matters' worse, Mamma," said Fanny. "Don't you
+see, then, that old bore would put himself into Polly's chair, for he
+likes her, anyway. Do leave it as it is."
+
+So Mrs. Vanderburgh smiled again. "I don't know but that you are
+right," she said, and leaned back her head restfully. "Dear me, yes, he
+_is_ amusing."
+
+"They are terribly common people," said Fanny, her aristocratic nose
+well in the air, "aren't they, Mamma? And did you ever see such a
+clumsy thing as that dreadful boy, and such big hands and feet?" She
+held up her own hands as she spoke, and played with her rings, and let
+the jingling bracelets run up and down her wrists.
+
+"Fanny, how often must I tell you to wear gloves on shipboard?" said
+her mother, in a tone of reproof. "Nothing spoils the hands so much as
+a trip at sea. They won't get over it all summer; they're coarsened
+already," and she cast an alarmed glance at the long, slender fingers.
+
+"I'm so tired of gloves, Mamma." Fanny gave a restful yawn. "Polly
+Pepper doesn't wear them," she cried triumphantly, peering past her
+mother to point to Polly's hands.
+
+Mrs. Vanderburgh hesitated. It wouldn't do to say anything that would
+reflect against the Peppers--manners, or customs, or bringing up
+generally. So she leaned over and touched Polly's fingers with her own
+gloved ones.
+
+"You don't wear gloves, do you, my dear?" she said, in gentle surprise,
+quite as if the idea had just struck her for the first time.
+
+"No, Mrs. Vanderburgh, I don't," said Polly, "at least not on
+shipboard, unless it is cold."
+
+"There, now, Mamma," laughed Fanny, in a pleased way; "you'll stop
+teasing me about wearing them, I'm sure."
+
+Mrs. Vanderburgh turned and surveyed her daughter; but she didn't
+smile, and Fanny thought it as well to begin again on the old topic.
+
+"They're awfully common people, aren't they, Mamma,--those Selwyns?"
+
+"They are, indeed," replied Mrs. Vanderburgh, "quite commonplace, and
+exceedingly tiresome; be sure and not speak to them, Fanny."
+
+"Trust me for that," said Fanny, with a wise little nod. "The old man
+stopped me and asked me something this morning, as I was coming out of
+the dining room, after breakfast, but I pretended I didn't hear, and I
+skipped upstairs and almost fell on my nose."
+
+"You were fortunate to escape," said her mother, with a little laugh.
+"Well, let us drop the subject and talk of something else much more
+important. Polly, my dear." She turned again and surveyed the young
+girl at her side. "You are coming home this autumn, aren't you?"
+
+"Oh, no," said Polly, "Grandpapa expects to stay over in Europe a year."
+
+"Is that so?" said Mrs. Vanderburgh, and her face fell; "I regret it
+exceedingly, for I should be glad if you would visit Fanny this winter
+in New York."
+
+"Thank you; but I couldn't anyway," said Polly. Then the colour flew up
+to her cheek. "I mean I am in school, you know, Mrs. Vanderburgh, but I
+thank you, and it is so good of you to want me," she added, hurriedly,
+feeling that she hadn't said the right thing at all.
+
+"I do want you very much, my dear child," said Mrs. Vanderburgh, "and I
+am very sorry you are to remain abroad over the winter, for your
+Grandfather would be persuaded, I feel quite sure, to have you leave
+school for a while, and come to us for a visit."
+
+"Oh, no, he wouldn't," cried Polly, quickly. "I beg pardon, Mrs.
+Vanderburgh, but I never leave school for anything unless I am sick,
+and I am almost never sick."
+
+"Well, then, you could come for the Christmas holidays," said Mrs.
+Vanderburgh, with ladylike obstinacy like one accustomed to carrying
+her point.
+
+"The Christmas holidays!" exclaimed Polly, starting forward in her
+chair. "Oh, I wouldn't leave home for anything, then, Mrs. Vanderburgh.
+Why, we have the most beautiful times, and we are all together--the
+boys come home from school--and it's just too lovely for anything!" She
+clasped her hands and sighed--oh, if she could but see Ben and Joel and
+David but once!
+
+Mrs. Vanderburgh was a very tall woman, and she gazed down into the
+radiant face, without speaking; Polly was looking off over the sea, and
+the colour came and went on her cheek.
+
+"We would soon get her out of all such notions, if we once had her with
+us, wouldn't we, Mamma?" said Fanny, in a low tone close to her
+mother's ear.
+
+Mrs. Vanderburgh gave her a warning pinch, but Polly's brown eyes were
+fastened on the distant horizon, and she hadn't heard a word.
+
+"Well, we'll arrange it sometime," said Fanny's mother, breaking the
+silence; "so you must remember, Polly dear, that you are engaged to us
+for a good long visit when you do come home."
+
+"I will tell Grandpapa that you asked me," said Polly, bringing her
+eyes back with a sigh to look into Mrs. Vanderburgh's face.
+
+"Oh, he will fall into the plan quite readily, I think," said Mrs.
+Vanderburgh, lightly. "You know we are all very old friends--that is,
+the families are--Mr. Vanderburgh's father and Mr. King were very
+intimate. Perhaps you don't know, Polly,"--and Fanny's mamma drew
+herself up to her extreme height; it was impossible for her to loll
+back in her chair when talking of her family,--"that we are related to
+the Earl of Cavendish who owns the old estate in England, and we go
+back to William the Conqueror; that is, Fanny does on her father's
+side."
+
+Fanny thereupon came up out of her chair depths to sit quite straight
+and gaze with importance at Polly's face. But Polly was still thinking
+of the boys, and she said nothing.
+
+"And my family is just as important," said Mrs. Vanderburgh, and she
+smiled in great satisfaction. "Really, we could make things very
+pleasant for you, my child; our set is so exclusive, you could not
+possibly meet any one but the very best people. Oh, here is your
+mother." She smiled enchantingly up at Mrs. Fisher, and held out her
+hand. "Do come and sit here with us, my dear Mrs. Fisher," she begged,
+"then we shall be a delightful group, we two mothers and our daughters."
+
+"Thank you, Mrs. Vanderburgh." Mrs. Fisher smiled, but she didn't offer
+to take the steamer chair. "I have come after Polly."
+
+"Mamsie, what is it? I'll come," said Polly, tumbling out of her
+steamer chair in a twinkling.
+
+"O dear me!" exclaimed Mrs. Vanderburgh, in regret, "don't take Polly
+away, I do implore you, my dear Mrs. Fisher--I am _so_ fond of her."
+
+"I must," said Mother Fisher, smiling again, her hand now in Polly's,
+and before any more remonstrances were made, they were off.
+
+"Oh, Mamsie!" breathed Polly, hanging to the dear hand, "I am so glad
+you came, and took me away."
+
+"Polly," said Mother Fisher, suddenly, "Grandpapa asked me to find you;
+he thinks you could cheer old Mr. Selwyn up a bit, perhaps, with
+backgammon. I'm afraid Tom has been behaving badly again."
+
+"Oh, Mamsie!" exclaimed Polly, in dismay. And then the story came out.
+
+"Grandpapa," said Phronsie, pulling at his hand gently, as they walked
+slowly up and down the deck, "does your head ache?" And she peered
+anxiously up into his face.
+
+"No, child--that is, not much," said old Mr. King, trying to smooth his
+brows out. He was thinking--for it kept obtruding at all times and
+seasons--of that dreadful scrap of paper that Cousin Eunice had imposed
+upon him at the last minute before they sailed, announcing that she had
+had her way, and would at last compel acceptance of such a gift as she
+chose to make to Phronsie Pepper.
+
+"If it aches at all," said Phronsie, decidedly, "I wish you would let
+me rub it for you, Grandpapa. I do, truly."
+
+"Well, it doesn't," said Grandpapa; "that is it won't, now that I have
+you with me. I was thinking of something unpleasant, Phronsie, and
+then, to tell you the truth, that old Mr. Selwyn tires me to death. I
+can't talk to him, and his grandson is a cad."
+
+"What is a cad?" asked Phronsie, wonderingly.
+
+"Oh, well, a boy who isn't nice," said Mr. King, carelessly.
+
+"Grandpapa, why isn't that boy nice to that poor old man?" asked
+Phronsie, a grieved look coming into her blue eyes.
+
+"Goodness me, child, you ask me too much," said Mr. King, quickly; "oh,
+a variety of reasons. Well, we must take things as we find them, and do
+what we can to help matters along; but it seems a hopeless
+case,--things were in better shape; and now they seem all tangled up
+again, thanks to that boy."
+
+"Grandpapa," said Phronsie, earnestly, "I don't believe that boy means
+to be bad to that poor old man, I don't really and truly, Grandpapa,"
+she added, shaking her head.
+
+"Well, he takes a queer way to show it, if he means to be good," said
+old Mr. King, grimly.
+
+"Oh, is that you, Master Tom?" as they turned a corner to find
+themselves face to face with Tom Selwyn.
+
+"Mr. King," Tom began very rapidly so that the words ran all over each
+other, "I'm no end sorry--don't think hard things of me--it's not my
+fault this time; Grandfather heard it as well as I--at least, I caught
+a little and he asked me what it was, and I had to tell him, and it
+upset him."
+
+Old Mr. King stood gazing into the big boy's face in utter
+bewilderment. "As I don't know in the least what you are trying to tell
+me, my boy," at last he said, "I shall have to ask you to repeat it,
+and go slowly."
+
+So Tom tried again to tell his story, and by the time that it was all
+out, Mr. King was fuming in righteous indignation.
+
+"Well, well, it's not worth thinking of," at last he said at sight of
+the flashing eyes before him and the angry light on the young face.
+"You take my arm, or I'll take yours, Master Tom,--there, that's
+better,--and we'll do a bit of a turn on the deck. Your grandfather'll
+come out of it, for he's busy over the backgammon board. But it was an
+ugly thing to do just the same."
+
+Just then Mrs. Vanderburgh and Fanny passed them, all sweet smiles for
+him and for Phronsie, but with no eyes for the boy.
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+A FISH STORY AND OTHER THINGS
+
+
+"Oh, Polly! Polly!" Phronsie came running along the deck, and up to the
+little group playing shuffle-board; "there's such a very big whale."
+And she clasped her hands in great excitement. "There truly is. Do come
+and see him."
+
+"Is there, Pet?" cried Polly, throwing down her shovel, "then we must
+all go and see him. Come, Jasper, and all of you," and she seized
+Phronsie's hand.
+
+"He is very dreadful big," said Phronsie, as they sped on, Jasper and
+the other players close behind. "And he puffed, Polly, and the water
+went up, oh, so high!"
+
+"That's because he came up to breathe," said Polly, as they raced
+along. "Dear me, I hope he won't be gone when we get there."
+
+"Can't he breathe under the water?" asked Phronsie, finding it rather
+hard work to perform that exercise herself in such a race. "What does
+he stay down there for, then, say, Polly?"
+
+"Oh, because he likes it," answered Polly, carelessly. "Take care,
+Phronsie, you're running into all those steamer chairs."
+
+"I'm sorry he can't breathe," said Phronsie, anxiously trying to steer
+clear of the bunch of steamer chairs whose occupants had suddenly left
+them, too, to see the whale. "Poor whale--I'm sorry for him, Polly."
+
+"Oh, he's happy," said Polly, "he likes it just as it is. He comes up
+for a little while to blow and--"
+
+"I thought you said he came up to breathe, Polly," said Phronsie,
+tugging at Polly's hand, and guilty of interrupting.
+
+"Well, and so he does, and to blow, too,--it's just the same thing,"
+said Polly, quickly.
+
+"Is it just exactly the same?" asked Phronsie.
+
+"Yes, indeed; that is, in the whale's case," answered Polly, as they
+ran up to Grandpapa and the rest of their party, and the knots of other
+passengers, all staring hard at a certain point on the sparkling waste
+of water.
+
+"I thought you were never coming," said old Mr. King, moving away from
+the rail to tuck Polly and Phronsie in where they could get a good
+view. "Oh, there he is--there he is--Jasper, look!" cried Polly.
+
+"There he is!" crowed Phronsie, now much excited. "Oh, isn't he big,
+Grandpapa?"
+
+"I should say he was," declared Mr. King. "I think I never saw a finer
+whale in my life, Phronsie."
+
+"He comes up to blow," said Phronsie, softly to herself, her face
+pressed close to the rail, and her yellow hair floating off in the
+breeze; "and Polly says it doesn't hurt him, and he likes it."
+
+"What is it, Phronsie child?" asked old Mr. King, hearing her voice.
+
+"Grandpapa, has he got any little whales?" asked Phronsie, suddenly
+raising her face.
+
+"Oh, yes, I imagine so," said old Mr. King; "that is, he ought to have,
+I'm sure. Porpoises go in schools,--why shouldn't whales, pray tell?"
+
+"What's a porpoise?" asked Phronsie, with wide eyes.
+
+"Oh, he's a dolphin or a grampus."
+
+"Oh," said Phronsie, much mystified, "and does he go to school?"
+
+"Well, they go ever so many of them together, and they call it a
+school. Goodness me--that _is_ a blow!" as the whale spouted valiantly,
+and looked as if he were making directly for the steamer.
+
+"Oh, Grandpapa, he's coming right here!" screamed Phronsie, clapping
+her hands in delight, and hopping up and down,--Polly and Jasper were
+almost as much excited,--while the passengers ran hither and thither to
+get a good view, and levelled their big glasses, and oh-ed and ah-ed.
+And some of them ran to get their cameras. And Mr. Whale seemed to like
+it, for he spouted and flirted his long tail and dashed into the water
+and out again to blow, till they were all quite worn out looking at
+him. At last, with a final plunge, he bade them all good-by and
+disappeared.
+
+Phronsie, after her first scream of delight, had pressed her face close
+to the rail and held her breath. She did not say a word, but gazed in
+speechless enjoyment at the antics of the big fish. And Grandpapa had
+to speak two or three times when the show was all over before she heard
+him.
+
+"Did you like it, Phronsie?" he asked, gathering her hand up closely in
+his, as he leaned over to see her face.
+
+Phronsie turned away with a sigh. "Oh, Grandpapa, he was so beautiful!"
+She drew a long breath, then turned back longingly. "Won't he ever come
+back?" she asked.
+
+"Maybe not this one," said old Mr. King; "but we'll see plenty more, I
+imagine, Phronsie. At least, if not on this voyage,--why, some other
+time."
+
+"Oh, wasn't it splendid!" exclaimed Polly, tossing back the little
+rings of brown hair from her brow. "Well, he's gone; now we must run
+back, Jasper, and finish our game." And they were off, the other
+players following.
+
+"I'd like to see this very whale again," said Phronsie, with a small
+sigh; "Grandpapa, I would, really; he was a nice whale."
+
+"Yes, he was a fine one," said old Mr. King. "I don't know as I ever
+put eyes on a better specimen, and I've seen a great many in my life."
+
+"Tell me about them, do, Grandpapa," begged Phronsie, drawing nearer to
+him.
+
+"Well, I'll get into my steamer chair, and you shall sit in my lap, and
+then I'll tell you about some of them," said Mr. King, much gratified.
+As they moved off, Phronsie clinging to his hand, she looked back and
+saw two children gazing wistfully after them. "Grandpapa," she
+whispered, pulling his hand gently to attract attention, "may that
+little boy and girl come, too, and hear about your whales?"
+
+"Yes, to be sure," cried Mr. King. So Phronsie called them, and in a
+few minutes there was quite a big group around Grandpapa's steamer
+chair; for when the other children saw what was going on, they stopped,
+too, and before he knew, there he was perfectly surrounded.
+
+"I should very much like to hear what it is all about." Mrs.
+Vanderburgh's soft voice broke into a pause, when old Mr. King stopped
+to rest a bit. "You must be very fascinating, dear Mr. King; you have
+no idea how pretty your group is." She pulled Fanny forward gently into
+the outer fringe of the circle. "Pray, what is the subject?"
+
+"Nothing in the world but a fish story, Madam," said the old gentleman.
+
+"Oh, _may_ we stay and hear it?" cried Mrs. Vanderburgh,
+enthusiastically, clasping her gloved hands. "Fanny adores such things,
+don't you, dear?" turning to her.
+
+"Yes, indeed, Mamma," answered Fanny, trying to look very much pleased.
+
+"Take my word for it, you will find little to interest either of you,"
+said Mr. King.
+
+"Oh, I should be charmed," cried Mrs. Vanderburgh. "Fanny dear, draw up
+that steamer chair to the other side." But a stout, comfortable-looking
+woman coming down the deck stopped directly in front of that same
+chair, and before Fanny could move it, sat down, saying, "This is my
+chair, young lady."
+
+"That vulgar old woman has got it," said Fanny, coming back quite
+crestfallen.
+
+"Ugh!" Mrs. Vanderburgh shrugged her shoulders as she looked at the
+occupant of the chair, who surveyed her calmly, then fell to reading
+her book. "Well, you must just bear it, dear; it's one of the
+annoyances to be endured on shipboard."
+
+"I suppose the lady wanted her own chair," observed Mr. King, dryly.
+
+"Lady? Oh, my dear Mr. King!" Mrs. Vanderburgh gave a soft little
+laugh. "It's very good of you to put it that way, I'm sure. Well, now
+do let us hear that delightful story. Fanny dear, you can sit on part
+of my chair," she added, regardless of the black looks of a gentleman
+hovering near, who had a sharp glance on the green card hanging to the
+back of the chair she had appropriated and that bore his name.
+
+So Fanny perched on the end of the steamer chair, and Mr. King, not
+seeing any way out of it, went on in his recital of the whale story,
+winding up with an account of some wonderful porpoises he had seen, and
+a variety of other things, until suddenly he turned his head and keenly
+regarded Fanny's mother.
+
+"How intensely interesting!" she exclaimed, opening her eyes, and
+trying not to yawn. "Do go on, and finish about that whale," feeling
+that she must say something.
+
+"Mamma!" exclaimed Fanny, trying to stop her.
+
+"I ended up that whale some five minutes ago, Madam," said Mr. King. "I
+think you must have been asleep."
+
+"Oh, no, indeed, I have been charmed every moment," protested Mrs.
+Vanderburgh sitting quite erect. "You surely have the gift of a
+_raconteur_, Mr. King," she said, gracefully recovering herself. "O
+dear me, here is that odious boy and that tiresome old man!" as Tom
+Selwyn came up slowly, his Grandfather on his arm.
+
+Mr. King put Phronsie gently off from his lap, still keeping her hand
+in his. "Now, children, the story-telling is all done, the whales and
+porpoises are all finished up--so run away." He touched his sea-cap to
+Mrs. Vanderburgh and her daughter, then marched up to the old man and
+Tom.
+
+"I am tired of sitting still," he said. "May my little granddaughter
+and I join you in a walk?"
+
+Tom shot him a grateful look. Old Mr. Selwyn, who cared most of all for
+Polly, mumbled out something, but did not seem especially happy. But
+Mr. King did not appear to notice anything awry, but fell into step,
+still keeping Phronsie's hand, and they paced off.
+
+"If you know which side your bread is buttered, Mamma," said Fanny
+Vanderburgh, shrewdly, looking after them as they disappeared, "you'll
+make up to those dreadful Selwyn people."
+
+"Never!" declared her mother, firmly. "Fanny, are you wild? Why, you
+are a Vanderburgh and are related to the English nobility, and I am an
+Ashleigh. What would your father say to such a notion?"
+
+"Well, Papa isn't here," said Fanny, "and if he were, he'd do something
+to keep in with Mr. King. I hate and detest those dreadful Selwyns as
+much as you do, Mamma, but I'm going to cultivate them. See if I don't!"
+
+"And I forbid it," said her mother, forgetting herself and raising her
+voice. "They are low bred and common. And beside that, they are
+eccentric and queer. Don't you speak to them or notice them in the
+slightest."
+
+"Madam," said the gentleman of the black looks, advancing and touching
+his cap politely, "I regret to disturb you, but I believe you have my
+chair."
+
+Mrs. Vanderburgh begged pardon and vacated the chair, when the
+gentleman touched his cap again, and immediately drew the chair up to
+the one where the stout, comfortable-looking woman sat.
+
+"It seems to me there are more ill-bred, low-lived people on board this
+boat than it has been my lot to meet on any voyage," said Mrs.
+Vanderburgh, drawing her sea coat around her slight figure and sailing
+off, her daughter in her wake.
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+A LITTLE SURPRISE
+
+
+"Sir," said little Mr. Selwyn, bringing his sharp black eyes to bear
+upon old Mr. King, "you've been very good to me, and I've not been
+always pleasant. But it's my way, sir; it's my way."
+
+Mr. King nodded pleasantly, although deep in his heart he agreed with
+the choleric old gentleman. "But as for Polly, why, she's good--good as
+gold, sir." There was no mistaking Mr. Selwyn's sentiments there, and
+his old cheek glowed while giving what to him meant the most wonderful
+praise to be paid to a person.
+
+Old Mr. King straightened up. "You've said the right thing now," he
+declared.
+
+"And I wish I could see that girl when she's grown up," added the
+little old gentleman. "I want really to know what sort of a woman
+she'll make. I do, indeed, sir."
+
+"It isn't necessary to speculate much on it," answered Mr. King,
+confidently, "when you look at her mother and remember the bringing up
+that Polly Pepper has had."
+
+The little old gentleman squinted hard at the clouds scudding across
+the blue sky. "That's so," he said at last. "Well, I'm sorry we are to
+part," he added. "And, sir, I really wish you would come down to my
+place with your party and give me a fortnight during your stay in
+England. I really do, sir, upon me word." There was no mistaking his
+earnestness as he thrust out one thin, long-fingered hand. With the
+other, he set a card within Mr. King's fingers.
+
+"Arthur Selwyn, The Earl of Cavendish," met Mr. King's eyes.
+
+"I had a fancy to do this thing," said the little old gentleman, "to
+run across from America in simple fashion, and it pleased the boy, who
+hates a fuss. And we've gotten rid of all sorts of nuisances by it;
+interviews, and tiresome people. And I've enjoyed it mightily." He
+chuckled away till it seemed as if he were never going to stop. Old Mr.
+King burst out laughing, too; and the pair were so very jolly that the
+passengers, grouped together waiting for the Liverpool landing, turned
+to stare at them.
+
+"Just see how intimate Mr. King is with that tiresome, common, old Mr.
+Selwyn!" exclaimed Mrs. Vanderburgh to her daughter. "I never was so
+surprised at anything in all my life, to see that he keeps it up now,
+for I thought that aristocratic Horatio King was the most fastidious
+being alive."
+
+"The Kings have awfully nice times," grumbled Fanny, picking her gloves
+discontentedly. "And you keep me mewed up, and won't let me speak to
+anybody whose grandfather wasn't born in our set, and I hate and loathe
+it all."
+
+"You'll be glad when you are a few years older, and I bring you out in
+society, that I always have been so particular," observed Mrs.
+Vanderburgh, complacently, lifting her head in its dainty bonnet,
+higher than ever.
+
+"I want some nice times and a little fun now," whined Fanny, with an
+envious glance over at Polly and Jasper with the dreadful Selwyn boy
+between them, and Phronsie running up to join them, and everybody in
+their party just bubbling over with happiness.
+
+"I wish Mr. King and his party would go to Paris now," said her mother,
+suddenly.
+
+"Oh, don't I just wish it!" cried Fanny, in a burst. "Did you ask him,
+Mamma?"
+
+"Yes, indeed; I talked for fully half an hour yesterday, but it was no
+use. And he doesn't seem to know how long he is going to stay in
+England; 'only a few days,' he said, vaguely, then they go to Holland."
+
+"Oh, why couldn't we go to Holland!" exclaimed Fanny, impulsively, and
+her eyes brightened; "splendid Holland, that would be something like,
+Mamma!"
+
+"You forget the Van Dykes are to be in Paris awaiting us."
+
+"Oh, those stupid Van Dykes!" exploded Fanny. "Mamma, don't go there
+now. Do change, and let us go to Holland with the Kings. Do, Mamma,"
+she implored.
+
+"Why, Fanny Vanderburgh!" exclaimed her mother, sharply, "what is the
+matter with you? You know it was settled long ago, that we should meet
+Mrs. Van Dyke and Eleanor in Paris at just this very time. It would
+never do to offend them, particularly when Eleanor is going to marry
+into the Howard set."
+
+"And I'll have the most stupid time imaginable," cried Fanny,
+passionately, "dragging around while you and the Van Dykes are buying
+that trousseau."
+
+"Yes, that's one thing that I wanted the Kings to go to Paris for,"
+said Mrs. Vanderburgh; "you could be with them. And really they are
+much more important than any one to get in with. And I'd keep up the
+friendship with the Van Dykes. But that Mr. King is so obstinate, you
+can't do anything with him." A frown settled all across her pretty
+face, and she beat her foot impatiently on the deck.
+
+"You spoil everything, Mamma, with your sets and your stupid people,"
+declared Fanny, her passion by no means cooled. "When I come out in
+society I'm going to choose my own friends," she muttered to herself,
+and set her lips tightly together.
+
+Mr. King was saying, "Thank you, so much, Mr. Selwyn, for I really
+think I'd prefer to call you so, as I knew you so first."
+
+"So you shall," cried the little Earl, glancing around on the groups,
+"and it's better just here, at all events," and he chuckled again.
+"Then you really will come?" and he actually seized Mr. King's hand and
+wrung it heartily.
+
+"No, I was about to say it is quite impossible."
+
+The Earl of Cavendish stared blankly up out of his sharp little black
+eyes in utter amazement into the other's face. "My stay in London is
+short, only a few days," Mr. King was saying, "and then we go directly
+to Holland. I thank you all the same--believe me, I appreciate it. It
+is good of you to ask us," he cordially added.
+
+The little Earl of Cavendish broke away from him, and took a few hasty
+steps down the deck to get this new idea fairly into his brain that his
+invitation had not been accepted. Then he hurried back. "My dear sir,"
+he said, laying his hand on Mr. King's arm, "will you do me the favour
+to try to come at some future time--to consider your plans before you
+return to America, and see if you can't manage to give me this great
+pleasure of welcoming you to my home? Think of it, I beg, and drop me a
+line; if at home, I shall always be most glad to have you with me. I
+should esteem it a privilege." The Earl of Cavendish was astonished to
+find himself beseeching the American gentleman without a title. And
+then they awaked to the fact that the groups of passengers were merging
+into a solid mass, and a slow procession was beginning to form for the
+stairway, and the landing episode was well under way.
+
+Mrs. Vanderburgh, determined not to bid good-by on the steamer but to
+be with the Kings till the last moment, rushed up to them on the wharf,
+followed by Fanny.
+
+"Oh, we are _so_ sorry you are not going to Paris with us," cried Mrs.
+Vanderburgh, while Fanny flew at Polly Pepper and engrossed her
+hungrily. "Can't you reconsider it now?" she asked, with a pretty
+earnestness.
+
+"No, it is impossible," answered Mr. King, for about the fiftieth time.
+"Our plans will not allow it. I hope you and your daughter will have
+the best of times," he remarked politely.
+
+"Yes, we shall; we meet old friends there, and Paris is always
+delightful." Mrs. Vanderburgh bit her lip in her vexation. "I was going
+to see you and beg you even now to change your plans, while we were on
+the steamer waiting to land," she went on hurriedly, "but you were
+bored--I quite pitied you--by that tiresome, common, old Mr. Selwyn."
+
+"Yes, I was talking with him," said Mr. King, "but excuse me, I was not
+bored. He is peculiar, but not at all common, and he has many good
+qualities as a man; and I like the boy immensely."
+
+"How can you?" Mrs. Vanderburgh gave a little high-bred laugh. "They
+are so insufferably common, Mr. King, those Selwyns are."
+
+"Excuse me," said Mr. King, "that was the Earl of Cavendish; it will do
+no harm to mention it now, as they have gone."
+
+"Who--who?" demanded Mrs. Vanderburgh in a bewildered way.
+
+"I did not know it till this morning," Mr. King was explaining, "but
+our fellow-passenger, Mr. Selwyn, chose to cross over keeping his real
+identity unknown, and I must say I admire his taste in the matter; and
+anyway it was his affair and not mine." It was a long speech, and at
+its conclusion Mrs. Vanderburgh was still demanding, "Who--who?" in as
+much of a puzzle as ever.
+
+"The Earl of Cavendish," repeated Mr. King; "Mr. Selwyn is the Earl of
+Cavendish. As I say, he did not wish it known, and--"
+
+"Fanny--Fanny!" called her mother, sitting helplessly on the first
+thing that presented itself, a box of merchandise by no means clean.
+"Fan-ny! the--the Earl of Cavendish!" She could get no further.
+
+Little Dr. Fisher, who administered restoratives and waited on Mrs.
+Vanderburgh and her daughter to their London train, came skipping back
+to the Liverpool hotel.
+
+"I hope, wife, I sha'n't grow uncharitable,"--he actually glared
+through his big spectacles,--"but Heaven defend us on our travels from
+any further specimens like that woman."
+
+"We shall meet all sorts, probably, Adoniram," said his wife, calmly;
+"it really doesn't matter with our party of eight; we can take solid
+comfort together."
+
+The little doctor came out of his ill temper, but he said ruefully,
+"That's all very well, wife, for you and the Hendersons; for you
+steered pretty clear, I noticed, of that woman. Well, she's gone." And
+he smiled cheerfully. "Now for dinner, for I suppose Mr. King has
+ordered it."
+
+"Yes, he has," said his wife. "And you have a quarter of an hour. I've
+put your clothes out all ready."
+
+"All right." The little doctor was already plunging here and there,
+tearing off his coat and necktie and boots; and exactly at the time
+set, he joined the party, with a bright and shining face, as if no Mrs.
+Vanderburgh, or any one in the least resembling her, had ever crossed
+his path.
+
+"Jasper," cried Polly, as they hurried along out of the Harwich train
+to the steamer that was to take them to the Hook of Holland, "can you
+really believe we are almost there?"
+
+      *      *      *      *      *
+
+"No, I can't," said Jasper, "for I've wanted to see Holland for such a
+time."
+
+"Wasn't it good of Grandpapa," cried Polly, "to take us here the first
+thing after London?"
+
+"Father always does seem to plan things rightly," answered Jasper, with
+a good degree of pride. "And then 'it's prime,'" "as Joel used to say,"
+he was going to add, but thought better of it, as any reference to the
+boys always set Polly to longing for them.
+
+"Indeed, he does," exclaimed Polly, in her most earnest fashion; "he's
+ever and always the most splendid Grandpapa. Oh, I wish I could do
+things for him, Jasper," she mourned; "he's so good to us."
+
+"You do things for him all the while, Polly," Jasper made haste to say,
+as they ran along to keep up with the Parson and Mrs. Henderson's
+comfortable figures just before them; "you are all the while doing
+something for him."
+
+"Oh, no, I don't," said Polly, "there isn't anything I can do for him.
+Don't you suppose there ever will be, Jasper?" she asked imploringly.
+
+"Yes, indeed," said Jasper; "there always are things that hop up to be
+done when people keep their eyes open. But don't you worry about your
+not doing anything for him, Polly. Promise me that." Jasper took her
+hand and stopped just a minute to look into her face.
+
+"I'll try not to," promised Polly, "but, oh, Jasper, I do so very much
+wish there might be something that I could do. I do, indeed, Jasper."
+
+"It was only yesterday," said Jasper, as they began to hurry on once
+more, "that father said 'you can't begin to think, Jasper, what a
+comfort Polly Pepper is to me.'"
+
+"Did he, Jasper?" cried Polly, well pleased, the colour flying over her
+cheek, "that was nice of him, because there isn't anything much I can
+really do for him. O dear! there is Grandpapa beckoning to us to
+hurry." So on they sped, having no breath for words. And presently they
+were on the boat, and little Dr. Fisher and Mr. Henderson went forward
+into the saloon, where the rooms reserved beforehand were to be given
+out, and the rest of the party waited and watched the stream of people
+of all ages and sizes and nationalities who desired to reach Holland
+the next morning.
+
+To Polly it was a world of delight, and to Jasper, who watched her
+keenly, it was a revelation to see how nothing escaped her, no matter
+how noisy and dirty or turbulent the crowd, or how annoying the
+detention,--it was all a marvel of happiness from beginning to end. And
+Jasper looking back over the two times he had been before to Europe
+with his father, although he had never seen Holland, remembered only a
+sort of dreary drifting about with many pleasant episodes and
+experiences, it is true, still with the feeling on the whole of the
+most distinct gladness when their faces were turned homeward and the
+journeying was over.
+
+"Mamsie," cried Polly, poking her head out from the upper berth of the
+stuffy little state-room assigned to Mrs. Fisher, Mrs. Henderson,
+Phronsie, and herself; "was anything ever so delicious as this
+boat?--and to think, Mamsie,"--here Polly paused to add as impressively
+as if the idea had never been voiced before,--"that we are really to
+see Holland to-morrow."
+
+"You'd better go to sleep now, then," said Mrs. Fisher, wisely, "if you
+want to be bright and ready really to see much of Holland in the
+morning, Polly."
+
+"That's so," answered Polly, ducking back her head to its pillow, and
+wriggling her toes in satisfaction; "Phronsie is asleep already, isn't
+she, Mamsie?"
+
+"Yes," said Mrs. Fisher, "she dropped off as soon as her head touched
+the pillow. Good night, Polly, you would better do the same."
+
+"Good night, Mamsie," said Polly, with a sleepy little yawn, "and good
+night, dear Mrs. Henderson," she added, already almost in dreamland.
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+OFF FOR HOLLAND
+
+
+It seemed to Polly as if she had only breathed twice, and had not
+turned over once, when there was Mamsie's voice calling her, and there
+was Mamsie's face looking into hers over the edge of the berth. "Wake
+up, Polly, child, you have only about ten minutes to dress in."
+
+"O dear me! what--where?" exclaimed Polly, springing to a sitting
+position, thereby giving her brown head a smart thump on the ceiling of
+the berth, "where are we, Mamsie? why, it is the middle of the night,
+isn't it?" she cried, not stopping to pity her poor head.
+
+"We are almost at the Hook of Holland," said Mrs. Fisher, busily
+buttoning Phronsie's shoes. Phronsie sat on the lower berth, her sleepy
+little legs dangling over the edge, and her sleepy little head going
+nid-nodding, despite all her efforts to keep herself awake.
+
+"O dear me!" cried Polly, remorsefully, when she saw that. "I ought to
+have dressed Phronsie. Why didn't you wake me up earlier, Mamsie?"
+
+"Because I wanted you to sleep all you could," said Mrs. Fisher, "and
+now if you'll only dress Polly Pepper as quickly as possible, that's
+all I ask."
+
+"I will dress Polly Pepper in a twinkling, Mamsie," declared Polly,
+laughing merrily; "O dear me, where _is_ my other stocking?" She stuck
+out one black foot ready for its boot. "Is it down there, Mamsie?" All
+the while she was shaking the bedclothes violently for any chance
+glimpse of it in the berth.
+
+"Where did you put it last night when you took it off, Polly?" asked
+Mrs. Fisher, buttoning away for dear life on Phronsie's shoes. "There
+now, Pet, those are done; hop out now, and fly into your clothes."
+
+"I thought I put 'em both in the corner here," cried poor Polly,
+twitching everything loose. Thereupon her big hat, hung carefully upon
+a high hook, slipped off and fell to the floor.
+
+"Take care, Polly," warned her mother, "haste only makes matters worse."
+
+"But I can't go with only one stocking on," said Polly, quite gone in
+despair now. "Oh, dear Mrs. Henderson, don't you see it on the floor?"
+For that good woman had dropped to her knees, and was busily prowling
+around among the accumulation of bags and clothing.
+
+"That's what I'm hoping to do," she answered, "but I don't see it as
+yet, Polly."
+
+"I'll help Polly to find it," cried Phronsie, now thoroughly awake and
+dropping her small skirts to get down on the floor by Mrs. Henderson's
+side. "Don't feel badly, Polly; I'll find your stocking for you."
+
+"No, Phronsie," said her mother, "you must get into your own clothes.
+And then Mrs. Henderson is nearly all ready, and you can go out with
+her, and that will leave more room, so that Polly and I can search more
+carefully. And the stocking has got to come, for it couldn't walk off
+of itself," she added cheerily as she saw Polly's face. "Why--what?" as
+she happened to look upward. And then Polly looked, too, and there was
+her stocking dangling from the very high hook where the big hat had
+been.
+
+"You tossed it up there, I suppose, when you shook up the bedclothes so
+quickly," said Mrs. Fisher. "Well, now," as Polly pounced on the
+stocking, "see how fast you can hop into your clothes, daughter." Then
+she began to put the things for the bags into their places, and
+Matilda, coming in, finished the work; and Polly flew around, buttoning
+and tying and patting herself into shape, and by the time that little
+Dr. Fisher's voice called at the door, "Well, wife, are you ready?"
+there they all were, trim and tidy as ever for a start.
+
+"Where is it, Grandpapa?" asked Phronsie, peering around on either
+side,--Dr. Fisher and Jasper had gone off to attend to the examination
+of the luggage by the customs inspectors,--and then coming up gently to
+pull his arm. "I don't see it anywhere."
+
+"What, child?" answered Grandpapa, looking down at her. "See here, wait
+a minute," to the others who were ahead, "Phronsie has lost something."
+
+"Oh, no, Grandpapa, I haven't," began Phronsie, in gentle protestation,
+"all my things are in here." She patted her little bag that hung on her
+arm, a gift of old Mr. King's for her to carry her very own things in,
+that yielded her immense satisfaction every time she looked at it,
+which was very often.
+
+"Didn't you say you wanted to find something, dear?" he asked, quite
+puzzled, while the others surrounded them wonderingly.
+
+"No," said Phronsie, "only where is the hook, Grandpapa? I don't see
+it." She lifted her little face and gazed up at him confident that he
+knew everything.
+
+"She has lost her button-hook!" exclaimed Polly, "the cunning little
+silver one Auntie Whitney gave her Christmas. I'll run back and get it;
+it must be in the state-room."
+
+"Stay, Polly," commanded Mr. King. And, "Oh, no, I haven't," piped
+Phronsie, as Polly was flying off. "It's here in my bag," patting
+Grandpapa's gift hanging on her arm. "I couldn't lose that, Polly," she
+cried in horror at the thought, as Polly hurried back.
+
+"Well, what is it, then, you've lost?" demanded Polly, breathlessly.
+
+"I haven't lost anything," reiterated Phronsie, pushing back the yellow
+hair from her face. "Grandpapa, tell them, please, I haven't lost
+anything," she kept repeating, appealing to him.
+
+"She says she hasn't lost anything, so we won't say that again," echoed
+old Mr. King. "Now, Phronsie, child, tell me what it is you mean; what
+hook you want."
+
+"The hook," said Phronsie; "here, Grandpapa," and she looked all around
+in a troubled way, "they said it was here; I don't see it, Grandpapa."
+
+"She means the Hook of Holland," burst out Polly, "don't you, Phronsie
+pet?" And she threw her arms around her while Mr. Henderson exclaimed,
+"Of course, why didn't we think of it, to be sure?"
+
+"Yes, Polly." Phronsie gave a glad little cry, and wriggled in great
+satisfaction in her arms. "Grandpapa, where is it,--the Hook of
+Holland?"
+
+"Oh, bless me, child!" exclaimed Mr. King, "that is the name of the
+place; at least, to be accurate, it is Hoek van Holland. Now, just as
+soon as we get fairly started on our way to Rotterdam, I'll tell you
+all about it, or Polly shall, since she was clever enough to find out
+what you meant."
+
+"Oh, no, Grandpapa," cried Polly, "I'd so much rather you told
+her--please do, dear Grandfather?"
+
+"And so I will," he promised, very much pleased, for Mr. King dearly
+loved to be the one to relate the history and anecdotes about the
+places along which they travelled. And so, when they were steaming off
+toward Rotterdam, as he sat in the centre of the compartment he had
+reserved for their use, Phronsie next to him, and Polly and Jasper
+opposite, he told the whole story. The others tucked themselves in the
+remaining four seats, and did not lose a word. Matilda and Mr. King's
+valet, in a second-class compartment, took charge of the luggage.
+
+"I like it very much," declared Phronsie, when the story was all
+finished, and smoothing down her little brown gown in satisfaction.
+
+"I like it very much, Grandpapa's telling it," said Polly, "but the
+Hook of Holland isn't anything to what we shall see at Rotterdam,
+while, as for The Hague and Amsterdam--oh, Grandpapa!"
+
+That "oh, Grandpapa" just won his heart, and Mr. King beamed at her as
+her glowing face was turned first to one window and then to the other,
+that she might not lose anything as the train rumbled on.
+
+"Just wait till we get to Marken," broke in Jasper, gaily, "then if you
+want to see the Dutch beat the Dutch--well, you may!" he ended with a
+laugh.
+
+"Oh, Jasper, do they really beat each other?" cried Phronsie, quite
+horrified, and slipping away from Grandpapa to regard him closely.
+
+"Oh, no! I mean--they go ahead of everything that is most Dutch,"
+Jasper hastened to say; "I haven't explained it very well."
+
+"No, I should think not," laughed his father, in high good humour.
+"Well, Phronsie, I think you will like the folks on the Island of
+Marken, for they dress in funny quaint costumes, just as their
+ancestors did, years upon years ago."
+
+"Are there any little children there?" asked Phronsie, slipping back
+into her place again, and nestling close to his side.
+
+"Hundreds of them, I suppose," replied Mr. King, with his arm around
+her and drawing her up to him, "and they wear wooden shoes or sabots,
+or klompen as they call them, and--"
+
+"Wooden shoes!" cried Phronsie; "oh, Grandpapa," clasping her hands,
+"how do they stay on?"
+
+"Well, that's what I've always wondered myself when I've been in
+Holland. A good many have left off the sabots, I believe, and wear
+leather shoes made just like other people's."
+
+"Oh, Grandpapa," cried Phronsie, leaning forward to peer into his face,
+"don't let them leave off the wooden shoes, please."
+
+"I can't make them wear anything but what they want to," said old Mr.
+King, with a laugh; "but don't be troubled, child, you'll see all the
+wooden shoes you desire, in Rotterdam, and The Hague, too, for that
+matter."
+
+"Shall I?" cried Phronsie, nestling back again quite pleased.
+"Grandpapa, I wish I could wear wooden shoes," she whispered presently
+in a burst of confidence, sticking out her toes to look at them.
+
+"Bless me! you couldn't keep them on," said Mr. King.
+
+"Don't the little Dutch children keep them on?" asked Phronsie. "Oh,
+Grandpapa, I think I could; I really think I could," she added
+earnestly.
+
+"Yes, they do, because they are born and brought up to it, although,
+for the life of me, I don't see how they do it; but you couldn't,
+child, you'd fall the first minute and break your nose, most likely."
+
+Phronsie gave a sigh. "Should I, Grandpapa?"
+
+"Yes, quite likely; but I'll tell you what I will do. I will buy you a
+pair, and we will take them home. That will be fine, won't it, dear?"
+
+"Yes," said Phronsie, wriggling in delight. Then she sat quite still.
+
+"Grandpapa," she said, reaching up to whisper again, "I'm afraid it
+will make Araminta feel badly to see me with my beautiful wooden shoes
+on, when she can't have any. Do you suppose there are little teenty
+ones, Grandpapa dear, and I might get her a pair?"
+
+"Yes, indeed," cried Grandpapa, nodding his white head in delight,
+"there are shoals of them, Phronsie, of all sizes."
+
+"What are shoals?" queried Phronsie.
+
+"Oh, numbers and numbers--so many we can't count them," answered Mr.
+King, recklessly.
+
+Phronsie slid down into her place again, and sat quite still lost in
+thought. So many wooden shoes she couldn't count them was quite beyond
+her. But Grandpapa's voice roused her. "And I'll buy a bushel of them,
+Phronsie, and send them home, so that all your dolls at home can each
+have a pair. Would that suit you, Pet?"
+
+Phronsie screamed with delight and clapped her hands. Polly and Jasper
+who had changed places, as Dr. Fisher and Mr. Henderson had made them
+take theirs by one window, now whirled around. "What is it?" cried
+Polly of Phronsie. "What is it?"
+
+"I'm going to have wooden shoes," announced Phronsie, in a burst of
+confidence that included everybody in the compartment, "for my very own
+self, and Araminta is going to have a pair, and every single one of my
+children at home, too. Grandpapa said so."
+
+"Whew!" whistled Jasper. "Oh, what fun," sighed Polly.
+
+"And you shall have a pair, too, if you want them, Polly," Grandpapa
+telegraphed over to her in the corner.
+
+"And Jasper can, too, can't he, Grandpapa? And, oh, thank you _so
+much,_" cried Polly, all in one breath.
+
+"I guess it's as well I shall be on hand to set the broken bones," said
+little Dr. Fisher, "with all you children capering around in those
+wooden abominations."
+
+"Oh, Dr. Fisher, we are not going to fall!" exclaimed Jasper, in
+disdain, at the very thought. And "No, indeed," came merrily from
+Polly. And then they all fell to work admiring the numberless windmills
+past which their train was speeding toward Rotterdam.
+
+"To think it is only six o'clock!" exclaimed Polly, looking at her
+little travelling watch that Grandpapa had given her. "Now, what a fine
+long day we are going to have, Jasper, for sightseeing in Rotterdam."
+
+As the train came to a standstill, the guards threw open compartment
+doors, and all the people poured out calling for porters to see to
+their luggage, and everything was in confusion at once on the platforms.
+
+"Indeed, you won't, Miss Polly," declared Mr. King, overhearing it, as
+they waited till all was ready for them to get into the hotel
+coach,--"we are all going to spend this day at the hotel--first, in
+getting a good breakfast, and then, dear me, I shall sleep pretty much
+all of the morning, and I'd advise the rest of you to jump into your
+beds and get good naps after the experience on that atrocious steamboat
+last night."
+
+"Oh, Grandpapa, must we really go to bed?" cried Polly, in horror at
+the mere thought.
+
+"Well, not exactly into your beds," laughed Mr. King, as Jasper,
+announcing that all was ready, piloted them into the coach, "but you've
+got to rest like sensible beings. Make up your mind to that. As for
+Phronsie," and he gallantly lifted her up to the step, "she's half
+asleep already. She's got to have a splendid nap, and no mistake."
+
+"I'm not sleepy," declared Phronsie, stumbling into the high coach to
+sit down next to Mother Fisher. "No, Grandpapa dear, not a bit." And
+before anybody knew it, and as soon as the coach wheels spun round, she
+rolled over into Mamsie's lap. There she was as fast asleep as could be!
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+"WE WILL COME AGAIN AND STAY A WEEK"
+
+
+They had been several days at The Hague, running about in a restful way
+in the morning, and driving all the long golden afternoons. "Don't you
+dare to go into a picture-gallery or a museum until I give the word,"
+Grandpapa had laid down the law. "I'm not going to begin by being all
+tired out." So Polly and Jasper had gone sometimes with Mr. King and
+Phronsie, who had a habit of wandering off by themselves; or, as the
+case might be, Mr. Henderson would pilot them about till they learnt
+the ways of the old town. And Mrs. Fisher and Mrs. Henderson would
+confess now and then that they would much rather take a few stitches
+and overlook the travelling clothes than do any more sight-seeing. And
+then again, they would all come together and go about in a big party.
+All but Dr. Fisher--he was for hospitals every time.
+
+"That's what I've come for, wife," he would reply to all remonstrance,
+"and don't ask me to put my head into a cathedral or a museum." To Mr.
+King, "Land alive, man, I've got to find out how to take care of living
+bodies before I stare at bones and relics," and Mr. King would laugh
+and let him alone. "He's incorrigible, that husband of yours, Mrs.
+Fisher," he would add, "and we must just let him have his way." And
+Mamsie would smile, and every night the little doctor would tome from
+his tramps and medical study, tired but radiant.
+
+At last one morning Grandpapa said, "Now for Scheveningen to-day!"
+
+"Oh, goody!" cried Polly, clapping her hands; then blushed as red as a
+rose. They were at breakfast, and everybody in the vicinity turned and
+stared at their table.
+
+"Don't mind it, Polly," said Jasper, her next neighbour, "I want to do
+the same thing. And it will do some of those starched and prim people
+good to hear a little enthusiasm." Polly knew whom he meant,--some
+young Englishmen. One of them immediately put up his monocle and
+regarded her as if she had been a new kind of creature displayed for
+his benefit. Jasper glared back at him.
+
+"Yes, we'll go to Scheveningen this morning," repeated Mr. King,
+smiling approvingly at poor Polly, which caused her to lift her head;
+"the carriages are ordered, so as soon as we are through breakfast we
+will be off."
+
+"Oh, father," exclaimed Jasper, in dismay, "must we go in carriages?"
+
+"How else would you go, Jasper?" asked his father.
+
+"Oh, by the tramway; oh, by all means," cried Jasper, perfectly
+delighted that he could get his father even to listen to any other plan.
+
+"The dirty tram-cars," ejaculated Mr. King, in disgust. "How can you
+ask it, Jasper? No, indeed, we must go in carriages, or not at all."
+
+"But, father," and Jasper's face fell, "don't you see the upper deck of
+the tram-car is so high and there are fine seats there, and we can see
+so much better than driving in a stupid carriage?"
+
+Polly's face had drooped, too. Mr. King, in looking from one to the
+other, was dismayed and a good bit annoyed to find that his plan wasn't
+productive of much happiness after all. He had just opened his mouth to
+say authoritatively, "No use, Jasper, either you will go in the way I
+have provided, or stay at home," when Phronsie slipped out of her chair
+where she happened this morning to be sitting next to Mother Fisher,
+and running around to his chair, piped out, "Oh, Grandpapa, if you
+please, do let us sit up top."
+
+"We'll do it now, Polly," whispered Jasper, in a transport, "when
+Phronsie looks like that. See her face!"
+
+"Do you really want to go in a dirty old tram-car, Phronsie, instead of
+in a carriage?" Old Mr. King pushed back his chair and looked steadily
+at her.
+
+"Oh, yes, yes, Grandpapa, please"--Phronsie beat her hands softly
+together--"to ride on top; may we, _dear_ Grandpapa?" That "dear
+Grandpapa" settled it. Jasper never heard such a welcome command as
+that Mr. King was just issuing. "Go to the office and countermand the
+order for the carriages, my son; tell them to put the amount on my
+bill, the same as if I'd used them, unless they get a chance to let
+them to some one else. They needn't be the losers. Now then," as Jasper
+bounded off to execute the command, "get on your bonnets and hats, all
+of you, and we'll try this wonderful tram-car. I suppose you won't come
+with us, but will stay behind for the pleasures of some hospital here,"
+he added to Dr. Fisher.
+
+"On the contrary," said the little doctor, throwing down his napkin and
+getting out of his chair. "I am going, for there is a marine hospital
+for children there, that I wouldn't miss for the world."
+
+"I warrant you would find one on a desert island," retorted old Mr.
+King. "Well, hurry now, all of you--and we will be off."
+
+"Now, then, all scramble up here. Phronsie, you go with me," cried old
+Mr. King, as they stood in _plein_, and the tram-car halted before
+them. He was surprised to find that he liked this sort of thing, mixing
+with a crowd and hurrying for seats just like common ordinary
+individuals. And as he toiled up the winding stairs, Phronsie in front
+of him, he had an exhilaration already that made him feel almost as
+young as Polly and Jasper, scampering up the circular stairway at the
+other end. "Well, bless me, we are up, aren't we?" he exclaimed,
+sitting down and casting a glance around.
+
+"Did you ever see anything so fascinating?" cried Polly Pepper,
+clasping her hands in delight, and not stopping to sit down, but
+looking all around.
+
+"You had better sit down," advised Mother Fisher, "else when the car
+starts you may go over the railing."
+
+"Oh, I can't fall, Mamsie," said Polly, carelessly, yet she sat down,
+while Jasper got out of his seat and ran up to old Mr. King.
+
+"Now, father, don't you like it?" he cried. "And isn't it better than a
+stuffy old carriage?"
+
+"Yes, I do, my boy," answered his father, frankly. "Now run off with
+you, you've planned it well." So Jasper, made happy for the day, rushed
+back to his seat. A hand not over clean was laid on it, and a tall
+individual, who was pouring out very bad provincial French at a fearful
+rate, was just about to worm himself into it. Polly, who sat next, had
+turned around to view the scenery from the other side, and hadn't seen
+his advance.
+
+"Excuse me," said Jasper, in another torrent of the same language, only
+of a better quality, "this is my seat--I only left it to speak to my
+father."
+
+But the Frenchman being there, thought that he could get still further
+into the seat. So he twisted and edged, but Jasper slipped neatly in,
+and looked calmly up at him. The Frenchman, unable to get his balance,
+sat down in Jasper's lap. But he bounded up again, blue with rage.
+
+"What's all this?" demanded Mr. King, who never could speak French in a
+hurry, being very elegant at it, and exceedingly careful as to his
+accent. Phronsie turned pale and clung to his hand.
+
+"Nothing," said Jasper, in English, "only this person chose to try to
+take my seat, and I chose to have it myself."
+
+"You take yourself off," commanded Mr. King, in an irate voice to the
+French individual, "or I'll see that some one attends to your case."
+
+Not understanding the language, all might have gone well, but the
+French person could interpret the expression of the face under the
+white hair, and he accordingly left a position in front of Jasper to
+sidle up toward Mr. King's seat in a threatening attitude. At that
+Jasper got out of his seat again and went to his father's side. Little
+Dr. Fisher also skipped up.
+
+"See here you, Frenchy, stop your parley vousing, and march down those
+stairs double quick," cried the little doctor, standing on his tiptoes
+and bristling with indignation. His big spectacles had slipped to the
+end of his nose, his sharp little eyes blazing above them.
+
+"Frenchy" stared at him in amazement, unable to find his tongue. And
+then he saw another gentleman in the person of the parson, who was just
+as big as the doctor was small. With one look he glanced around to see
+if there were any more such specimens. At any rate, it was time to be
+going, so he took a bee-line for the nearest stairway and plunged down.
+But he gave the little doctor the compliment of his parting regard.
+
+"Well," ejaculated Mr. King, when his party had regained their seats
+and the car started off, "if this is to be the style of our companions,
+I think my plan of carriages might be best after all. Eh, my boy?" with
+a sly look at Jasper.
+
+"But anything like this might not happen again in a hundred times,
+father," said Jasper.
+
+"I suppose I must say 'yes, I know it' to that," said his father. And
+as everybody had regained composure, he was beginning to feel very
+happy himself as the car rumbled off.
+
+"This is fine," he kept saying to himself, "the boy knew what was
+best," and he smiled more than once over at Jasper, who was pointing
+out this and that to Polly. Jasper nodded back again.
+
+"Don't let him bother you to see everything, Polly," called Grandpapa.
+"Take my advice--it's a nuisance to try to compass the whole place on
+the first visit." But Polly laughed back, and the advice went over her
+head, as he very well knew it would.
+
+"Was anything ever more beautiful?" exclaimed Mother Fisher, drawing in
+long breaths of delight. The little doctor leaned back in his seat, and
+beamed at her over his big glasses. She began to look rested and young
+already. "This journey is the very thing," he declared to himself, and
+his hard-worked hand slipped itself over her toil-worn one as it lay on
+her lap. She turned to him with a smile.
+
+"Adoniram, I never imagined anything like this," she said simply.
+
+"No more did I," he answered. "That's the good of our coming, wife."
+
+"Just see those beautiful green trees, so soft and trembling," she
+exclaimed, as enthusiastically as Polly herself. "And what a perfect
+arch!" And she bent forward to glance down the shaded avenue. "Oh,
+Adoniram!"
+
+"What makes the trunks look so green?" Polly was crying as they rumbled
+along. "See, Jasper, there isn't a brown branch, even. Everything is
+green."
+
+"That's what makes it so pretty," said Jasper. "I don't wonder these
+oaks in the _Scheveningsche Boschjes_--O dear me, I don't know how to
+pronounce it in the least--are so celebrated."
+
+"Don't try," said Polly, "to pronounce it, Jasper. I just mark things
+in my Baedeker and let it go."
+
+"Our Baedekers will be a sight when we get home, won't they, Polly?"
+remarked Jasper, in a pause, when eyes had been busy to their utmost
+capacity.
+
+"I rather think they will," laughed Polly. "Mine is a sight now,
+Jasper, for I mark all round the edges--and just everywhere."
+
+"But you are always copying off the things into your journal," said
+Jasper, "afterward. So do I mark my Baedeker; it's the only way to jot
+things down in any sort of order. One can't be whipping out a note-book
+every minute. Halloo, here we are at the chateau of the Grand Duke of
+Saxe-Weimar. Look, Polly! look!"
+
+As they looked back in the distance to the receding ducal estate, Polly
+said: "It isn't one-half as beautiful as this delicious old wood is,
+Jasper. Just see that perfectly beautiful walk down there and that
+cunning little trail. Oh, I do so wish we could stay here."
+
+"Some day, let us ask Dr. Fisher to come out with us, and we will tramp
+it. Oh, I forgot; he won't leave the hospitals."
+
+"Mr. Henderson might like to," said Polly, in a glow, "let's ask him
+sometime, anyway, Jasper. And then, just think, we can go all in and
+out this lovely wood. How fine!"
+
+"Father will come over to Scheveningen again and stay a few days,
+maybe," said Jasper, "if he takes a fancy to the idea. How would you
+like that, Polly?"
+
+"I don't know," said Polly, "because I haven't seen it yet, Jasper."
+
+"I know--I forgot--'twas silly in me to ask such a question," said
+Jasper, with a laugh. "Well, anyway, I think it more than likely that
+he will."
+
+"I just love The Hague," declared Polly, with a backward glance down
+the green avenue. "I hope we are going to stay there ever so long,
+Jasper."
+
+"Then we sha'n't get on to all the other places," said Jasper. "We
+shall feel just as badly to leave every other one, I suppose, Polly."
+
+"I suppose so," said Polly, with a sigh.
+
+When they left the tram-car at the beginning of the village of
+Scheveningen they set off on a walk down to the _Curhaus_ and the
+beach. Old Mr. King, as young as any one, started out on the promenade
+on the undulating terrace at the top of the Dunes, followed by the rest
+of his party.
+
+Down below ran a level road. "There is the Boulevard," said Grandpapa.
+"See, child," pointing to it; but Phronsie had no eyes for anything but
+the hundreds and hundreds of Bath chairs dotting the sands.
+
+"Oh, Grandpapa, what are they?" she cried, pulling his hand and
+pointing to them.
+
+"Those are chairs," answered Mr. King, "and by and by we will go down
+and get into some of them."
+
+"They look just like the big sunbonnets that Grandma Bascom always wore
+when she went out to feed her hens, don't they, Jasper?"
+
+"Precisely," he said, bursting into a laugh. "How you always do see
+funny things, Polly."
+
+"And see what queer patches there are all up and down the sides of some
+of them," cried Polly. "Whatever can they be, Jasper?"
+
+"Oh, those are the advertisements," said Jasper. "You'll find that
+everything is plastered up in that way abroad."
+
+"Just as the omnibuses in London are all covered over with posters,"
+said Polly; "weren't they funny, Jasper?"
+
+"Yes, indeed,--'Lipton Teas,'--I got so tired of that. And
+these,--cocoa or chocolate. You know Holland is full of manufactories
+of it."
+
+"And isn't it good?" cried Polly, smacking her lips, as she had feasted
+on it since their arrival in Holland, Grandpapa considering it
+especially good and pure.
+
+"I should say so," echoed Jasper, smacking his lips, too.
+
+"Dr. Fisher--" The parson turned to address his neighbour, but there
+was no little doctor.
+
+"Oh, he is off long ago," said his wife, "to his beloved hospital. What
+is it, Samuel?"
+
+"I was only going to remark that I don't believe I ever saw so many
+people together before. Just look!" he pointed down to the Boulevard
+and off to the sands along the beach.
+
+"It is a swarm, isn't it?" said his wife. "Well, we must go, for Mr.
+King is going down to the Boulevard."
+
+Polly and Jasper, running in and out of the fascinating shops by the
+Concert terrace, had minds divided by the desire to stay on the sands,
+and to explore further the tempting interiors. "We must get something
+for the boys," she declared, jingling her little silver purse; "just
+let us go in this one now, then we'll run after Grandpapa; he's going
+down on the sands."
+
+"He's going to sit with Phronsie in some of those big sunbonnets of
+yours, Polly," said Jasper. "There they are," pointing to them. "Well,
+we'll go in this shop. I want to get a pair of those wooden shoes for
+Joel." And they hurried in.
+
+"Oh, how fine!" exclaimed Polly. "Well, I saw a carved bear I think
+Davie would like, and--" the rest was lost in the confusing array of
+tempting things spread out for their choice by deft shopkeepers.
+
+When they emerged, Polly had a china windmill, and an inkstand of Delft
+ware, and several other things, and Jasper carried all the big bundles.
+"O dear me," said Polly, "now we must run, or we sha'n't have much time
+to stay on the beach; and besides, Grandpapa will worry over us if
+we're not there."
+
+"We can't run much, loaded down with this," said Jasper, looking at his
+armful and laughing, "or we'd likely drop half of them, and smash them
+to pieces. Wait a bit, Polly, I'm going to buy you some fruit." They
+stopped at the top of the stone stairway leading down to the sands,
+where some comely peasant women, fishermen's wives, held great baskets
+of fruit, and in one hand was a pair of scales. "Now, then, what will
+you have, Polly?"
+
+"Oh, some grapes, please, Jasper," said Polly. "Aren't they most
+beautiful?"
+
+"I should say they were; they are black Hamburgs," declared Jasper.
+"Now, then, my good woman, give us a couple of pounds." He put down the
+coin she asked for, and she weighed them out in her scales, and did
+them up in a piece of a Dutch newspaper.
+
+"We are much worse off now, Jasper," laughed Polly, as they got over
+the stairs somehow with their burdens, "since we've all these grapes to
+carry. O dear me, there goes one!"
+
+"Never mind," said Jasper, looking over his armful of presents, to
+investigate his paper of grapes; "if we don't lose but one, we're
+lucky."
+
+"And there goes another," announced Polly, as they picked their way
+over and through the thick sand.
+
+"Well, I declare," exclaimed old Mr. King, peering out of his Bath
+chair, "if you children aren't loaded down!" He was eating black
+Hamburg grapes. Phronsie sat opposite him almost lost in the depth of
+another Bath chair, similarly occupied. And at a little remove was the
+remainder of the party, and they all were in Bath chairs, and eating
+black Hamburg grapes.
+
+"We've had such fun," sighed Polly, and she and Jasper cast their
+bundles on the soft sand; then she threw herself down next to them, and
+pushed up the little brown rings from her damp brow.
+
+Jasper set his paper of grapes in her lap, then rushed off. "I'll get
+you a Bath chair," he said, beckoning to the attendant.
+
+"Oh, Jasper, I'd so much rather sit on the sand," called Polly.
+
+"So had I," he confessed, running back and throwing himself down beside
+her. "Now, then, do begin on your grapes, Polly."
+
+"We'll begin together," she said, poking open the paper. "Oh, aren't
+they good, though!"
+
+"I should rather say they were," declared Jasper; "dear me, what a
+bunch!"
+
+"It's not as big as mine," said Polly, holding up hers to the light.
+"You made me take that one, Jasper."
+
+"It's no better than mine," said Jasper, eating away.
+
+"I'm going to hop into one of the chairs just a minute before we go,"
+said Polly, nodding at the array along the beach, and eating her grapes
+busily, "to see how they feel."
+
+"Oh, Polly, let me get you a chair now," begged Jasper, setting down
+the remainder of his bunch of grapes, and springing up.
+
+"Oh, I don't want to, I really and truly don't, Jasper," Polly made
+haste to cry. "I like the sand ever and ever so much better. I only
+want to see for a minute what it's like to be in one of those funny old
+things. Then I should want to hop out with all my might, I just know I
+should."
+
+"I'm of your mind," said Jasper, coming back to his seat on the sand
+again. "They must be very stuffy, Polly. Well, now you are here, would
+you like to come back to Scheveningen for a few days, Polly?"
+
+"I think I should," said Polly, slowly, bringing her gaze around over
+the sea, to the Dunes, the beach, with the crowds of people of all
+nationalities, and the peasant folk, "if we could stay just as long,
+for all that, at the dear old Hague."
+
+And just then old Mr. King was saying to Phronsie, "We will come out
+here again, child, and stay a week. Yes," he said to himself, "I will
+engage the rooms before we go back this afternoon."
+
+"Grandpapa," asked Phronsie, laying her hand on his knee, "can I have
+this very same little house next time we come?"
+
+"Well, I don't know," said Mr. King, peering up and down Phronsie's
+Bath chair adorned with the most lively descriptions of the merits of
+cocoa as a food; "they're all alike as two peas, except for the matter
+of the chocolate and cocoa trimmings. But perhaps I can fix it,
+Phronsie, so that you can have this identical one," mentally resolving
+to do that very thing. "Well, come, Phronsie, we must go now and get
+our luncheon."
+
+"I am so glad if I can have the same little house," said Phronsie, with
+a sigh of contentment, as she slowly got out of her Bath chair. "It is
+a nice little house, Grandpapa, and I love it very much."
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+A BOX FOR THE PEPPER BOYS
+
+
+"Mamsie, have we been here a whole week in Amsterdam," cried Polly,
+leaning out of the window to look up and down the canal where the
+many-coloured boats lay, "beside all those days at Scheveningen? I
+can't believe it!"
+
+"It doesn't seem possible," Mother Fisher answered musingly, and her
+hands dropped to her lap, where they lay quietly folded.
+
+"Mamsie,"--Polly suddenly drew in her gaze from the charming old canal
+and its boats, and sprang to Mrs. Fisher's side,--"do you know, I think
+it was just the loveliest thing in all the world for Grandpapa to bring
+dear Mr. and Mrs. Henderson abroad with us? I do, Mamsie."
+
+"Mr. King is always doing good, kind things," said Mrs. Fisher, coming
+out of her revery, as Polly threw herself down on the floor and laid
+her head in her mother's lap, just as she used to do at home. "I
+haven't done this for so long," she said, "and it is so good!"
+
+"That is the only drawback about travel," observed Mother Fisher, her
+hand passing soothingly over Polly's head, "that there never seems to
+be time for the little home ways that are so good. Now we must make the
+time and keep it, Polly."
+
+"Indeed we will," cried Polly, seizing Mamsie's other hand to cuddle it
+under her chin, "and I'm going to begin right now. It makes me think of
+the little brown house, Mamsie, whenever you smooth my hair. What good
+times we used to have there!"
+
+Mrs. Fisher's hand trembled a bit, but the black eyes were as serene as
+ever. "You used to work pretty hard, Polly," she said.
+
+"Oh, but it was fun!" said Polly, merrily, "only I didn't like the old
+stove when it acted badly. But then came my new stove. Mamsie, wasn't
+Papa Fisher splendid? And then he saved my eyes. Just think, Mamsie, I
+never can love him half enough. I wish I could do something for him,"
+she mourned, just as she did in the old days.
+
+"You do, Polly; you are doing something every day of your life," said
+her mother, reassuringly. "Never think that you don't do anything. Why,
+it was only this very morning that your father told me that you were
+his little helper, and that he depended on you to cheer him up."
+
+"Did he say that?" asked Polly, much gratified, poking up her head to
+look at her mother. "Oh, I want to be, but I don't know how to help
+him. Papa Fisher always seems to be doing something for other people,
+and not to need anybody to do things for him."
+
+"Ah, Polly, when you have lived longer," said Mrs. Fisher, "you will
+know that those who are doing things always for other people, are the
+very ones who need cheering up, for they never complain. Your father,
+in going about as he does, day after day, to the hospitals and
+everywhere, where he can learn anything that will make him a better
+doctor, is working very hard indeed, and yet think how cheerful he is
+when he comes home! And he says you help to keep him so, Polly." She
+bent over and set a kiss on Polly's red cheek.
+
+"Mamsie," cried Polly, with a glow where the kiss had dropped, "I'm
+going to try harder than ever to see wherever I can find a time to help
+Papa-Doctor. And I hope that one will come soon."
+
+"And you'll find just such a time will come; it never fails to when you
+watch for it," said Mother Fisher, wisely. Just then the door opened,
+and Phronsie, fresh from the hands of Matilda, who had been changing
+her gown, came in with Araminta in her arms. When she saw Polly on the
+floor with her head in Mamsie's lap, she got down by her side and
+curled up there, too.
+
+"Smooth my hair, do, Mamsie," she begged.
+
+"Mamsie's got her two bothers," said Polly, with a little laugh.
+
+"Mamsie doesn't mind her bothers," said Mrs. Fisher, her other hand
+going softly over Phronsie's yellow hair, at which Phronsie gave a
+small sigh of content, and wriggled her toes as they were stretched out
+straight before her on the carpet, "if only they grow up a little
+better every day than they were the day before."
+
+"We'll try to, Mamsie," said Polly, "won't we, Pet?" leaning over and
+kissing her.
+
+"I'll try to," promised Phronsie, with another wriggle of her small
+toes.
+
+"That's right," said Mother Fisher, smiling approval.
+
+"Mrs. Fisher!" called Grandpapa's voice at the door. Thereupon Polly
+and Phronsie sprang to their feet, and a lively race ensued to see
+which should be there the first to open it. The consequence was that
+both faces met him at once.
+
+"Bless me!" cried old Mr. King, laughing gaily, as the door flew open,
+and they both rushed into his arms; "so you did like to have your old
+Grandfather come to see you," he exclaimed, mightily pleased.
+
+"I should think we did!" cried Polly, as they escorted him in, and led
+him to the seat of honour, a big carved arm-chair, with a faded
+tapestry covering.
+
+"I should very much like to get into your lap, Grandpapa dear," said
+Phronsie, surveying him gravely as he sat down and leaned his head
+against the chair back.
+
+"So you shall," cried Mr. King, lifting her up to his knee, Araminta
+and all. She perched there in quiet content, while he set forth his
+business which he had come to talk over with Mother Fisher.
+
+"Now, you know those three boys of yours are the most splendid boys
+that ever were in all this world, and they are working away at home,
+studying and all that, Joel and David are, and Ben is pegging away at
+business." Old Mr. King thought best to go to the heart of the matter
+at once without any dallying.
+
+Mrs. Fisher's cheek grew a shade paler, but she said not a word as she
+fastened her black eyes on his face.
+
+"Hem--well, we don't talk much about those boys," observed the old
+gentleman, "because it makes us all homesick after them, and it's best
+that they should be there, and that we should be here, so that was
+settled once for all by our coming."
+
+Still Mrs. Fisher said not a word.
+
+"Well, now, the fact of it is," continued old Mr. King, still keeping
+to the main point with wonderful directness, "I think the time has come
+for us to act, which is much better than talking, in my opinion; and I
+want to do something for those boys."
+
+A pin could have been heard to drop. Polly leaned over his chair and
+hung on his words, while Mrs. Fisher never took her eyes from his face.
+
+"In short," continued old Mr. King, well pleased with the attention of
+his audience, "I propose that we send a box of good things of various
+descriptions to Ben and Joel and David."
+
+A small howl of delight from Polly broke the silence. When she heard
+that, Phronsie gave a little crow. "Oh, Grandpapa!" exclaimed Polly,
+"do you really mean it?" and she threw her arms around his neck.
+Phronsie immediately clambered up and did the same thing.
+
+"That's just as your mother shall decide," said Mr. King, immensely
+pleased with the way his news was received. "She hasn't said a word yet
+whether she likes the idea or not."
+
+"It's just because I couldn't speak at first," said Mrs. Fisher, wiping
+her eyes; and her voice trembled. "But it's the very thing; and oh!
+thank you, sir, for thinking of it. The boys won't be so homesick for
+us when they get the box. And it will be the best thing in the world
+for us to keep busy, so we can't worry about them."
+
+"Mamsie _has_ said 'yes'!" exclaimed Polly, flying off to dance around
+and around in the middle of the room. "Oh, I wish Jasper was here!" she
+cried regretfully, breaking short off.
+
+"Go and call him, then,--he's down in the reading room, writing to the
+boys,--and bring him up here," said old Mr. King. "No, no, Phronsie,
+you want to stay and take care of me," as Phronsie showed signs of
+slipping down from his lap to go too.
+
+"I'll stay and take care of you," said Phronsie, obediently; "just let
+me lay Araminta down, Grandpapa, on the sofa, and then I'll come back
+and rub your head."
+
+So she got down and set Araminta up straight against the sofa back, and
+then came and clambered up again into his lap. By this time Polly and
+Jasper, racing along the hall, had reached Mother Fisher's room.
+
+"That's regularly splendid, father." Jasper tossed his dark hair back
+from his forehead, and his eyes sparkled. "Oh, can't we go out right
+away and begin to buy the presents?"
+
+"I shouldn't think that idea was a half-bad one," said old Mr. King.
+"What do you say, Mrs. Fisher? If we are going to send the box, why
+isn't it best to begin the work at once? There's never so good a time
+as now, in my opinion. I'm sure you agree with me."
+
+On Mother Fisher saying "yes," all three of the young people took hold
+of hands, and danced around the room in glee. For old Mr. King set
+Phronsie down, with, "There, go, child, and spin with the others; then
+all hurry and get your hats on, and we'll be off."
+
+And in less time than it takes to write it, old Mr. King and Mother
+Fisher and Jasper and Polly and Phronsie all hurried out of the hotel,
+and began a round of the shops to get the things together for the
+wonderful box to go home to the boys. And though Polly didn't know it,
+several other things, that boys wouldn't be supposed to care for in the
+least, were slyly added to the purchases, when she wasn't looking, to
+be sent home to the hotel in separate parcels to Mr. King. For Polly
+was going to have a birthday before very long; though she had quite
+forgotten it in the excitement over this box for Ben and Joel and David.
+
+"It's just like buying things for Christmas, isn't it, Jasper?" said
+Polly, as they hung over the show-cases and peered into windows; "only
+everything is so funny here. Oh, no, Phronsie, that won't do; it's too
+big," as Phronsie protested that nothing was so nice as a huge Delft
+plate hanging on the wall. There was a big windmill and several little
+windmills in the distance along a Dutch canal, and two or three cows in
+the foreground, and a peasant girl with a basket in her hand. Phronsie
+stood and gazed at it all the time they were in this particular shop.
+
+"I like that little girl," she said, "and those cows; and they are like
+Deacon Blodgett's cows at home in Badgertown. And Ben would like it,
+and Joel, and David." And all Polly could do, she would still say, "I
+like it, Polly, and I want Grandpapa to send it."
+
+At last Polly turned in despair to Jasper. "Oh, what can we do?" she
+cried; "she is just as determined as she was when she would send the
+gingerbread boy to Grandpapa."
+
+"Well, I think we would better not try to get her away from the idea,"
+said Jasper, with a look at the rapt little face. Phronsie was now
+kneeling on a Flemish oak chair, and studying the Delft plate with
+absorbed attention.
+
+"No," said Polly, with a sigh, "I suppose it isn't any use to try when
+she looks like that." Just then old Mr. King, who had been busy in a
+farther corner with the proprietor of the shop, picking out some small
+articles that struck his fancy, turned and called Phronsie. She didn't
+hear him, being too absorbed. And so he laid down the little silver
+paper-cutter he was looking at, and came over to see what was the
+matter.
+
+"Well, child," he said, looking over her shoulder. "And so you like
+that, hey?"
+
+Phronsie drew a long breath. "I do, Grandpapa, like it very much
+indeed," she said.
+
+"Well, then, I don't see but what you must have it. And it shall hang
+in your own little room at home, Phronsie."
+
+"But I don't want it for my very own, Grandpapa," said Phronsie; "it
+must go in the box for Ben and Joel and David."
+
+"Dear me! You think they would like it, Phronsie?" he asked doubtfully,
+and just on the point of saying, like Polly, "it's too big, child,"
+when he stopped himself and finished up--"and so it pleases you,
+Phronsie?"
+
+"Yes, it does," said Phronsie, with an emphatic little nod; "I love
+that nice cow, and that little girl. Grandpapa, I think I should like
+to live in a windmill."
+
+"Bless me! I think you wouldn't want to live there very long, child.
+Well, the plate shall go to the boys, and I only hope they will like
+it," he said to himself, dubiously.
+
+"He is going to send it," Jasper and Polly said to each other, peering
+round an angle in the shop at the two. "Well, it's a mercy it's got a
+cow on it instead of a cat," said Jasper. "How Joel would howl if
+Phronsie sent him the picture of a cat!"
+
+"She would if there were a cat to be found," said Polly; "don't you
+believe, Jasper, but what she would?"
+
+
+
+
+X
+
+DANGER
+
+
+Well, the box that went home across the seas to the Pepper boys was a
+marvel, stuffed in every nook and cranny where there was a possibility
+that the tiniest parcel could be tucked, until Phronsie, who kept
+bringing up more bundles, had to be told by Polly and Jasper, who did
+the packing, that no more could go in.
+
+"They are very small," sighed Phronsie, curling up on the floor by the
+side of the big box, almost overflowing with billows of the soft white
+paper on top, and holding up two pudgy little bundles.
+
+"So you've said for the last hour, Phronsie," exclaimed Polly, in
+despair, and sitting quite straight, her hands in her lap. "Jasper,
+what _shall_ we do?" He was over by the window laying out the long
+nails that were to fasten the cover on; for no one must touch this
+precious box, but the loving hands that got it ready.
+
+"Oh, we can't," began Jasper. Then he turned and saw Phronsie's face.
+"Perhaps one might be crowded in," he added, with a look at Polly.
+"Which one would you rather have Polly make a try at, Phronsie?"
+
+"This one," she said, holding up the pudgiest bundle, "because this is
+the china cat, and I want Joel to have that."
+
+Down went Polly's head on the edge of the box. Jasper dropped the long
+nails and hurried over to her.
+
+"I can't help it." Polly's shoulders were shaking, and she added
+gustily, "O dear me--and Joel does so hate cats!"
+
+"Phronsie, I think I can tuck in that parcel," Jasper made haste to
+say. "There, give it to me, child," and he took it out of her hand.
+"For Joel" was written across it in unsteady letters.
+
+"Is Polly sick?" asked Phronsie, wonderingly, as she resigned her cat
+into his hands.
+
+"No, only a bit tired, I think," answered Jasper. "Well, now, Phronsie,
+I think there is just room enough to tuck that parcel in this corner,"
+said Jasper, crowding his fingers down in between the various bundles
+to make a space. "There, in it pops!" suiting the action to the word.
+
+"I am so very glad," said Phronsie, smoothing her brown gown in great
+satisfaction; "for then Joel will know that I sent it all by myself."
+
+"He'll know that nobody else sent it," said Polly to herself. "And I
+know it's a perfectly awful cat, for Phronsie always picks out the very
+ugliest she can find."
+
+Well, the box was off, at last, the Pepper children and Jasper seeing
+it till the very last minute. And old Mr. King was nearly as excited as
+the young folks, and the Parson and Mrs. Henderson said it reminded
+them of Christmas times over again, and Mother Fisher and the little
+doctor were in a great state of happiness.
+
+And that night when Polly was in bed, and Mother Fisher came into her
+room and Phronsie's, which opened into her own, to say "Good night,"
+Polly turned on her pillow. "Mamsie," she said, "I do so very much wish
+that we could send a box to the Henderson boys. They must be so
+homesick for their mother and father."
+
+Mrs. Fisher stopped and thought a bit, "A very good idea, Polly," she
+said, "and I'm glad you thought of it. I'll speak to your father and
+see if he approves, before we say anything to Mr. King."
+
+"You see," said Polly, rolling over to get hold of one of Mother
+Fisher's hands, and speaking very fast, "of course the Henderson boys
+are having a good time at dear Deacon Blodgett's, but then their mother
+and father are away off. Oh, Mamsie!" She reached over and threw both
+arms around her mother and hugged her tightly.
+
+"Yes, I know, Polly," said Mother Fisher, holding her big girl to her
+heart, "and we must look out for other people's boys; that's what you
+mean to say, isn't it?"
+
+"Yes," said Polly, happy that Mamsie always understood, "and now that
+Ben's and Joel's and David's box is off, why, I wish we could, Mamsie,
+send the other one."
+
+"I really think it can be done," said Mrs. Fisher, "but I must ask your
+father first. And now, daughter, go to sleep, like Phronsie." She
+glanced over at the other little bed, where Phronsie's yellow head was
+lost in dreams.
+
+"You know we are going to Marken tomorrow."
+
+"I know," said Polly, with a happy little wriggle under the bedclothes.
+
+"And it never would do for you to be all tired out in the morning. That
+would be very unkind to dear Mr. King, who is trying so hard to make us
+all happy," continued Mrs. Fisher.
+
+"I know," said Polly, again. "Well, good night, Mamsie." She set three
+or four kisses on Mother Fisher's cheek, then turned over, with her
+face to the wall.
+
+"I'll shut the door until you get to sleep, Polly," said Mrs. Fisher,
+"then I will open it again," as she went out.
+
+As Mother Fisher had said, they were going to the Island of Marken
+to-morrow; and Polly tumbled asleep with her head full of all the
+strange things they were to see there, and that Jasper and she had been
+reading about,--how the people wore the same kind of funny costume that
+their great-great-ever-so-many-times great-grandfathers and
+grandmothers had worn; and how the houses were of different colours,
+and built in different layers or mounds of land, with cunning little
+windows and scarcely any stairs; and how they were going in the haying
+season when everybody would be out raking up and
+gleaning--and--and--Polly was completely lost in her happy dreams.
+
+Somebody seemed to be pulling her arm. What! Oh, she remembered they
+were going to Marken, and she must hurry and get her bath and fly into
+her clothes. "Yes, Mamsie!" she cried, flying up to sit straight in the
+bed. "I'll get right up and dress; oh, won't we have fun!"
+
+"Polly," said Mother Fisher. She had on a dressing-gown, and her black
+hair was hanging down her back. She looked pale and worried; Polly
+could see that, although she blinked at the sudden light. "It isn't
+morning, but the middle of the night. You must get up this minute. Pull
+on your shoes; don't stop for stockings, and slip into your wrapper.
+Don't ask questions," as Polly's lips moved.
+
+Polly obeyed with an awful feeling at her heart. She glanced at
+Phronsie's little bed; she was not there! Mrs. Fisher threw the pink
+wrapper over her head; Polly thrust her arms into the sleeves, feeling
+as if she were sinking way down. "Now come." And Mamsie seized her hand
+and hurried her through her own room without another word. It was
+empty. Father Fisher and Phronsie were nowhere to be seen. And now for
+the first time Polly was conscious of a great noise out in the
+corridor. It seemed to spread and fasten itself to a number of other
+noises, and something made Polly feel queerly in her throat as if she
+should choke. She looked up in her mother's eyes, as they sped through
+the room.
+
+"Yes, Polly," said Mother Fisher, "it is fire. The hotel is on fire;
+you will be brave, my child, I know."
+
+"Phronsie!" gasped Polly. They were now in the corridor and hurrying
+along.
+
+"She is safe; her father took her."
+
+"Oh, Mamsie, Jasper and Grandpapa!"
+
+"They know it; your father ran and told them. Obey me, Polly; come!"
+
+Mrs. Fisher's firm hand on her arm really hurt Polly, as they hurried
+on through the dense waves of smoke that now engulfed them.
+
+"Oh, Mamsie, not this way; we must find the stairs." But Mrs. Fisher
+held her with firmer fingers than ever, and they turned into a narrower
+hall, up toward a blinking red light that sent a small bright spark out
+through the thick smoke, and in a minute, or very much less, they were
+out on the fire-escape, and looking down to hear--for they couldn't
+see--Jasper's voice calling from below, "We are all here, Polly," and
+"Be careful, wife, how you come down," from Dr. Fisher.
+
+"Oh," cried Polly, as the little group drew her and Mamsie into their
+arms, "are we all here?"
+
+"Yes, Polly; yes, yes," answered Jasper. And "Oh, yes," cried old Mr.
+King, his arm around Phronsie, "but we shouldn't have been but for this
+doctor of ours."
+
+"And Mr. and Mrs. Henderson?" cried Polly, shivering at Grandpapa's
+words.
+
+"We are here, dear child," said the parson's wife, pressing forward,
+and then the crowd surged up against them this way and that, and more
+people came down the fire-escape, and some were screaming and saying
+they had lost everything, and they must go back for their jewels, and
+one woman brought down a big feather pillow, and set it carefully on
+the grass, she was so crazed with fright.
+
+"O dear, dear, can't we help them?" cried Polly, wringing her hands,
+"Look at that girl!"
+
+She was about as old as Polly, and she rushed by them plunging into the
+thickest of the crowd surging up against the fire-escape. "I'm going
+up," she kept screaming.
+
+Polly remembered her face as she flashed by. She sat at the next table
+to theirs in the dining room, with a slender, gentle, little old lady
+whom she called "Grandmamma." "O dear!" groaned Polly, "we _must_ help
+her!"
+
+Jasper dashed after the girl, and Polly ran, too. He laid his hand on
+the arm of the flying figure as she broke through the crowd, but she
+shook him off like a feather. "She's up there," pointing above, "and I
+must get her."
+
+One of the firemen seized her and held her fast. Jasper sprang for the
+fire-escape. "_Jasper!_" called Polly, hoarsely, "it will kill
+Grandpapa if you go--oh!" She turned at a cry from the girl, whose arms
+were around a bent, shaking, little figure, and they had both sunk to
+the ground.
+
+"I brought her down long ago," said another fireman, who could speak
+English, pointing to the white-haired old lady, who, on hearing her
+granddaughter's voice, had pushed her way through the crowd, as Dr.
+Fisher hurried up.
+
+And then Mr. King and his party gathered his group, and they hurried to
+another hotel close by, Jasper and Mr. Henderson and Mother Fisher
+waiting to see to the belongings of the party; for the fire was now
+subdued, although the guests had to go elsewhere for shelter, and the
+little doctor was in his element, taking care of the old lady, and then
+he rushed off to look after a score or more of other fainting women.
+
+But nobody was really hurt--the smoke and the panic had been the worst,
+only the poor thing who had dragged down the feather pillow sat by it
+till the little doctor, discovering her, called two stout men, who took
+her up in their arms--she screaming all the while for her treasure--and
+bore her to a neighbouring house that kindly opened its doors to some
+of the people so suddenly thrown out of shelter. And it wasn't till
+near breakfast time that the little doctor came to the hotel that was
+now their home.
+
+"Brain-fever patient," he said briefly. "Wife, I must get a cold
+plunge, or I'll be having it next." And when breakfast was really set
+before their party, he appeared with the others fresh from his bath,
+and as cheery as if nothing had happened to break his good night's rest.
+
+"O dear me! How did you ever get so many things over here, in all this
+world, and why didn't you let me stay with you?" Polly had exclaimed in
+one breath, looking at the array of dresses, sacks, and hats disposed
+around the room. And Mamsie was kneeling before an open trunk to take
+out more.
+
+"It wasn't best, Polly," said her mother, who had longed for Polly as
+no one knew better than did Mother Fisher herself. "You were really
+needed here with Grandpapa and Phronsie. You truly were, my dear."
+
+"I know," said Polly. "Well, do let me take those out, Mamsie; you're
+tired to death, already. Oh, and you've brought my dear little American
+flag!" She seized it and hugged it with delight.
+
+"Did you suppose I could come back without that flag," exclaimed Mother
+Fisher in a reproving tone, "when you've put it up in your room every
+place where we've stopped?--why, Polly!"
+
+"No, Mamsie, I really didn't think you could," answered Polly, quickly,
+and running to her, little silk flag and all, to throw her arms around
+her neck, "only it's so good to see the dear thing again."
+
+"You may take the things from me, and hang them up somewhere," said her
+mother; "that will help me the most," giving her an armful. "I don't
+see how you ever thought of so many things, Mamsie!" exclaimed Polly
+going off with her armful.
+
+"I brought all I thought we needed just at first," said Mother Fisher,
+diving into the trunk depths again.
+
+"How did you ever do it?" cried Polly, for the fiftieth time, as she
+sorted, and hung the various garments in their proper places.
+
+"Oh, Jasper helped me pack them, and then he got the hotel porter to
+bring over the trunks," answered Mother Fisher, her head in the trunk.
+"I've locked up our rooms, and got the keys, so I can get the rest by
+and by."
+
+"But how did you first hear of the fire?" asked Polly, when they were
+all finally seated around the breakfast table, little Mrs. Gray--for so
+the white-haired old lady was called--and her granddaughter Adela being
+invited to join, "do tell me, Mamsie, I don't understand," she added in
+a puzzled way.
+
+"No, you were talking about Marken in your sleep," said Mother Fisher,
+"when I went to call you, and how you would be ready in the morning."
+
+"Marken?" repeated old Mr. King, looking up from the egg he was
+carefully breaking for Phronsie so that she might eat it from the
+shell. "So we were going there this morning. Well, we won't see that
+island now for a good many days; at least, till we get over this
+fright. Beside, we have things to settle here, and to get comfortably
+fixed. But we'll have that excursion all in good time, never fear."
+
+"Well, how did you, Mamsie," Polly begged again, "first hear of the
+fire? Do tell me."
+
+"Somebody made a good deal of noise down in the corridor," said Mother
+Fisher, "and your father went out to see what was the matter, and then
+he came back and told me what to do, and he took Phronsie and went for
+old Mr. King. But he had sent a porter to warn them in 165, and they
+would tell the Hendersons in the next room, before he ran upstairs to
+me." It was a long speech for Mother Fisher.
+
+"Mamsie," asked Polly, suddenly, after she had leaned across her mother
+and beamed at the little doctor, which so delighted him that his big
+spectacles nearly fell off in his plate, "how _did_ you know where the
+fire-escape was?"
+
+"Oh, that was your father's doings, too," said Mother Fisher. She
+couldn't help but show her pride. "He told me all about it the first
+day we got to the hotel. He always does; he says it's better to know
+these things."
+
+"Wife--wife," begged the little doctor, imploringly.
+
+"I'm going to tell, Adoniram," said Mother Fisher, proudly, "the whole
+story; they ought to know."
+
+"Indeed we had; and so you shall," commanded Mr. King, from the head of
+the table.
+
+"I can't help it! I really must!" exclaimed Polly, hopping out of her
+chair,--there were no other people in the breakfast room beside their
+party, so really it wasn't so very dreadful after all,--and she ran
+back of her mother's chair, and threw her arms around the little
+doctor's neck. "Oh, Papa Fisher," she cried, setting ever so many
+kisses on his cheeks under the big spectacles, "you've saved all our
+lives."
+
+"There--there, Polly," cried the little doctor, quite overcome.
+
+"And ours, too," said little Mrs. Gray, in a shaking voice.
+
+
+
+
+XI
+
+THE TWO BIRTHDAYS IN OLD HOLLAND
+
+
+And Polly never knew about a certain shelf in Grandpapa's closet, nor
+how full it was getting, when Jasper ran every now and then to add the
+gifts as fast as the different members of the party picked up pretty
+things in the shops for the coming birthday--now very near. And she
+actually forgot all about the birthday itself; all her mind being set
+on the Henderson box, so soon to sail off over the sea.
+
+And Mother Fisher would look over at her absorbed face, and smile, to
+watch her in the shops, picking out things for the Henderson boys; and
+old Mr. King would send many a keen glance at her, and Jasper had hard
+work not to exclaim, "Oh, Polly, father has got you a--" And then he'd
+pull himself up, and rush off into some great plan to buy Peletiah
+Henderson something that a Badgertown boy ought to have. And Phronsie
+was carefully guarded on all sides these days, lest she should let out
+the great secret, for, of course, she ought to be in the very centre of
+all these preparations to celebrate Polly's birthday in Old Amsterdam,
+so she knew everything just as soon as it was planned. But sometimes,
+with all this care, the whole thing nearly popped out.
+
+"Mr. King!" It was Mother Fisher who called after him, and her voice
+didn't sound like hers, for it had an excited little ring. "Oh, are you
+going out?" for she didn't see that he held his hat in his hand till he
+turned in the corridor.
+
+"I can wait just as well if it's anything you want, Mrs. Fisher," he
+said gladly, controlling his surprise at her unusual manner. "I was
+only about to run down to the Kalver-straat for a little matter I just
+thought of for the birthday. Can I do anything for you?" he begged.
+
+"Yes, it's just that," said Mrs. Fisher, hurriedly; "it's about the
+birthday--I must speak quickly--I've just found out,--" she glanced up
+and down the corridor as if fully expecting to see Polly dash around a
+corner,--"that Adela Gray's birthday is to-morrow--"
+
+"The dickens! You don't say so!" exploded Mr. King. "Well, now, I call
+that very clever on your part to have found it out. Very clever indeed,
+Mrs. Fisher," he repeated, beaming at her. "And just in time, for it
+would have been a dreadful thing, indeed, to have had that poor little
+girl left out, and her birthday too! Dear me!"
+
+"It would, indeed," said Mrs. Fisher, heartily, with a shiver at the
+mere thought.
+
+"And we might as well have had no celebration in such a case, for Polly
+wouldn't have enjoyed a single bit of it--not an atom!" declared old
+Mr. King, bringing his walking stick heavily down on the floor.
+
+"What is it--oh, Grandpapa, what is it?" and Polly came hurrying along
+the corridor, and Jasper after her.
+
+"Here she comes!" exclaimed Grandpapa, in a fright. "Glad you told
+me--Hush--O dear me--I'll take care of the gifts."
+
+"And I'm to do the rest--just the same--Doctor Fisher and I. Remember!"
+It was all Mrs. Fisher had time to utter. Even then, Polly caught the
+last words in the flurry.
+
+"Oh, what is it, Mamsie--Is anything the matter with Papa-Doctor?" And
+her brown eyes filled with alarm at her mother's unusual manner.
+
+"Polly," Mrs. Fisher looked into the brown eyes with a steady glance,
+and all the hurry was gone out of her voice, "your father is all right.
+And now, run away, you and Jasper." She looked over Polly's shoulder at
+him as she spoke. "No, not another word, child." And away Mrs. Fisher
+hurried, while old Mr. King slipped off in the opposite direction.
+
+"How funnily they act," said Polly, looking first after one and then
+another, with a puzzled face. "What can it be, Jasper?"
+
+"Oh, well, I suppose they are in a hurry," said Jasper, as carelessly
+as he could. "Never mind, Polly, everything is all right. Oh, I say,
+let's fix our stamp books."
+
+"But I was going to ask Grandpapa to go out with us, and now he's gone
+by himself," and Polly's face grew more puzzled than ever.
+
+"Polly," said Jasper, desperately, "I really think we ought to fix our
+stamp books. I really do," and he took her hand. "My stamps are all in
+heaps in the envelopes, and in a mess generally. Come, let's begin
+now--do." And he led her back down the corridor.
+
+"I suppose so," said Polly, with a reluctant little sigh, as they went
+off.
+
+And that afternoon, there was another narrow escape, when it seemed as
+if the secret really must pop out. Polly, rushing along to the reading
+room opposite the big dining room, saw Mother Fisher in consultation
+with the head waiter, and he was saying "cake," and then he stopped
+suddenly, and Mrs. Fisher turned and saw her. And Mamsie came across
+the hall, and into the reading room, and sat there a bit, while Polly
+tossed off a letter to Alexia Rhys, that had been worrying her for
+days. And there was a funny little smile tucked away in the corners of
+Mother Fisher's mouth, and Polly thought that things were getting
+queerer than ever.
+
+"I am glad you are writing that letter," said Mrs. Fisher, with an
+approving smile that chased the funny little one all around the
+strongly curved mouth, "for Alexia will feel badly not to hear often
+from you, Polly."
+
+"I know it," said Polly, wrinkling her brows, "and I didn't mean to let
+this wait so long," scribbling away as fast as she could.
+
+"Take care, Polly," warned her mother; "a carelessly written letter is
+no compliment, and it gets you in a bad way. Don't hurry so, child," as
+Polly's pen went scratching across the paper at a fearful rate.
+
+"But there are so many letters to write to all the girls," said Polly,
+stopping a minute to look at her mother, "and I've only just got all
+the letters in my steamer mail-bag answered. I _must_ write to Cathie
+and Philena, and Amy Garrett too, to-day, Mamsie," she added, in
+distress.
+
+"Polly," said Mother Fisher, looking into the flushed face, "I tell you
+what would be the best way for you to do. All the letters in your
+mail-bag are answered, you said?"
+
+"Yes, indeed," declared Polly. "Oh, Mamsie, you didn't think I could
+put those off?" she asked reproachfully.
+
+"No, Polly, I really didn't," Mrs. Fisher made haste to assure her.
+"Well, now, mother will tell you what will be the best way for you to
+do. Write as good a letter as you can to Alexia, and tell her to send
+it around to all the girls, for a kind of a bulletin, and--"
+
+"Oh, Mamsie Fisher," cried Polly, not stopping to hear the rest, but
+deserting the writing table to run and throw her arms around her
+mother's neck, "you're the bestest, dearest mother in all this
+world--oh--oh! Now I sha'n't have but one letter to write! How fine!"
+
+"And you must write that one letter very nicely, Polly, and take ever
+so much pains with it," said Mother Fisher, her black eyes shining at
+the happy solution; "and that is much better than to hurry off a good
+many slovenly ones. Besides, it is not well to take your time and
+strength for too much letter writing, for there are the boys, and Mrs.
+Whitney and--"
+
+"Grandma Bascom and dear Mrs. Beebe," finished Polly. "Oh, I couldn't
+ever forget them, Mamsie, in all this world." She stopped cuddling
+Mother Fisher's neck, to peer into the black eyes.
+
+"No, you mustn't ever forget them," repeated Mrs. Fisher, emphatically,
+"in all this world, Polly. Well, get to work now over your one letter
+that's to be a bulletin!"
+
+"I shall tear this one up," declared Polly, running back to get into
+her chair again. "O dear me, what a horrible old scrawl," she cried,
+with a very red face. "I didn't know it did look so bad" And she tore
+it clear across the page, and then snipped it into very little bits.
+
+"That's the result of hurry," observed Mother Fisher, wisely, "and I
+would begin all over again, Polly."
+
+So Polly took a fresh sheet and set to work; and Mrs. Fisher, seeing
+her so busily occupied, soon stole out. And there was the head waiter
+waiting for her in the dining room, and Polly never heard a word they
+said, although "cake" was mentioned a great many times, and several
+other things too.
+
+But the next morning Polly Pepper woke up to the fact that it was her
+birthday. For there was Mamsie leaning over her pillow, the first thing
+she saw the minute her eyes were opened. And Phronsie was sitting on
+the end of the bed with her hands folded in her lap.
+
+When she saw Polly's eyes open, she gave a little crow and darted
+forward. "Oh, I thought you never would wake up, Polly," she said,
+throwing her arms around Polly's neck.
+
+"Yes, this child has been sitting there a whole hour, Polly." Mother
+Fisher gave a merry little laugh, and then she began to drop kisses on
+Polly's rosy cheek--ever so many of them.
+
+Polly's dewy eyes opened wide.
+
+"It's your birthday, don't you know!" exclaimed Phronsie, trying to
+drop as many kisses and as fast, on Polly's other cheek, and to talk at
+the same time.
+
+"Mamsie Fisher!" cried Polly, springing up straight in the middle of
+the bed, nearly knocking Phronsie over. "Why, so it is. Oh, how could I
+forget--and sleep over. And I'm fifteen!"
+
+"You're fifteen," repeated Mother Fisher, setting the last little kiss
+on Polly's cheek,--"and it's the best thing you could possibly do, to
+sleep over, child. Now, then, Phronsie, let us help her to get dressed."
+
+Wasn't there a merry time, though, for the next half-hour, till Polly
+had had her bath, and was arrayed, Mother Fisher and Phronsie here,
+there, and everywhere, helping to tie and to hook Polly's
+clothes--Phronsie bringing her little silver button-hook that Auntie
+Whitney gave her, declaring that she should button Polly's boots.
+
+"Oh, no, child," protested Polly. "I'll button them myself," flying off
+for the boots.
+
+But Phronsie piped out, hurrying after her, "I have them, Polly," and,
+sure enough, there they were, one under each arm; "do let me,
+Polly--do, please!" she begged.
+
+"I would, Polly," advised Mrs. Fisher, "for Phronsie really has set her
+heart on doing it."
+
+So Polly sat down in the low chair, and put out her foot, feeling very
+queer indeed, and as if she ought to be doing up Phronsie's boots
+instead. And Phronsie curled up on the floor, and patiently drew every
+one of the buttons into place, and buttoned them fast. And then on with
+the other boot.
+
+"There, now, I did do them all by myself," she announced, getting up
+from the floor, and smoothing down her gown with much importance. "I
+did truly, Polly."
+
+"So you did, Pet," cried Polly, sticking out both feet to look at them.
+"You buttoned every single one of those buttons up splendidly, Phronsie
+Pepper. Now my toes will be just as happy all day; oh, you can't think
+how happy they'll be." And she seized her, half smothering her with
+kisses.
+
+"Will they?" cried Phronsie, coming out of the embrace to peer up into
+Polly's face, in a transport. "Will your toes really and truly be
+happy, Polly?"
+
+"They'll be so happy," declared Polly, with a little wriggle of each
+foot, "that they'll want to sing, only they can't," and she burst out
+into a little laugh.
+
+"Put on your blue dress, Polly," said Mother Fisher, coming out of the
+closet to hurry operations a bit.
+
+"Oh, Mamsie," begged Phronsie, "mayn't Polly wear her white one? Do,
+Mamsie, please!" She ran up to her mother pleadingly.
+
+"Polly will wear a white gown to-night," said Mother Fisher, her eyes
+shining, and the same funny little smile hiding in the corners of her
+mouth; "but this morning she would better put on her blue gingham."
+
+"Yes, that's best," said Polly, reassuringly, running off to get it out
+of the big bureau drawer. "It's all done up spick and span," drawing it
+out. "Mamsie, don't these Dutch women do up things well, though?"
+
+"They do, indeed," assented Mrs. Fisher, with a critical eye for the
+blue gingham; "but I really suppose the Swiss beat them, Polly."
+
+"Well, they must be just perfect, then," said Polly, putting the blue
+gown carefully over her head. "Mamsie, I just love this dress."
+
+"Yes, it is pretty," said Mother Fisher, with an approving eye for the
+dainty ruffles, "and you keep your clothes cleaner than you used to,
+Polly; you're improving."
+
+"I used to get them all mussed up just as soon as could be," mourned
+Polly, her cheeks rosy at the remembrance. "Mamsie, how much trouble
+I've made you." She stopped dressing, and sprang over to Mrs. Fisher.
+Phronsie, trying to button on the waistband, and clinging to it, went
+stumbling after.
+
+"Take care," warned Mrs. Fisher, "don't muss it; it looks so nice now."
+
+"There, there, Phronsie, I'll do that," said Polly, a trifle
+impatiently, looking over her shoulder.
+
+"Oh, I want to, Polly," said Phronsie, fumbling for the button. "Do let
+me; I want to."
+
+"No, I can do it myself," said Polly, trying to whirl off from the busy
+little fingers.
+
+"Polly," began Mother Fisher, who saw what Polly couldn't, Phronsie's
+little face very red with her exertion, and the brown eyes filling with
+tears.
+
+"Well, I declare," cried Polly, at sound of her mother's tone; "so you
+shall, Phronsie. Now I'll stand just as still as a mouse, and you shall
+make that old button fly into its hole."
+
+"So he shall, old button fly into his hole," laughed Phronsie through
+her tears. And presently she declared it was done. And with a final
+pat, this time from Mother Fisher's fingers, Polly was released, and
+the rest of the dressing was soon done.
+
+And there, waiting at the end of their corridor, was Jasper, in every
+conceivable way trying to get the better of his impatience. When he did
+finally see Polly, he dashed up to her. "Well, are you really here?"
+
+"Yes," cried Polly, scampering on, with Phronsie clinging to her hand,
+"I really believe I am, Jasper. But don't let's go faster than Mamsie,"
+looking back for her.
+
+"You all run on," said Mother Fisher, laughing, "I shall get there
+soon; and really, Mr. King has waited long enough," she added to
+herself.
+
+And, indeed, Mr. King thought so too, and he couldn't control his
+delight when the three danced into the little private parlour, opening
+out from his bedroom, and came up to his side.
+
+"I slept over," said Polly, in a shamefaced little way; "I'm sorry,
+Grandpapa dear."
+
+"You needn't be; not a bit of it," declared Grandpapa, holding her off
+at arm's length to scan her rosy face; "the best thing you could
+possibly do"--Mamsie's very words. So Polly felt relieved at once. "And
+now we will wait for Mrs. Fisher," he added, with a glance at the door.
+
+"Here she is," piped Phronsie, who had been regarding the door
+anxiously.
+
+"Yes, here she is," repeated old Mr. King, in great satisfaction,
+holding Polly fast. "Well, now, Mrs. Fisher, that you have come, we'll
+begin our festivities. Our Polly, here, is fifteen years old
+to-day--only think of that!" Still he held her fast, and bent his
+courtly white head to kiss her brown hair.
+
+Polly clung to his other hand. "It can't be a house celebration, Polly,
+my dear, with a party and all that, but we'll do the best we can. And
+to add to our pleasure, and to be company for you" (not a suggestion of
+the pleasure he was to give), "why, we've another little girl with us
+who has chosen this very day for her birthday, too. Adela, come here."
+
+Adela Gray, who had been standing silently, looking on with a sad heart
+at finding herself with a birthday on her hands, and no one to
+celebrate it with her, though for that matter all her birthdays had
+been rather dismal affairs at the best, in the Paris school, now shrank
+back at Mr. King's sudden summons, and hid behind her grandmother's
+black gown.
+
+"Come, Adela," commanded Mr. King, in a tone that brooked no further
+delay. So she crept out, and stood in front of him.
+
+"Oh, Adela!" exclaimed Polly, in a transport, drawing her up by her
+other hand, for still Grandpapa held her fast. "Is it your birthday
+too? How perfectly elegant! oh, oh!"
+
+And everybody said, "How fine!" And they all were smiling at her. And
+Adela found herself, before she knew it, coming up out of her old
+despair into brightness and warmth and joy. And she never knew when old
+Mr. King proclaimed her fourteen years old, and dropped a kiss--yes, he
+actually did--on her head. And then she found herself on his other
+side, by the big centre table, that was covered with a large cloth. And
+Polly made her put her hand under it first, saying, "Oh, no, Grandpapa,
+please let Adela pull out the first parcel." And lo, and behold--she
+held a neat little white-papered bundle tied with a blue ribbon.
+
+"Open it," cried Jasper, as she stood stupidly staring at it, in her
+hand. "Don't you see it's got your name on it?" But Adela didn't see
+anything, she was so dazed. So Jasper had to open it for her. "We may
+thank our stars the first parcel happened to be for her," he was
+thinking busily all the time he was untying the ribbon. And there was
+just what she had wanted for, oh, so long--Mrs. Jameson's little books
+on Art--her very own, she saw as soon as her trembling fingers opened
+the cover.
+
+After that, the skies might rain down anything in the shape of gifts,
+as it seemed to be doing for Polly and for her; it didn't matter to
+Adela; and she found herself, finally, looking over a heap of white
+papers and tangled ribbons, at Polly Pepper, who was dancing about, and
+thanking everybody to right and to left.
+
+"Why don't--why don't--you--thank him?" old Mrs. Gray mumbled in her
+ear, while the tears were running down her wrinkled cheeks.
+
+"Let her alone," said old Mr. King, hearing her. "She's thanked me
+enough. Now then, to breakfast, all of us! Come, Polly--come,
+Adela--Jasper, you take Mrs. Gray," and the others falling in, away
+they all went down to the big dining room, to their own special table
+in the centre.
+
+"I do so love what Joey sent me, and Ben and Davie," breathed Polly,
+for about the fiftieth time, patting her little money-bag which she had
+hung on her belt. Then she looked at the new ring on her finger very
+lovingly, and the other hand stole up to pinch the pin on her trim
+necktie, and see if it were really there. "Oh, Jasper, if the boys were
+only here!" she whispered, under cover of the chatter and bustle around
+the table.
+
+"Don't let us think of that, Polly," Jasper made haste to say; "it will
+make father feel so badly if he thinks you are worrying."
+
+"I know it," said Polly, pulling herself out of her gloom in an
+instant, to be as gay as ever, till the big sombre dining room seemed
+instinct with life, and the cheeriest place imaginable.
+
+"What good times Americans do have!" exclaimed a lady, passing the
+door, and sending an envious glance within.
+
+"Yes, if they're the right kind of Americans," said her companion,
+wisely.
+
+All that wonderful day the sun seemed to shine more brightly than on
+any other day in the whole long year. And the two girls who had the
+birthday together, went here and there, arm in arm, to gladden all the
+tired, and often discontented, eyes of the fellow-travellers they
+chanced to meet. And when finally it came to the dusk, and Polly and
+Adela were obliged to say, "Our birthday is almost all over," why then,
+that was just the very time when Mother Fisher and the little doctor
+(for he was in the plan, you may be very sure, only he wanted her to
+make all the arrangements, "It's more in a woman's way, my dear," he
+had said),--well, then, that was their turn to celebrate the double
+birthday!
+
+"Where are those girls?" cried the little doctor, fidgeting about, and
+knocking down a little table in his prancing across the room. Jasper
+ran and picked it up. "No harm done," he declared, setting the books
+straight again.
+
+"O dear, did I knock that over?" asked Dr. Fisher, whirling around to
+look at the result of his progress. "Bless me, did I really do that?"
+
+"It's all right now," said Jasper, with a laugh at the doctor's face.
+"Lucky there wasn't anything that could break on the table."
+
+"I should say so," declared the little doctor; "still, I'm sorry I
+floored these," with a rueful hand on the books. "I'd rather smash some
+other things that I know of than to hurt the feelings of a book. Dear
+me!"
+
+"So had I," agreed Jasper, "to tell you the truth; but these aren't
+hurt; not a bit." He took up each volume, and carefully examined the
+binding.
+
+When he saw that this was so, the little doctor began to fidget again,
+and to wonder where the girls were, and in his impatience he was on the
+point of prancing off once more across the room, when Jasper said, "Let
+us go and find them--you and I."
+
+"An excellent plan," said Dr. Fisher, hooking his arm into Jasper's and
+skipping off, Jasper having hard work to keep up with him.
+
+"Here--where are you two going?" called Mr. King after them. And this
+hindered them so that Polly and Adela ran in unnoticed. And there they
+were on time after all; for it turned out that the little doctor's
+watch was five minutes ahead.
+
+Well, and then they all filed into the big dining room, and there, to
+be sure, was their special table in the centre, and in the middle of it
+was a tall Dutch cake, ornamented with all sorts of nuts and fruits and
+candies, and gay with layers of frosting, edged and trimmed with
+coloured devices, and on the very tip-top of all was an elaborate
+figure in sugar of a little Dutch shepherdess. And around this
+wonderful cake were plates of mottoes, all trimmed in the Dutch
+fashion--in pink and green and yellow--while two big bunches of posies,
+lay one at each plate, of the two girls who had a birthday together in
+Old Amsterdam.
+
+"Oh--oh!" cried Polly, seizing her bunch before she looked at the huge
+Dutch cake, and burying her nose deep among the big fragrant roses,
+"how perfectly lovely! Who did do this?"
+
+But no one said a word. And the little doctor was as sober as a judge.
+He only glared at them over his spectacles.
+
+"Grandpapa," gasped Polly, "you did."
+
+"Guess again," advised Grandpapa. "Mamsie--" Polly gave one radiant
+look at Mother Fisher's face.
+
+Then Dr. Fisher broke out into a hearty laugh. "You've guessed it this
+time, Polly, my girl," he said, "your mother is the one."
+
+"Your father really did it," corrected Mother Fisher. "Yes, Adoniram,
+you did,--only I saw to things a little, that's all."
+
+"Which means that pretty much the whole business was hers," added the
+little doctor, possessing himself of her hand under cover of the table.
+"Well, girls, if you like your birthday party fixings, that's all your
+mother and I ask. It's Dutch, anyway, and what you won't be likely to
+get at home; there's so much to be said for it."
+
+
+
+
+XII
+
+THE HENDERSON BOX
+
+
+And as Mother Fisher observed, they would all enjoy Marken better for
+the delay, for there would be more time to anticipate the pleasure; and
+then there was the Henderson box to get ready, for Grandpapa King had
+not only approved the plan; he had welcomed the idea most heartily. "It
+will be a good diversion from our scare," he said, when Polly and
+Jasper laid it before him.
+
+"And give us all something to do," he added, "so go ahead, children,
+and set to work on it." And Polly and Jasper had flown off with the
+good news, and every one did "set to work" as Grandpapa said, diving
+into the shops again.
+
+Phronsie tried to find the mate to her china cat, that was by this time
+sailing over the sea to Joel; and it worried her dreadfully, for, try
+as she would, she never could see another one. And she looked so pale
+and tired one night that Mr. King asked her, in consternation, as they
+were all assembled in one corner of the drawing-room, what was the
+matter.
+
+"I wish I could find a cat," sighed Phronsie, trying not to be so
+tired, and wishing the prickles wouldn't run up and down her legs so.
+"We've walked and walked, Grandpapa, and the shop wouldn't come, where
+it must be."
+
+"What kind of a cat is it you want?" asked Adela Gray.
+
+"It was just like Joey's," said Phronsie, turning her troubled blue
+eyes on Adela's face.
+
+"Well, what colour?" continued Adela.
+
+"It was yellow," said Phronsie, "a sweet little yellow cat."
+
+"With green eyes?"
+
+"No, I don't think it's eyes were green," said Phronsie, slowly trying
+to think, "but they were so pretty; and she had a pink ribbon around
+her neck, and--"
+
+"Oh, that settles it," declared Adela, quite joyful that she could help
+the little Pepper girl in any way, "at least the pink ribbon round its
+neck does, for I know where there is a cat exactly like that--that is,
+the one I saw had green eyes, but everything else is like it--it's
+sitting upon a shelf in a shop where I was just this very day, Phronsie
+Pepper."
+
+"Oh!" Phronsie gave a little gurgle of delight, and, slipping out of
+her chair, she ran over to Adela. "Will you show me that shop
+to-morrow?" she begged, in great excitement.
+
+"To be sure I will," promised Adela, just as happy as Phronsie; "we
+will go in the morning right after breakfast. May we, Mrs. Fisher?"
+looking over to her, where she sat knitting as cosily as if she were in
+the library at home. "For I think people who travel, get out of their
+everyday habits," she had said to her husband, before they started,
+"and I'm going to pack my knitting basket to keep my hands out of
+mischief."
+
+And old Mr. King had smiled more than once in satisfaction to glance
+over at Mother Fisher in her cosey corner of an evening, and it made
+him feel at home immediately, even in the dreariest of hotel parlours,
+just the very sight of those knitting needles.
+
+And so, in between the picture galleries and museums, to which some
+part of every day was devoted, the Peppers and Jasper and Adela, and
+old Mr. King, who always went, and Mother Fisher, who sometimes was of
+the party, the ransacking of the lovely shops took place. And it really
+seemed as if everything that the Henderson boys could possibly want,
+was in some of those places--no matter how out-of-the-way--and waiting
+to be bought to fly over the sea to Badgertown. At last off that box
+went. Then Polly was quite happy, and could enjoy things all the more,
+with a mind at rest.
+
+"Now we are all ready for Marken," she cried that night, after dinner,
+when the box was on its way to the steamer, "and I do hope we are going
+to-morrow." Jasper and she had a little table between them, and they
+were having a game of chess.
+
+"Yes, we are, I think," said Jasper, slowly considering whether he
+would better bring down one of his knights into the thick of the
+battle, or leave it to protect his queen.
+
+"Oh, how fine!" exclaimed Polly, unguardedly moving the pawn that held
+at bay a big white bishop, who immediately swooped down on her queen,
+and away it went off the board; and "oh, how perfectly dreadful!" all
+in one and the same breath.
+
+"You may have it back," said Jasper, putting the black queen in place
+again.
+
+"No, indeed--it's perfectly fair that I lost it," said Polly; "oh, I
+wouldn't take it back for anything. I was talking; it was all my own
+fault, Jasper."
+
+"Well, you were talking about Marken, and I don't wonder, for we have
+been so long trying to go there. Do take it back, Polly," he begged,
+holding it out.
+
+"No, indeed!" declared Polly again, shaking her brown head decidedly,
+"not for the world, Jasper."
+
+"What is going over in that corner?" called Grandpapa's voice, by the
+big reading table. He had finished his newspaper, and was now ready to
+talk. So Jasper and Polly explained, and that brought out the subject
+of Marken, and old Mr. King said yes, it was perfectly true that he had
+made all the arrangements to go the following day if the weather were
+fine. So Polly and Jasper swept off the remaining pieces on the
+chessboard, and packed them away in their box, and ran over to hear all
+the rest of it that he was now telling to the family.
+
+"So you see it didn't make any difference about that old queen anyway,"
+said Polly, as they hurried over to him, "for nobody has beaten."
+
+"I'm glad I didn't beat," declared Jasper. "I've that satisfaction,
+anyway, because you wouldn't have moved that pawn, Polly, if you hadn't
+been talking of Marken."
+
+The next day was fine enough to warrant the trip, though not absolutely
+sunshiny. Old Mr. King wisely deciding that the fun of the expedition
+would lose its edge if postponed again, said, "Start!" So after
+breakfast they all went down to the Wester dock and embarked on the
+little steamer bound for the island of Marken in the Zuyder Zee.
+
+"Oh, Polly, look," said Jasper, "doesn't Amsterdam look fine?" as the
+little steamer slowly put forth.
+
+Polly leaned over the rail and drew in long breaths of delight. "Come,
+Adela," she called, "here is a good place;" for the little old lady was
+still too much shaken up to make much attempt at travelling, so Polly
+had begged Mother Fisher and Grandpapa to ask Adela to come with them
+on their sightseeing trips.
+
+And this was done, and the young girl was happy as a bird. So here she
+was, going down to Marken too.
+
+Adela ran and kneeled down on the seat by Polly's side and hung over
+the rail too. "Don't the houses lean over queerly?" she said, pointing
+to the long narrow buildings they were leaving behind. "They look worse
+from the water than when we are in the midst of them."
+
+"It's just as if they were holding each other up," said Polly. "Dear
+me, I should think they'd tumble over some fine day.
+
+"What makes them sag so?" asked Adela, intently regarding them.
+
+"That's because the city is built on piles, I suppose," said Jasper.
+"It's mostly sand in Holland, you know, particularly around Amsterdam,
+and so they had to drive down piles to get something strong enough to
+put their houses on. That's what--who was it?--oh I
+know--Erasmus--meant when he said, 'I know a city whose inhabitants
+dwell on the tops of the trees like rooks.'"
+
+"O dear me," said Adela, quite impressed; "well, what makes them not
+sag any more?" she asked at length.
+
+"Because they've sagged all they want to, I suppose'" said Jasper,
+laughing. "Anyway they've stood so for years on years--probably, so
+it's fair to believe they're all right."
+
+"And I think they're ever so much prettier leaning every which way,"
+declared Polly. "We can see plenty of straight houses at home, so it's
+nice to see crooked ones over here. Oh, Jasper, there's the King's
+palace!"
+
+"Yes and there is the dome of the Lutheran Church," said Jasper.
+
+"Look at that woman with the boy," said Adela, on the wharf. She's got
+a little black bonnet tied on top of her white cap.".
+
+"That's nothing to what we shall see at Marken, I suppose," said Polly.
+"I'm going to take ever so many photographs." She tapped her kodak
+lovingly, as it hung from the strap on her shoulder.
+
+"I wish I'd brought mine," said Adela.
+
+"Why didn't you?" cried Polly, whirling around to scan Adela.
+
+"I forgot it," said Adela. "I put it on the table last night close to
+my hat and gloves, and then walked off this morning without it."
+
+"Now that's too bad!" exclaimed Polly in sympathy. Then she turned back
+uncomfortably, and began to talk of something else. "I'm not going to,"
+she said to herself; "it isn't my fault she forgot her kodak, and I
+want every one of my films myself. And I care a great deal more for
+Marken than for almost any other place." The next moment Mamsie seemed
+to say, "Is that my Polly?" and although she was at the other end of
+the boat, Polly's head drooped as if she had heard the words.
+
+"O dear me--and Adela hasn't any one but a sick grandmother--and I have
+just--everybody," she thought "You shall use my kodak," cried Polly,
+aloud, "one-half the time, Adela."
+
+"Oh, no," protested Adela; but she looked hungrily at Polly's kodak
+swinging over her shoulder.
+
+"Yes, you shall too," declared Polly, cheerily. "I can take all the
+pictures I want in that time, and I have lots of films."
+
+"I'll divide with you, Polly," said Jasper. "I brought ever so many,
+and will go shares with my kodak, too." But Polly made up her mind that
+Jasper's kodak was to be used for his own special pictures, for she
+knew he had set his heart on taking certain ones, and a good many of
+them, too.
+
+"Isn't that water just perfectly lovely!" she exclaimed; "such a bluish
+grey."
+
+"I think it's a greyish blue," said Adela, squinting along its surface
+critically.
+
+"Well, what's the difference?" asked Polly, laughing.
+
+"Not much," said Jasper, "I should think."
+
+"Well, anyway, it's lovely," declared Polly; "I just wish I could paint
+it."
+
+"Do you paint?" asked Adela, suddenly.
+
+"No," said Polly, "not a bit"
+
+"Polly is all for music," said Jasper, quickly. "You ought to hear her
+play."
+
+"Oh, I can't play much now," said Polly, "but I mean tot some time.
+Jasper, how long it is since we have had a duet." Her face dropped its
+cheery curves and a sad little look crept into her eyes.
+
+"That's the bother of travelling about; one can't play in a hotel,"
+said Jasper. "But wait till we get to Dresden, Polly."
+
+"Oh, I can't bear to wait," said Polly. "I don't want to hurry on,
+Jasper--but oh, I do wish we could play on a piano." Her fingers
+drummed on the rail in her eagerness.
+
+"Why, you are playing now," said Adela, bursting into a laugh, "or
+pretending to, Polly Pepper."
+
+"I know it," said Polly, laughing too; "well, that's what I always used
+to do in the little brown house,--drum on the table."
+
+"In the little brown where?" demanded Adela in astonishment.
+
+"The little brown house," answered Polly, and her eyes lightened as she
+seemed to see it before her. "That's where we used to live, Adela--oh,
+the sweetest place, you can't think!"  Polly's fingers stopped drumming
+now, and the colour flew up to her cheek; she forgot all about Adela.
+
+"Oh, I suppose it had everything beautiful about it," said Adela,
+delighted to make Polly talk, "big gardens, and terraces, and--"
+
+"Oh, no," said Polly, "it didn't have gardens at all, Adela, only a
+little bit of a green grass-plot in front. But there was an apple tree
+at the back."
+
+"Apple tree at the back?" echoed Adela, faintly.
+
+"Yes, and we had beautiful plays under it," cried Polly, rushing on in
+remembrance; "and sometimes when all the work was finished, Mamsie
+would let us spend the whole afternoon out there. You can't think what
+perfectly splendid times we had there, Adela Gray!"
+
+Adela by this time was beyond words, but stared up at Polly's face
+speechlessly. "And what fun it was on baking days, Polly," cried
+Jasper, unable to keep quiet any longer; "do you remember when I burnt
+all my cakes around the edges?"
+
+"Well, that was because the old stove acted so," said Polly; "one
+minute it wouldn't bake at all, and the next it burnt things black."
+
+"And the washing the dishes and things up afterward," said Jasper,
+reflecting; "I think I liked that just as well as the baking, Polly."
+
+"It was good fun," said Polly; "and how funny you looked with one of
+Mamsie's aprons tied round under your chin, Jasper."
+
+"I know it," said Jasper, bursting into a laugh. "I must have looked
+like--I don't know what. But it was good fun, Polly."
+
+And then Phronsie came running up, and after her came Grandpapa to see
+that she got there all right.
+
+"Oh, Polly, do you see the windmills?" she cried, clapping her small
+hands.
+
+"Yes, Pet," said Polly, looking all along the soft curves of the shore,
+"there are hundreds of them, aren't there?"
+
+"There was a girl coming out of the door of one of them," announced
+Phronsie, climbing up on the seat and putting her arm around Polly's
+neck. "Polly, I'd like to live in a windmill; I would," she whispered
+close to her ear.
+
+"Would you, Pet?"
+
+"Yes, I would truly," she said. "Why couldn't I, Polly, just like that
+girl I saw coming out of the door?" she asked, looking back wistfully.
+
+"Well, that girl never had a little brown house to live in," said
+Polly; "think of that, Phronsie."
+
+
+
+
+XIII
+
+"THE CLEANEST PLACE IN ALL HOLLAND"
+
+
+"Oh, Polly, see the cunning little doll-houses!" exclaimed Phronsie in
+a little scream, flying about from Grandpapa at the head of his party
+on their way up from the boat-landing, and then back to the rear of the
+procession, which happened to be Polly and Jasper.
+
+"Hush, Phronsie, don't talk so loud; they are not doll-houses," said
+Polly. "People live in them."
+
+"People live in them!" echoed Phronsie, standing quite still on the
+paved road, that shone as if just freshly scoured.
+
+"Yes, yes; come along, child, the people will hear you," said Polly,
+seizing her hand.
+
+Phronsie suffered herself to be piloted along, but she stumbled more
+than once over the cobbles, her eyes were so busy.
+
+"Take care, Phronsie," warned Polly, "you came near falling on your
+nose that time."
+
+"I'll go on the other side," said Jasper; "there, now, Phronsie, give
+us your hand. Well, I don't wonder you are surprised. I never saw such
+a place as this Broek is."
+
+"They've just washed it all up, haven't they, Jasper?" asked Polly, her
+brown eyes scanning the little walks along each tiny garden they
+passed. Everything shone alike.
+
+"They're always washing up, I believe," answered Jasper, with a laugh.
+"I suppose they live in a pail of water, so to speak."
+
+"Oh, Jasper, in a pail of water!" exclaimed Phronsie, between them,
+poking her head out to look for such a strange and unwarrantable sight
+provided by the inhabitants of Broek.
+
+"I mean they're always scrubbing, so they can never be separated from
+their pails of water," said Jasper.
+
+"It seems almost too bad to step on such clean roads," said Polly,
+getting up on her tiptoes, and stepping gingerly off. When Phronsie saw
+Polly do that, she got up on her tiptoes too, and tried to get over the
+ground with her.
+
+"You can't do that long," said Jasper, with a laugh for both, "and it
+wouldn't do any good, Polly, if you could, for these Broek women will
+have to come out and scrub up after us all the same."
+
+"I suppose they will," said Polly, with a sigh of relief, coming down
+on to the rest of her feet, which proceeding, Phronsie was very glad to
+copy. "And it isn't as nice as it looks to walk on the tips of your
+toes. Jasper, do see those cunning little windows and those china
+images inside!"
+
+"It seems as if they were all windows," said Jasper, scanning the tiny
+panes shining at them from all the cottages. "Dear me, the Broek women
+have something to do, don't they, to keep everything so shiny and
+clean?"
+
+"Haven't they!" cried Polly. "Well, I don't wonder it is the cleanest
+place in all Holland. They must have to sit up all night and wash and
+scrub."
+
+"It's the cleanest place on the whole earth, I imagine," laughed Jasper.
+
+"But I should love to see some boys playing with mud pies," sighed
+Polly, running her glance up and down the immaculate road, and
+compassing all the tiny gardens possible to her range of vision.
+
+"Mud pies!" exclaimed Jasper, in mock surprise. "Polly, how can you
+mention such a thing as dirt or mud here!"
+
+"Jasper, do you suppose the children can have a good time here?"
+pursued Polly, anxiously, willing to give up the mud pies, if only
+reassured on the latter point, which seemed to her a very doubtful one.
+
+"We'll hope so," answered Jasper. "See the klompen outside that door,
+Polly. Well, here we are at the dairy, Polly."
+
+"And can I see the cows?" cried Phronsie. "Oh, Grandpapa is calling
+me," and off she ran.
+
+And so he was calling her, as he and the parson had now reached the
+dairy door, under cover with the dwelling, which seemed much less an
+object of painstaking care than the house where the cows resided and
+the cheeses were made.
+
+But everything was as neat as a pin in the house, though, and Polly and
+Jasper concluded they would explore the two rooms, as everybody seemed
+to be expected to do, after the main object of the visit was
+accomplished and the dairy inspected.
+
+"Dear me, do they have to take their shoes off before they go in the
+house?" cried Polly.
+
+"I suppose so," said Jasper. "Well, it isn't much trouble to get out of
+those sabots, that's one comfort for them."
+
+"Dear me," Mrs. Fisher was saying, "if they haven't a carpet on the
+floor for the cows to walk on!" And there, surely, were strips of
+carpeting all down the walks between the rows of stalls, and something
+that looked like braided hemp in the bottom of the stalls themselves.
+And everything was tiled where it could be, with little tiles, and all
+these and every bit of the woodwork itself shone beautifully--it was so
+clean and polished.
+
+Mrs. Fisher's black eyes shone, too. "It's beautiful," she said to her
+husband, "to see everything so clean for once in the world."
+
+"What are those hooks for?" asked Jasper of the stolid Dutchman, who
+showed them about, and who spoke English fairly well.
+
+"We hook the cows' tails up so they won't shake any dirt on their
+sides," said the Dutchman.
+
+"O dear me!" exclaimed Polly Pepper, and everybody laughed--but she
+didn't.
+
+"I think that is cruel," she said. "What do the poor things do to beat
+off the flies, pray tell?"
+
+"Flies?" said Mother Fisher. "I don't suppose they ever see a fly here,
+Polly."
+
+"They'd chase one worse than the dirt, I guess," said the little doctor.
+
+"Oh," said Polly, with a sigh of relief.
+
+"Come, Polly, let us go into the cheese room," suggested Jasper,
+peering in, for everything was connected and under one roof. "There's a
+man in there, and he is telling something;" so they skipped in, while
+Phronsie was bewailing that there were no cows there, and where were
+they?
+
+"Why, Phronsie, they are all out in the fields. You wouldn't have them
+shut up this hot day," said Grandpapa.
+
+"No," said Phronsie, swallowing the lump in her throat, "I wouldn't,
+Grandpapa; I'd much rather know they are having a nice time. I don't
+want them in here, I truly don't."
+
+"That's a nice child," said old Mr. King, approvingly. "Well, now,
+we'll see how they make these wonderful Edam cheeses, Phronsie."
+
+"I shall call this place the Cheesery," announced Polly, running about
+between the vats and the big press.
+
+"Oh, Polly, that's a capital name," said Jasper. "So shall I call it
+the 'Cheesery' in my journal. Look at the rows and rows of them, Polly."
+
+"And how round and yellow they are," said Polly; "just like pumpkins,
+aren't they? Wouldn't it be fine if we could take some home, to send to
+Badgertown? Dear Mrs. Beebe is so fond of cheese, Jasper."
+
+"It is a pity; but we couldn't take cheeses very well. Fancy our
+trunks, Polly!" He wrinkled up his face; at sight of it Polly laughed
+merrily.
+
+"No, of course not," she said; "but oh, how fine they look!"
+
+"Grandpapa, I'd like to buy one," said Phronsie, overhearing a bit of
+this, and opening her little bag that hung on her arm, to get her purse.
+
+"What in the world can you do with a Dutch cheese, child?" exclaimed
+old Mr. King.
+
+"But I would like to buy one," persisted Phronsie. And after much
+diving Phronsie produced the little silk purse--"Polly wants one,
+Grandpapa," she got up on her tiptoes to whisper confidentially.
+
+"Oh, is that it?" said Mr. King. "Well, now, Phronsie, I don't really
+believe Polly wants one. You would better ask her. If she wants one you
+shall buy it for her."
+
+So Phronsie ran off. "Do you, Polly? Do you?" then she gently pulled
+Polly's sleeve to make her hear, for Polly and Jasper were hanging on
+the description that the man in attendance was pouring forth.
+
+"Do I what?" cried Polly, only half understanding, and lost in the
+thought of how much fun it must be to make little yellow cheeses, and
+set them up in rows to be taken to market.
+
+"--want one of those dear sweet little cheeses?" finished Phronsie.
+
+"Yes, indeed," answered Polly, bobbing her head, and listening to the
+man with all her might.
+
+"Yes, she does, Grandpapa," declared Phronsie, flying back, "she told
+me so her very own self."
+
+"The goodness, she does!" exclaimed old Mr. King, "Well then, she shall
+have one. But pick out a small one, Phronsie, the very smallest you can
+find."
+
+This was so much a work of time, Phronsie laying aside one selection
+after another, each yellow cheese looking so much better on comparison,
+that at last old Mr. King was almost in despair, and counselled the
+purchase of the last one that Phronsie set her eyes on. But meantime
+she had spied one on the upper shelf of all.
+
+"There it is, Grandpapa," she cried, clapping her hands in delight,
+"the very littlest of all, and isn't it beautiful, Grandpapa, dear?"
+
+"Indeed it is," assented Grandpapa, and he had the man lift it down and
+do it up; a piece of a Dutch newspaper again doing duty, when Phronsie
+held out her arms to receive it. "You can't carry it, child; give it to
+me. What in the world shall we do with the thing?" all this Grandpapa
+was uttering in one breath.
+
+"Oh, Grandpapa, dear, I do so want to carry Polly's little yellow
+cheese," said Phronsie, the tears beginning to come in her eyes.
+
+Grandpapa, who had taken the round parcel from her arms, looked from it
+to her with increasing perplexity. "Have the goodness to put a string
+around it, will you?" he said to the man who was regarding him
+stolidly, after satisfying himself that the coin Phronsie had drawn out
+of her purse and put in his hand was a good one.
+
+"Yah, yah," said the man, and he brought out of one of his pockets a
+long piece of thick twine. This with much hard breathing accompanying
+the work, he proceeded to twist and interlace around the paper
+containing the little yellow cheese in such a way that when it was
+completed, Phronsie was carrying what looked like a little net basket,
+for there was a good strong twine handle sticking up, into which she
+put her small hand in great satisfaction.
+
+When they all gathered in the living room of the house that had open
+doors into the cow-house and dairy, all being under one roof, they
+found a huge pile of photographs displayed of various views of the
+premises indoors and out.
+
+"But they aren't half as nice as ours will be," whispered Jasper; "how
+many did you take, Polly?"
+
+"Three," said Polly.
+
+"Oh, Polly, didn't you get more than that?" said Jasper, quite
+disappointed for her, for Polly dearly loved to take photographs. "Oh,
+you've let Adela Gray take your kodak," he added; "it's a shame I
+didn't give you mine. Take it now, Polly," he begged, slinging off the
+leather strap from his shoulder.
+
+"No, no," said Polly, "I don't want to, Jasper, and I wanted Adela to
+take it, and don't let her hear us, she may come back from the other
+room;"--for Adela had disappeared with the kodak; "and it's all right,
+Jasper," she finished up incoherently.
+
+"Aren't these queer beds, Mrs. Fisher?" the parson's wife was saying,
+peering into the shelves against the side of the wall, boarded up, with
+doors swung open inviting inspection.
+
+"The idea of sleeping in one of them!" exclaimed Mrs. Fisher,
+inspecting the interior with a sharp eye. "They're clean enough and as
+neat as a pink"--with a critical glance along the white lace spread and
+the immaculate pillow--"but to be shut up in a box like that. I should
+as soon go to bed in a bureau drawer."
+
+"So should I," laughed the parson's wife; "and look at the artificial
+flowers hanging up over the head, and that picture pinned, above the
+foot. Well, well, well, and so that is a Dutch bed!"
+
+"There are a good many kinds and sorts of Dutch beds, I suppose,"
+observed Mrs. Fisher, turning away, "just as there are a good many
+American ones; but I hope there aren't many of this particular kind."
+
+"Jasper," exclaimed Polly, as they all filed decorously out of the
+"Model Farm," "how I do wish you and I could race down to the
+boat-landing!"
+
+Jasper looked longingly down the washed and shining road. "So do I,
+Polly," he said, "but I suppose it wouldn't do; we should shock these
+natives."
+
+"I suppose so," assented Polly, ruefully. Just then Phronsie came up
+holding with both hands her paper-covered, twine-netted little round
+yellow cheese.
+
+"What in the world has Phronsie got!" exclaimed Polly, catching sight
+of her. "Come here, Pet," she called.
+
+Phronsie hesitated. On Polly's calling her again she drew near, but
+more slowly than was her wont.
+
+"What have you got, Phronsie?" asked Polly, wondering and not a little
+hurt by her manner. "A little basket of string; isn't it funny, and
+where did you get it?"
+
+"It isn't a basket," corrected Phronsie, "and I cannot tell you now,
+Polly," said Phronsie, shaking her head.
+
+"Why, Phronsie," began Polly in surprise; and she couldn't help it, her
+voice quavered in spite of her.
+
+When Phronsie heard that, she was equally distressed, and at once
+decided to present the gift then instead of carrying it back to the
+hotel for Polly as she had at first intended. So she cast her burden
+into Polly's hands and piped out, "It's for you, Polly, a sweet little
+yellow cheese; you said you wanted it," and stood smiling and
+triumphant.
+
+"Oh, my goodness me!" exclaimed Polly Pepper, standing quite still.
+Then she did shock the natives, for she sat right down in the road,
+with the cheese in her hands.
+
+
+
+
+XIV
+
+THE ISLAND OF MARKEN
+
+
+When the boat was nearing the island of Marken, the little yellow
+cheese had been presented with all due formality to one of the sailors
+who had been specially kind in the matter of securing good seats for
+Mr. King's party, Polly and Phronsie having held a whispered conference
+in a retired nook, to come out of it bright and smiling.
+
+"And now it has made two people happy, Phronsie," Polly had said, when
+the presentation was well over, and she ended up with a kiss. "It made
+me happy in the first place because you thought of me, and then, just
+think, Pet, that poor sailor, how glad he will be to take it home."
+
+"Will he, Polly?" asked Phronsie, in a rapture; "and do you think he
+has got any little girls?"
+
+"Perhaps so," said Polly, "and at any rate, he can eat it himself. And
+he looks hungry enough."
+
+"I'd rather he had some little girls, Polly," said Phronsie,
+thoughtfully, "and have him give them each a piece."
+
+"Well, maybe he has some; we'll think so, anyway," Polly answered. "Oh,
+see, Jasper is calling us."
+
+To be sure, there he was on the other side of the boat nearest Marken,
+with a big group of passengers, intently watching the Marken children
+running along in their clacking sabots, on the high bank, and holding
+out their arms, singing something all the while in a shrill, high key.
+
+"They want some stuivers," cried Jasper. "Come, Polly and Phronsie, let
+us toss them some."
+
+Whiz--spin--went the coins, to fall into the thick stubby grass on the
+bank. The children, stopping their song in mid-air, scrambled and
+sprawled all over each other in their efforts to secure the coveted
+money. So Jasper and Polly threw the bits next time in the other
+direction. Then there was a shout and a rush, and the same thing was
+repeated till only a tangle of arms and legs could be seen. But some
+one of them always got the money.
+
+"Dear me! they've eyes just like birds!" exclaimed Parson Henderson;
+"to think of finding anything in that thick grass."
+
+"Let them alone for that," laughed old Mr. King; "their wits are
+sharpened by practice."
+
+"Look out, Phronsie!" exclaimed Jasper. "Your stuivers went into the
+water. Here, I'll hold you up, then you can throw it farther. There you
+go," swinging her to his shoulder. "Now, then"--he guided her hand, and
+away spun the coin.
+
+"It did, it did," crowed Phronsie, from her high perch. "It did,
+Jasper, go right straight down in the grass just like yours and
+Polly's."
+
+"So it did, Pet. Well, now, here is another."
+
+"There's a little girl back there and she hasn't any," mourned
+Phronsie. "Oh, dear, I want to give her some."
+
+"To be sure," said Jasper. "Well, we must give her some, and that's a
+fact." The small girl kept on at a dog-trot along the bank, her eyes
+fixed on the wonderful people who tossed out such magic wealth, and
+holding out her arms and singing her shrill song. But when the money
+was thrown, she was always a bit too late, and the other children,
+scrambling and scuffling, had pounced upon it, and had made off with it.
+
+"Here, you boys, keep away; you've had enough; we're going to give this
+to the little girl," Jasper shouted to them as they threw coin after
+coin.
+
+"They don't know what you are saying, my boy," said old Mr. King,
+laughing heartily at the performance, "and they wouldn't mind you in
+the least if they did."
+
+"I suppose not," said Jasper in chagrin. "Oh, the mean little beggars!"
+
+"Hold up your apron," screamed Polly to the little girl.
+
+"That's a good idea," said Jasper. "Why didn't we think of it before?"
+
+"She won't understand any better than the boys," said old Mr. King.
+"You forget, children, that these youngsters don't know our language."
+
+"What a bother," exclaimed Jasper, "it is to have so many different
+languages, anyway!"
+
+"And she hasn't any apron, Polly," corrected her mother; "that is her
+brown gown."
+
+Polly was already going through the motions of holding up an imaginary
+apron. And at last the little girl understood by gestures what she
+could not possibly get into her head by words, so she picked up the
+skirt of her gown in her sturdy little fists, and one, two, three
+clinking coins fell safely into it. But the boys racing along in
+advance soon discovered this successful trick, and completely swarmed
+around her, howling dreadfully, so she hastened off, happy in her
+prize, which she huddled up in her gown as she ran.
+
+"Isn't this just richness?" exclaimed Polly, gazing all about her in an
+ecstasy. "Oh, Jasper, what pictures we'll take--and do see that woman's
+cap! and those pot-hooks of hair over her eyes, and that funny, long
+dangling curl!"
+
+"Take care, Polly, you almost stepped off backward down the bank,"
+warned Adela, pulling her back, as they got off the steamboat and
+stopped a bit to look around.
+
+"Dear me, did I?" said Polly. "Well, it's enough to make any one step
+backward to see such funny clothes; and they are hay-making, Adela
+Gray, as sure as you live."
+
+"Didn't you suppose they would be?" answered Adela, composedly. "Why,
+that's one of the things I specially wanted to see."
+
+"Yes, so did I," said Polly. "Well, it's too, too splendid for
+anything. I'm going to begin to take pictures right straight off." Then
+she stopped and looked at Adela. "You may first," she said.
+
+"No, I'm not going to," declared Adela.
+
+"Yes, yes," said Polly, "I'd rather you did first; I truly had, Adela."
+She ran after her, for Adela had retreated down the bank, and made as
+if she were going to follow the party. "Now, Adela, be good and listen
+to reason."
+
+But Adela ran off.
+
+"Now that's too bad," mourned Polly, "for I'm afraid she'll keep away
+from me all the while we're on this island, and then I can't get a
+chance to give her my kodak at all."
+
+"She had it at the 'Model Farm,'" said Jasper, by way of comfort, for
+Polly's face fell.
+
+"Oh, that was nothing," said Polly, "such a little bit of a while
+doesn't count."
+
+"Well, let us take pictures as fast as we can," suggested Jasper, "and
+then when we do come up with Adela, why you'll have yours done."
+
+So Polly roused out of her dejection and set to work, and presently the
+hay-makers, and the Marken boys and girls, the funny little houses that
+looked as if they dropped down pellmell from the clouds and settled
+where they had dropped--the high ridges along which the men and boys,
+walking in their full baggy trousers, looked as if they were blown up,
+and formed a Dutch perspective perfectly awful--all these queer,
+delightful things were presently imprisoned in the two kodaks.
+
+Jasper looked up. "There, that's my last picture," he declared. "At any
+rate, for now."
+
+"Oh, one more! I must get a good picture of those girls raking hay."
+Polly ran off a few steps and sat down on a log to focus. The Marken
+girls happened to look up, and immediately whirled around and presented
+their backs to her.
+
+"Oh, dear, how hateful!" she exclaimed; "that would have been a
+splendid picture."
+
+"Never mind," said Jasper; "you can catch them unawares, and have
+another try at them."
+
+"Not so good as that," said Polly, sorrowfully. "Well, it can't be
+helped." So she was just going to get up from her log, when the girls,
+thinking from her attitude that she had given up the idea of taking a
+picture of them, turned back to their work. As quick as a flash Polly
+focussed again, and was just touching the button, when a hand came in
+front of her kodak, and she saw the grinning face of a Marken girl
+under its pot-hook of hair and with the long, dangling curl on one
+side, close to her own.
+
+"Too late!" exclaimed Polly. "And don't you ever do that again." And
+the hand was withdrawn, and the girl clattered off as fast as she could
+run in her wooden shoes.
+
+"I got them," said Polly, running back in triumph to Jasper.
+
+"Yes, and I took a picture of the saucy girl while she was trying to
+stop yours," said Jasper. "So she didn't do much harm, after all. Oh,
+here is a splendid group! See them standing by that old tumble-down
+house, Polly," he added excitedly.
+
+"I thought you had taken your last picture, Jasper," said Polly,
+bursting into a laugh.
+
+"Well, I had then, but I've begun again," said Jasper, recklessly. He
+walked up to the group and held out his hand, then pointed to his
+kodak. They smiled and nodded, showing all their teeth, and the mother
+took the littlest baby, for there seemed to be a very generous number
+of the smaller members of the family, and sat down with it in her lap
+on the rickety step. Then they all drew up stiff as sticks, and didn't
+even wink.
+
+"That's capital," said Jasper, in huge satisfaction, pouring the coins
+into the mother's lap, where they rolled underneath the fat baby. Polly
+and he hurried on.
+
+"Oh, Polly, I'm so very glad you've come," said Phronsie, as Polly and
+Jasper ran up to a doorway through which they could see their party.
+Phronsie stood just inside, and appeared to be watching for them.
+"There's a woman here who's been showing us things." There was Mrs.
+Fisher up by the tiny window, bending over an old woman who had spread
+out in her lap some white embroidered garments, while a young woman
+hovered near, smiling and blushing, and very happy at all this notice.
+And the rest of the party crowded up as close as they could.
+
+"They are her daughter's wedding clothes," said Mrs. Fisher, "I do
+believe." For, the old woman was working fearfully hard to make them
+understand, and pointing first to the white garments and then to the
+young woman. "Wedding clothes?" asked Mrs. Fisher, speaking very slowly.
+
+The old woman seemed to understand the one word "wedding," for she
+nodded furiously and smiled well pleased; and then devoted her whole
+time and energy to the display of the garments. And she even laughed
+aloud when old Mr. King put some coins in her hard hand.
+
+Polly took the time to study her headgear. "I think there is a round
+board under the cap," she confided to Jasper when once out of doors;
+"how else could they be pulled so tight? And they look as hard as a
+drum."
+
+"I didn't investigate," he said, laughing. "I'll leave that to you,
+Polly."
+
+"Well, it's funny anyway," she said, "that all the women and girls
+dress alike in those queer gowns in two parts, and those embroidered
+jackets over their waists, and those caps and horrible pot-hooks and
+long curls."
+
+"It's well that we've got so many pictures, for the people at home
+would never believe our stories without them."
+
+"And these houses," continued Polly, squinting up at a crooked row,
+"all colours--green stripes and black stripes--and, O dear me! Jasper
+King, just look at Phronsie!"
+
+Jasper followed the direction of Polly's finger. There sat Phronsie on
+a grassy bank a little above them, with one of the fattest Marken
+babies in her lap. A variegated group of natives was near by, watching
+her intently. But Phronsie didn't appear to notice them.
+
+"Polly, I wish we had a baby just like this," sighed Phronsie, giving
+motherly pats to the stout little legs dangling down from her lap.
+
+"Come, children,"--Grandpapa emerged from the little old house,--"we
+must hurry on, else we sha'n't get through this island. Come,
+Phronsie--goodness me!" as he saw how she was occupied.
+
+"May I carry her?" begged Phronsie, staggering to her feet--"she's
+mine"--and dragging the Marken baby up with her.
+
+"Goodness me! no, child!" exclaimed Grandpapa, in horror. "Put her
+down, Phronsie; she's ever so much too heavy for you, dear." He put
+forth a protesting hand, but the tears ran down Phronsie's cheeks and
+fell on the baby's stiff white cap. At that old Mr. King was quite gone
+in despair.
+
+"Phronsie," Polly bent over and whispered close to the wet little
+cheek, "don't you see Grandpapa is feeling badly? I'm afraid he will be
+sick, Phronsie, if he is unhappy."
+
+Phronsie dropped the pudgy little hand, and threw herself into old Mr.
+King's arms. "Don't be sick, Grandpapa," she wailed, struggling with
+her tears. "I'd rather not have my baby, please; I don't want her.
+Please be all well, Grandpapa, dear."
+
+
+
+
+XV
+
+MR. KING DOES HIS DUTY
+
+
+Polly's face appeared over Adela's shoulder. "Don't!" said Adela,
+shrinking away into the corner of the big sofa, and putting her hands
+over something she held in her lap.
+
+"Excuse me!" exclaimed Polly, tumbling back in amazement. "I wasn't
+looking. I don't want to see. I only meant to surprise you." She kept
+backing off toward the door, the colour all over her round cheek.
+
+"You mustn't get mad, Polly," cried Adela, flying up straight to look
+at her, but still keeping her lap well covered.
+
+Jasper, running in, heard the words. "Polly never gets mad," he said
+slowly, standing quite still.
+
+"Well, she is now--just as mad as can be," said Adela, in a fretful
+little voice; "look at her."
+
+"Oh, I'm not mad, Adela," began Polly, "only sorry. And it's my fault,
+Jasper," seeing his face darken, "for I looked over her shoulder. I
+only wanted to surprise her; and Adela, of course, thought I wanted to
+see what she was doing."
+
+"Yes," said Adela, "I did think so, Polly Pepper, and I don't want
+anybody to see it." With that she huddled the thing, whatever it was,
+down by her side, and ran out of the room as fast as she could go.
+
+"A disagreeable creature," began Jasper, hotly; "and she's been a
+perfect nuisance all along to take her everywhere. Now we drop her,
+Polly." He looked more like his father at this moment than Polly had
+ever seen him before.
+
+"Oh, no, Jasper," she remonstrated in dismay.
+
+"Yes, we drop her like a hot cake," said Jasper, decidedly; "that would
+be my opinion, Polly."
+
+"But we can't, she's so alone," went on Polly; "and, besides, she's
+troubled about something. That's what makes her feel so."
+
+"It's a queer way to bear trouble, I should think, to abuse you," said
+Jasper, "when you've been bothering yourself about her all this time."
+
+"Oh, I don't mind," said Polly, brightening up, "if only you won't talk
+of our dropping her, Jasper."
+
+Jasper turned on his heel, and walked to the window. When he looked
+back, the annoyance had dropped out of his face, and he was just
+saying, "All right, Polly, it ought to be as you say, I'm sure," when
+Adela Gray rushed into the room and up to Polly, and flung her arms
+around her neck. "There, and there, and there!" and something tumbled
+into Polly's hands.
+
+"I didn't want anybody to see it," mumbled Adela, "for I've spoiled it;
+and I was trying to rub out the spots when you came in, and I made it
+worse than ever. But I'll give it to you now, Polly; and please tear it
+up, and I'll make you another."
+
+When this long speech was all mumbled out, Polly was looking at a
+little sketch of Phronsie holding the fat Marken baby, and the Marken
+people looking on.
+
+"Oh, Jasper!" screamed Polly, "do come here! Oh, Adela, did you draw
+this? And oh! how perfectly beautiful!" all in one breath.
+
+"It _is_ a good thing," said Jasper, taking the drawing from Polly's
+hand and examining it critically, while Polly threw her arms around
+Adela, and oh-ed and ah-ed her delight at finding that she could draw
+and sketch so beautifully; and now to think of having this lovely
+picture of Phronsie!
+
+"But, you must tear it up," said Adela, in alarm, "else I'm sorry I
+gave it to you, Polly."
+
+"Tear it up!" repeated Polly, in astonishment; "tear up this lovely
+picture of Phronsie! What do you mean, Adela Gray?"
+
+"Oh, I've a copy, of course," said Adela, carelessly; "and I'm going to
+do you another better one."
+
+"Where did you learn to draw so well?" asked Jasper, in admiration of
+the bold, accurate lines, and the graceful curves.
+
+"In school, at Paris," said Adela, quietly.
+
+Polly looked over Jasper's arm, and scanned the sketch. "I never saw
+anything so lovely!" she exclaimed. "And it's just alive! Isn't it,
+Jasper?"
+
+"Yes, it is splendid," he said enthusiastically; "and that's the best
+part of it--it's alive, Polly, as you say."
+
+"I'd give anything in all this world, Adela, if I could draw like
+that," mourned Polly.
+
+"I'd rather play on the piano," said Adela, "than do all the drawing in
+the world. But I can't learn; the music master said there was something
+the matter with my ear, and I never could tell one note from another by
+the sound. I do so wish I could play on the piano, Polly Pepper!" she
+added discontentedly.
+
+"Well, Jasper can do both,--play on the piano, and draw, too," said
+Polly.
+
+"I can't draw like this," said Jasper, holding the sketch off at arm's
+length to view it again. "I couldn't if I were to try a thousand years."
+
+"Oh, Jasper!" exclaimed Polly, who couldn't bear to think there was
+anything that he could not do.
+
+"Well, I can't," said Jasper.
+
+"Let me see some of your sketches," begged Adela. "It's so nice to find
+some one else who can draw. Do show me some."
+
+"Oh, no," protested Jasper, in dismay, "not after this," pointing to
+Adela's drawing.
+
+"Do, Jasper," begged Polly, imploringly, "get your portfolio."
+
+"Oh, I couldn't bring them all in," said Jasper. "I wouldn't show those
+old things for the world, Polly."
+
+"Well, bring some of them, do," she begged, while Adela said, "I showed
+mine, and I didn't want to, I'm sure." So Jasper ran up to his room,
+and pretty soon he came back with his portfolio.
+
+"You did bring it, after all," exclaimed Polly, in satisfaction,
+patting the brown leather cover. "Oh, how nice of you, Jasper," as they
+ran over and ensconced themselves in a cosey corner.
+
+"I took out the worst ones," said Jasper, with a laugh. "And I'm
+awfully sorry I didn't leave behind more of the others."
+
+"I hope you brought that woman with a basket of vegetables we saw at
+the market the other day," said Polly, as he opened the portfolio. "Do
+tell me, Jasper, you did bring that, didn't you?" beginning to fumble
+through the pile.
+
+"Yes, I did, Polly," said Jasper; "she's in there all safe and sound."
+
+So for the next hour, there was great turning over and comparing of
+sketches, and much talk about vertical lines and graceful curves, and
+shading and perspective, and expression, and dear knows what all, as
+the three heads bent over the portfolio. So intent were they all, that
+no one heard Grandpapa come in, and he sat there in a farther corner,
+for a good quarter of an hour. At last Polly looked up and saw him.
+
+"Oh, Grandpapa!" she cried, flying off from the group, and carrying
+Adela's sketch in her hand. "Just see what a perfectly beautiful
+picture of Phronsie! Adela Gray made it. She draws splendidly,
+Grandpapa."
+
+Old Mr. King took the little sketch and fairly beamed at it.
+
+"It's very like,--it is excellent," he declared, caring nothing for its
+merits as a drawing, but only seeing Phronsie as she sat with the big
+Marken baby in her lap on the stubbly bank.
+
+"Isn't it, Grandpapa?" cried Polly, overflowing with happiness; "and
+she has given it to me, Grandpapa. Oh, isn't she good!"
+
+"She is, indeed," assented old Mr. King, just as well pleased as Polly.
+"A very good girl, indeed. Come here, Adela."
+
+Adela, whose sharp ears had caught most of this dialogue at the other
+end of the room,--although Jasper was keeping a steady fire of talk to
+drown it if possible,--was looking in dismay at him.
+
+"O dear me, I wish they'd stop," she breathed in distress.
+
+"I thought you said you had no ear," said Jasper, laughing at her face.
+
+"I can't tell music notes," she said, "but I can hear things."
+
+"Yes, I should think you could," he said. And then came old Mr. King's
+"Come here, Adela," so she had to go across the room, shaking every
+step of the way, and stand in front of him.
+
+"I didn't know we had such a good little artist among us," said
+Grandpapa, wonderfully well pleased and smiling kindly at her.
+
+"That is nothing," said Adela, in despair at ever stopping the flow of
+praise. "I spoiled it, and I'm going to do Polly a better one."
+
+"Nothing could be better, my dear," said Grandpapa, blandly; "it is a
+fine likeness of Phronsie." And then he questioned her as to her
+training in the art, and what she meant to do in the future, and where
+she intended to study and all that, getting an immense amount of
+information so artfully that Adela never for an instant suspected his
+reason. All the time he was holding the sketch of Phronsie in his hand,
+and intently gazing on it most of the time.
+
+"Well," he said at last, "I won't keep you young people any
+longer,"--for Jasper had thrown down the portfolio and joined the
+group,--"so run back to your own corner. Dear me," pulling out his
+watch, "it's only twenty minutes to luncheon. How time does fly, to be
+sure! To-morrow morning, remember, we are off for Antwerp."
+
+"O dear, dear!" exclaimed Polly, as they ran back and bent over the
+portfolio again, "we haven't half seen Amsterdam, Jasper."
+
+"No, and you wouldn't if you stayed a year," observed Jasper, wisely.
+
+"We must go over to the Ryks Museum once more," said Polly.
+
+"Yes, let us go there directly after luncheon," proposed Jasper. "I
+know what you want to do, Polly,--sit in front of 'The Night Watch'
+again."
+
+"Yes, I do," said Polly. "I couldn't go away without seeing that
+picture once more, Jasper."
+
+"I don't like that 'Night Watch,'" said Adela, "it's too dark and too
+smutty. I don't see why people like it so much."
+
+"Well, I do like it very much," reiterated Polly. "I know it's
+dreadfully dark, but the people in front seem to be stepping right out
+of the shadows, and to be alive. It seems to me they are just going to
+come right up toward me, as I sit there."
+
+"And that, after all, I suppose is the best thing one can say of a
+picture," said Jasper. "And it is always the finest time to look at
+that picture in the afternoon, you know, so we will go there, Polly,
+after luncheon."
+
+"And then Phronsie will want to see that picture of a woman with a cat,
+I suppose," said Polly. "Dear me, who was it that painted that, Jasper?
+I never can remember the artists' names."
+
+"Metsu was it--Jan--no, Gabriel--Metsu," answered Jasper, wrinkling his
+brows. "Neither can I remember all those fellows' names. Yes, indeed,
+you'll find Phronsie won't let us go there without paying respects to
+her special picture."
+
+"And then I suppose Grandpapa will take us for a last drive in Vondel
+Park. Oh, what nice times we have had, Jasper King!" exclaimed Polly,
+leaning back against the sofa, and clasping her hands restfully. "I
+just love Amsterdam! And I hate to leave it!"
+
+"So you said about The Hague, Polly," observed Jasper, turning to her
+with a little laugh.
+
+"Well, wasn't it perfectly beautiful?" asked Polly, flying up straight
+again. "Just think of that dear 'House in the Wood,' Jasper."
+
+"I know it; you wanted to go there day after day," laughed Jasper.
+
+"Why, we only went there three times," said Polly, "I'm sure, Jasper.
+And the picture-gallery--"
+
+"That is in the Maurit--rit, whatever is the rest of it? Oh, I know,"
+said Jasper, guilty of interrupting, "Mauritshuis, that is where the
+picture-gallery is, Polly."
+
+"Yes, that's it," echoed Polly; "it's fine--Paul Potter's 'Bull' is
+there."
+
+"Oh, I want to see that picture very much!" exclaimed Adela. "I've
+never been to The Hague."
+
+"Well, you'll go, perhaps, sometime," said Polly, with an uncomfortable
+feeling that she ought not to enjoy the things that Adela hadn't seen.
+"And you are going to Antwerp with us to-morrow, anyway," she added,
+brightening up.
+
+"Yes," said Adela, "Grandmamma is really going there. But that's all;
+for we go straight over to England then, and I sha'n't see you ever
+again, Polly Pepper," she finished gloomily.
+
+And that evening Grandpapa sat down by little old Mrs. Gray in the
+parlour after dinner, and though he began about something as far
+distant as possible, before long he was talking about Adela, and her
+wonderful talent. And the most surprising thing about it all was, that
+the little old lady, not intending to do it in the least, nor really
+comprehending how much she was telling, soon had him informed on all
+that he had set his heart on learning--how Adela had just been taken
+from the Paris school, because the little fortune her father had left,
+had somehow shrunk up, and there was no more money to keep her there.
+"I can't tell how it is, sir," she mourned, raising her faded eyes
+under the widow's cap to the kind old face above her, "I thought there
+was enough to educate my grandchild; it wasn't a big sum, but I
+supposed it was quite sufficient; but now it appears to be almost gone,
+and I have only just enough to keep me." She didn't add that the
+curate, her husband, when he crept into his grave, in the English
+churchyard, had left her nothing but the memory of his good name, her
+small means coming as a legacy from some of his grateful friends, they,
+too, long since dead.
+
+Old Mr. King made no comment, only passed on with a few little leading
+remarks when the information seemed to be on the wane. And then he said
+he thought he would like a game of backgammon, and he challenged the
+parson to come on and be beaten. And at an early hour the party broke
+up. "For remember," said Grandpapa, for about the fiftieth time that
+day, "it's Antwerp to-morrow!"
+
+So it was at Antwerp that the whole splendid business was concluded.
+And when the story of it came out, there was a regular jubilee all
+around. For were not Adela and Adela's grandmother going with the King
+party around a bit more on the continent, and then off to Paris again,
+and back to the beloved school--Grandpapa's gift to the girl with the
+talent, to keep it alive!
+
+And the little widow, stunned at first by the magnitude of the gift,
+could do nothing but feebly protest, "Oh, no, sir!" and put up both
+shaking hands to ward off the benefaction.
+
+"It's your duty, Madam," said Mr. King, sternly, at which she shrank
+down farther in her chair. "Who knows what such talent will do in the
+world? and it's my duty to see that it is kept alive,--nothing more nor
+less than a question of duty."
+
+He stamped up and down the room vehemently, and the little old lady
+protesting that she wanted to do her duty,--she was sure she always
+did,--the hardest part was over, and old Mr. King chuckled to himself
+triumphantly.
+
+"And now," cried Polly, in a transport, when the first surprise was
+over, and everybody had settled down to the quiet enjoyment of it all,
+"we've really and truly got a celebrated artist all to ourselves," and
+she drew herself up in pride.
+
+"I'm not celebrated yet," said Adela, with two little red spots on her
+cheeks, and with happy eyes on her grandmother. "You had better wait
+till I am."
+
+"Oh, well; you will be," said Polly, confidently, "sometime, and then
+we can say 'yes, we knew her when she was a girl,' and we'll go to
+picture-galleries the same as we do here, and see your name stuck up in
+the corners of the very best ones, Adela."
+
+
+
+
+XVI
+
+"LET US FLY AT THOSE BOOKS"
+
+
+"Now, Polly, in Antwerp," said Jasper, "we can see Rubens to
+perfection. Won't we just revel in his paintings, though!"
+
+"Won't we!" ejaculated Polly. "I'm so glad Grandpapa came here to this
+hotel." She leaned out of the window as she spoke.
+
+"Under the very eaves of the Cathedral, almost, isn't it?" said Jasper,
+in satisfaction.
+
+The chimes just then pealed out. Indeed, it seemed as if they did
+nothing but ring, so short were the intervals. But to Polly and Jasper
+they brought only echoes of delight.
+
+"There are forty of those bells, aren't there?" asked Polly, resting
+her elbows on the window-sill.
+
+"I believe so," answered Jasper, absently. Polly looked at him
+curiously.
+
+"Polly," he said abruptly, "do you know what I mean to do?"
+
+"No," said Polly; "tell me, do, Jasper."
+
+"Well, I mean to sit right down and finish my book. I'm ashamed to
+confess that it's not up to date."
+
+"Neither is mine," confessed Polly.
+
+"Well, now, that won't do," said Jasper, decidedly. "You see if we once
+let those books get behindhand, we're lost. We never can catch up, in
+all this world."
+
+"We've had so much to do and to see," began Polly.
+
+"That won't be any excuse that will amount to anything," said Jasper,
+shaking his head. "Let's fly at them and tackle them now, Polly."
+
+"I say so, too," she cried, and deserting the window, they surrounded
+the centre-table, and soon had the big journals, photographs, and
+pictures, of every sort and size, the ink bottle, and library paste,
+scissors, and all the rest of the paraphernalia, spread out on it.
+
+"It's good that Grandpapa is lying down and doesn't wish to go out,"
+remarked Polly, snipping away at a fearful rate, and pausing only to
+write down the dates and other bits of information around each picture,
+as she pasted it in. "Now we'll have all this morning to finish these
+books up to to-day."
+
+"And none too much for the job," said Jasper, sagely. "I declare I
+shall feel like enjoying myself twice as well, when once they're up to
+date. They've been hanging round my conscience every day since I
+slackened work on them."
+
+"And I am so glad you made me come away from that window, and set to
+work," said Polly, "or I never would have commenced on mine to-day."
+
+"Oh, yes, you would, I think, Polly," said Jasper. "Well, we are at it
+now, and that's enough. Now says I, I'm on book No. 2!" And he flapped
+down the cover of the completed one. "That's done, thank fortune!"
+
+"Oh, Jasper, have you the green one done?" asked Polly. "Why, I have
+three more pages of mine to do."
+
+"Well, you'll catch up on the red one, I dare say," said Jasper,
+opening No. 2. "We are getting on famously, aren't we, Polly?" glancing
+over at her work.
+
+"Yes, and I'm so glad you proposed this way to keep a journal," said
+Polly, "to have them labelled 'My Notes on My European Journey,' and to
+have No. 1 green, and No. 2 red, and so on all through the rest of the
+colours."
+
+"That will help us to find them in a hurry," said Jasper, "and keep
+them distinct; but I didn't propose it, Polly, about the books. It was
+your plan as much as mine."
+
+"No." Polly was guilty of contradicting. "I never should have thought
+of having the books of different colours and labelling them in that
+way, Jasper."
+
+"Well, you first thought of cutting out pictures and all sorts of
+items, and then writing the dates and whatever else we wanted to around
+the pictures," said Jasper. "I'm sure that's more important than the
+title of the book, Polly."
+
+"Well, won't the boys love to see them," asked Polly, suddenly, with a
+light in her eyes, ignoring the question as to her claim to the idea,
+"when we get home, Jasper?"
+
+"Won't they, though!" he responded, falling to work with a will.
+
+And so Antwerp was entered with clear consciences as to journals, and a
+strict determination not to fall behind again on them.
+
+But Polly slipped in so many of the beautiful photographs of the
+"Descent from the Cross," and the other two famous pictures by Rubens,
+that her red book was closed the third day of their stay in the old
+town of Antwerp; and the photographs had even overflowed into the
+yellow book, No. 3.
+
+They had a habit, most of their party, of dropping into the Cathedral
+once a day at least, usually in the morning, and sometimes before
+service. And then when it was quiet, and before the ordinary throng of
+sight-seers trailed through, Jasper would hire some chairs of one of
+the old women who always seem to be part and parcel of European
+cathedrals; and they would sit down before the painting, its wings
+spread over the dingy green background, and study what has made so many
+countless travellers take long and oftentimes wearisome journeys to see.
+
+And Polly always wanted to go after that to see the "Assumption," which
+is the altar-piece, and then the "Elevation of the Cross," both by
+Rubens. "And I am sure, Grandpapa," she would always say, "I like them
+as well as I do the famous painting."
+
+"And so do I, Polly, in a way," Grandpapa would invariably reply. "They
+are all marvellous, and that is all we can say, for no expressions
+could give the truth about them."
+
+After the Cathedral, which they loved all the more,--"for being perched
+under its eaves" (as Polly always said when speaking of the hotel that
+was for the time being their home),--Polly and Jasper set next in their
+regard the Musee Plantin-Moretus. They were never tired of running down
+there to the Marche du Vendredi, until it became a regular question
+every day at dinner, "Well, what more have you discovered at the Musee
+Plantin?"
+
+And old Mr. King would often answer, for he was as interested as the
+young people, "Marvellous things." And then he would expatiate on the
+antique furniture, the paintings, engravings, and tapestries, till the
+little doctor, fresh from his hospital visitations, would remark that
+it was just as good as if he had time to visit the place, to hear
+Grandpapa tell it all. And Adela would bring out her little sketches,
+which now she was not averse to showing, since everybody was so kind
+and sympathising, and there would be some little nook or corner of
+corridor or court that Polly would fall upon and pronounce, "Just
+perfect, and how did you get it?"
+
+"Oh, I just drew a bit now and then when you were looking at things,"
+said Adela, carelessly.
+
+"Everything just dances off your pencil," said Polly, wishing she could
+draw, and wondering if it was any use for her to try to learn.
+
+And every afternoon they would go to drive as usual, very often around
+the docks, which gave them all a good idea of this wonderful port. They
+were never tired of watching the hydraulic cranes, of inspecting the
+dry docks; the intertwining railways by which all the docks, large and
+small, are connected, and the two basins, Le Petit and Le Grand Bassin.
+
+"Dear me!" exclaimed Jasper, on one of these occasions, "I thought
+Amsterdam docks were huge affairs, but Antwerp!" And he left his
+sentence in mid-air, which was more impressive after all.
+
+But Parson Henderson liked the church of St. Jacques best of all things
+in Antwerp, and he used to steal away mornings to go there again and
+again. And he asked Polly and Jasper to go there with him one day, and
+Polly begged to have Adela go too, and they all came home as
+enthusiastic as he was.
+
+And then suddenly Mr. King would wrench them all off from this
+delightful study and put his foot down peremptorily. "No more
+cathedrals for a time," he would declare; "my old head cannot carry any
+more just yet." And he would propose a little in-letting of fun. And
+then off they would go a-shopping, or to the Zoological Gardens; and
+they always had concerts, of course, wherever they were, for Polly and
+Jasper's sakes, if for no other reason. And by and by somebody
+announced, one fine morning, that they had been in Antwerp a fortnight.
+
+And then one day Mother Fisher looked into Polly's brown eyes, and
+finding them tired, she calmly tucked Polly quietly in bed. "Why,
+Mamsie," declared Polly, "I'm not sick."
+
+"No, and I'm not going to have you be," observed Mrs. Fisher, sensibly.
+"This running about sight-seeing is more tiresome, child, than you
+think for, and dreadfully unsettling unless you stop to rest a bit. No,
+Jasper," as he knocked at the door, "Polly can't go out to-day, at
+least not this morning. I've put her to bed."
+
+"Is Polly sick, Mrs. Fisher?" called Jasper, in great concern.
+
+"No, not a bit," answered Mrs. Fisher, cheerily, "but she's tired. I've
+seen it coming on for two or three days back, so I'm going to take it
+in time."
+
+"And can't she come out, to-day?" asked Jasper, dreadfully
+disappointed, with a mind full of the host of fine things they had
+planned to do.
+
+"No, Jasper," said Mother Fisher, firmly, "not to jaunt about." So
+Jasper took himself off, feeling sure, despite his disappointment, that
+Polly's mother was right.
+
+And there was another person who wholly agreed with Mother Fisher, and
+that was old Mr. King. "If you can stop those young folks from killing
+themselves running about to see everything, you'll do more than I can,
+Mrs. Fisher," he observed. "It makes no difference how long I plan to
+stay in a town, so as to do it restfully, if they won't rest."
+
+"That is a fact," said Mother Fisher. "Well, that's my part to see that
+they do rest."
+
+"I don't envy you the job," said the old gentleman, drily.
+
+Polly fidgeted and turned on her pillow, knowing Mamsie was right, but
+unable to keep from thinking of the many beautiful plans that Jasper
+and she had formed for that very morning, till her head spun round and
+round. "I can't get to sleep," she said at last.
+
+"Don't try to," said her mother, dropping the heavy wool curtains till
+the room was quite dark; "that's the worst thing in the world to do, if
+you want to rest. Just lie still and don't try to think of anything."
+
+"But I can't help thinking," said poor Polly, feeling sure that Jasper
+was dreadfully disappointed at the upsetting of all the plans.
+
+"Never say you can't help anything, Polly," said her mother, coming
+over to the bedside to lay a cool hand on Polly's hot forehead, and
+then to drop a kiss there; and somehow the kiss did what all Polly's
+trying had failed to accomplish.
+
+"That's good, Mamsie," she said gratefully, and drew a long, restful
+breath.
+
+Mother Fisher went out and closed the door softly.
+
+It was just three o'clock that afternoon when Polly woke up.
+
+"Oh, I'm dreadfully ashamed!" she exclaimed when she found it out.
+"I've slept almost this whole day!"
+
+Mother Fisher smiled, "And it's the best day's work you've done in one
+long while, Polly," she said.
+
+"And here's my girl, Polly," cried Grandpapa, when she ran down to him,
+and holding her at arm's length, he gazed into her bright eyes and on
+her rosy cheeks. "Well, well, your mother's a clever woman, and no
+mistake."
+
+So Polly knew if she didn't take care and not get tired again, she
+would be tucked into bed another fine day.
+
+It was a long summer morning, and they were sailing up the Rhine, with
+the delights of Brussels and Cologne behind them, and in between the
+covers of the purple book, No. 4, Polly had been looking at ruined
+castles and fortresses, at vine-clad terraces, and chalets, until she
+turned to Grandpapa with a sigh.
+
+"Tired, Polly, little woman?" he said, cuddling her up against him.
+
+"No, not tired, Grandpapa," said Polly, "but, oh, there's so very much
+of it over here in Europe."
+
+"If you've found that out, you've learned the lesson early," said old
+Mr. King, with a laugh. "As many times as I've been over here, there's
+nothing that surprises me so much as the presumption with which we
+travellers all rush about, expecting to compass all there is."
+
+"But we ought to see everything," said Polly, "oughtn't we, Grandpapa,
+when we've come so far to see it?" and she looked troubled.
+
+"There's just where you are wrong, Polly, child," said old Mr. King.
+"And this 'ought to see,' why, it's an old dragon, Polly, lying in wait
+to destroy. Don't you let it get hold of you, but take my advice and
+see only what you can make your own and remember. Then you've got it."
+
+
+
+
+XVII
+
+POLLY WROTE A NICE LITTLE NOTE
+
+
+"Polly," said Jasper, running down the stairs after her, on her way to
+the little garden on the terrace at Heidelberg, "here's something for
+you; just came in the mail."
+
+"For me," said Polly, as he put a little parcel in her hand.
+
+"Yes," said Jasper, "father just gave it to me."
+
+"What can it be!" cried Polly, wonderingly; "oh, something from Alexia
+or one of the other girls, most likely," and she tore off the outer
+wrapper.
+
+"It is registered," said Jasper, "and Mr. Henderson got it out for you,
+father said; that can't be from one of the girls, Polly," as the next
+layer of paper dropping off, disclosed the name of one of the biggest
+of big London jewellers across a wooden box.
+
+"What can it be!" gasped Polly, tugging at the cover.
+
+"Here--let me." Jasper essayed to open it, but it stuck fast in the
+slide. Another pull, and a little red leather case appeared in view.
+
+"What in the world--" began Polly; "oh, it can't be for me!" and she
+stood staring at it, without any attempt to take it out.
+
+"It must be for you, Polly," said Jasper. "There couldn't be any other
+Miss Mary Pepper, and besides it is addressed to father's care, and
+comes through our bankers,--see here." He stooped, and picked up the
+outer wrapper; it was torn almost in two, but the name and address was
+all there.
+
+So Polly lifted out the little red leather case, still feeling very
+much as if she were opening a parcel belonging to some one else, and
+touching a spring at the end, the top flew up, and there on a white
+satin bed lay a little green enamelled watch set with diamonds.
+
+"O dear me!" exclaimed Polly, tumbling back in the utmost distress,
+"now I _have_ got some one else's box, Jasper. How very dreadful!"
+
+"Let us go to father," said Jasper, feeling this quite beyond him.
+"Shut the box up tight, Polly; it might tumble out on the way."
+
+"You carry it, do, Jasper," begged Polly, with an eye askance at the
+little case; and snapping the cover down, she set it in his hand.
+
+"All right, now, then," said Jasper. "We must carry these papers, and
+wooden box, and the whole business. Don't worry, Polly," seeing her
+face, "father will straighten it out."
+
+"Give me the wrapper, Jasper, and the wooden box, if only you'll take
+the other," said Polly, feeling very much depressed at coming into
+possession of other people's property; and Jasper followed with the
+little enamelled watch.
+
+And Grandpapa was just as much astounded as was Polly herself; and all
+the family congregating in Mother Fisher's room, the little watch was
+handed about from one to the other, and everybody stared at everybody
+else, and the mystery thickened every moment. And the strangest thing
+about it was that no one opened the little back cover where any one
+might have read:--
+
+"Polly Pepper, from her grateful friend, Arthur Selwyn."
+
+--until the middle of the night, when Jasper was awakened by a noise as
+if some one were prowling around in his father's room. He started up
+and listened.
+
+"It's I," said old Mr. King's voice. So Jasper threw on his wrapper,
+and hurried in. There sat his father, in dressing-gown and slippers, by
+the table, with the little enamelled watch in his hand.
+
+"Of all the idiots, Jasper," he exclaimed, "your father is the very
+worst. I've only just this moment thought to look in here." He flashed
+the little watch around in Jasper's face; it was now opened at the back.
+
+"Dear me!" cried Jasper, for want of anything better to say, as he read
+the inscription. Then he looked helplessly at his father.
+
+"Earl or no earl, this piece of foolishness goes back," fumed old Mr.
+King, getting out of his chair, and beginning to march back and forth
+across the floor as he always did when irritated. "Yes, sir, the very
+first thing in the morning," he repeated, as vehemently as if Jasper
+had contradicted him.
+
+"But, father--" began the boy.
+
+"Yes, sir, it goes back, I tell you," repeated his father, now well
+wrought up to a passion. "What right has he to send such a piece of
+foolishness to my Polly Pepper? I can give her all the watches she
+needs. And this trumpery," pointing to the jewelled gift still lying in
+Jasper's hand, "is utterly unfit for a schoolgirl. You know that
+yourself, Jasper."
+
+"But Polly was kind to him," began Jasper, again.
+
+"Kind to him!" snorted his father, "don't I know that? Of course she
+was. Polly Pepper would be kind to any one. But that's no reason why
+the old idiot should presume to give her such a silly and expensive
+present as that. The man doesn't know anything who would do such a
+thing. And this one is queerer than the average."
+
+"As you say, he is eccentric," observed Jasper, seeing here a loophole
+by which to get in a soothing word.
+
+"Eccentric? That's a mild way to put it," fumed his father. "He's odder
+than Dick's hatband. Heaven save Old England if many of her earls are
+like him. Well, I shall just write the fellow a decent sort of a note,
+and then I'll pack the box off to him, and that'll be the end of the
+matter."
+
+"I'm afraid Polly will be sorry," said Jasper, feeling at a standstill
+so far as finding the right word was concerned, for everything he
+uttered only seemed to make matters worse. So he said the best thing he
+could think of, and stopped short.
+
+"Sorry?" Old Mr. King came to a dead stop and glared at him. "You can't
+mean that Polly Pepper would like me to keep that watch. It's the last
+thing on earth that she would want, such a gewgaw as that. Why, the
+child hates the sight of it already as much as I do."
+
+"I don't think Polly would want the watch," said Jasper, quickly. "I
+know she doesn't like it, and I'm sure I wish I could smash it myself,"
+he added in a burst.
+
+"That's the most sensible thing you've said yet, Jasper," said his
+father, with a grim smile.
+
+"But she would feel dreadfully for you to send it back, for don't you
+see, father, that would hurt his feelings? And Polly would worry
+awfully to have that happen."
+
+Old Mr. King turned uneasily, took a few steps, then came back to throw
+himself into his chair again.
+
+"And this old gentleman has such ill attacks," said Jasper, pursuing
+his advantage, "that it might be the very thing to bring one on if he
+should get that watch back."
+
+"Say no more, say no more, Jasper," said his father, shortly; "put this
+thing up for tonight, and then get back to bed again." And Jasper knew
+that was the end of it.
+
+And the next day Polly wrote a nice little note, thanking the old earl
+for his gift, and hoping that he was quite well; and with so many other
+pleasant things in it, that if she could have seen him when he received
+it, she would have been glad indeed. And then she handed the little red
+leather case to Mr. King. "Keep it for me, Grandpapa," she said simply.
+
+"All right, Polly, my child," he said. And then everybody forgot all
+about the episode and proceeded to enjoy Heidelberg.
+
+"I'm so sorry for people who are not going to Bayreuth, Adela!"
+exclaimed Polly, looking out of the compartment window, as the train
+steamed rapidly on from Nuremberg where they had passed several days of
+delight revelling in the old town.
+
+Adela, with her mind more on those past delights, had less attention
+for thoughts of music, so she answered absently, "Yes. Oh, Polly,
+wasn't that Pentagonal Tower fine? What is it they call it in German?"
+
+But Polly didn't hear, being absorbed in the Wagner festival of which
+her mind was full, so Jasper answered for her. "Alt-Nuenberg, you mean,
+the oldest building of all Nuremberg."
+
+"Yes," said Adela, "well, I got two or three sketches of that tower."
+
+"Did you?" cried Jasper, "now that's good."
+
+"And I got that horrible old robber-knight,--what's his name?--sitting
+inside his cell, you know."
+
+"Eppelein von Gallingen," supplied Jasper. "Well, he was a
+horrible-looking customer, and that's a fact."
+
+"Oh, I liked him," said Adela, who rejoiced in ugly things if only
+picturesque, "and I got into one corner of the cell opposite him, so as
+to sketch it all as well as I could in such a dark place, and a lady
+came down the little stairs; you remember them."
+
+"I rather think I do," said Jasper, grimly. "I was trying to get out of
+the way of a huge party of tourists, and I nearly broke my neck."
+
+"Well, this lady came down the stairs. I could see her where I sat, but
+she couldn't see me, it was so dark in the cell; and she called to her
+husband--I guess he was her husband, because he looked so _triste_."
+Adela often fell into French, from being so long at the Paris school,
+and not from affectation in the least. "And she said, 'Come, Henry, let
+us see what is in there.' And she took one step in, and peered into
+that robber-knight's face; you know how he is sitting on a little
+stool, his black hair all round his face, staring at one."
+
+"Yes, I do," said Jasper; "he was uncanny enough, and in the darkness,
+his wax features, or whatever they were made of, were unpleasantly
+natural to the last degree."
+
+"Well," said Adela, "the lady gave a little squeal, and tumbled right
+back into her husband's arms. And I guess she stepped on his toes, for
+he squealed, too, though in a different way, and he gave her a little
+push and told her not to be a goose, that the man had been dead a
+thousand years more or less and couldn't hurt her. So then she stepped
+back, awfully scared though, I could see that, and then she caught
+sight of me, and she squealed again and jumped, and she screamed right
+out, 'Oh, there's another in there, in the corner, and it glared at
+me.' And I didn't glare at all," finished Adela, in disdain. "And then
+I guess he was scared, too, for he said, 'That old cell isn't worth
+seeing, anyway, and I'm going down into the torture chamber,' and they
+hurried off."
+
+"That torture chamber!" exclaimed Jasper; "how any one can hang over
+those things, I don't see; for my part, I'd rather have my time
+somewhere else."
+
+"Oh, I like them," said Adela, in great satisfaction, "and I've got a
+picture of the 'Iron Virgin.'"
+
+"That was a good idea, to put the old scold into that wooden tub
+concern," said Jasper; "there was some sense in that. I took a picture
+of it, and the old tower itself. I got a splendid photograph of it, if
+it will only develop well," he added. "Oh, but the buildings--was ever
+anything so fine as those old Nuremberg houses, with their high-peaked
+gables! I have quantities of them--thanks to my kodak."
+
+"What's this station, I wonder?" asked Polly, as the train slowed up.
+
+Two ladies on the platform made a sudden dash at their compartment.
+"All full," said the guard, waving them off.
+
+"That was Fanny Vanderburgh," gasped Polly.
+
+"And her mother," added Jasper.
+
+"Who was it?" demanded old Mr. King.
+
+His consternation, when they told him, was so great, that Jasper racked
+his brains some way to avoid the meeting.
+
+"If once we were at Bayreuth, it's possible that we might not come
+across them, father, for we could easily be lost in the crowd."
+
+"No such good luck," groaned old Mr. King, which was proved true. For
+the first persons who walked into the hotel, as the manager was giving
+directions that the rooms reserved for their party should be shown
+them, were Mrs. Vanderburgh and her daughter.
+
+"Oh!" exclaimed Mrs. Vanderburgh, as if her dearest friends were before
+her, "how glad I am to see you again, dear Mr. King, and you all." She
+swept Mrs. Fisher and Mrs. Henderson lightly in her glance as if
+toleration only were to be observed toward them. "We have been
+perfectly _desolee_ without you, Polly, my dear," she went on, with a
+charming smile. "Fanny will be happy once more. She has been
+disconsolate ever since we parted, I assure you."
+
+Polly made some sort of a reply, and greeted Fanny, as of old times, on
+the steamer; but Mrs. Vanderburgh went on, all smiles and eagerness--so
+rapidly in her friendly intentions, that it boded ill for the future
+peace of Mr. King's party. So Mr. King broke into the torrent of words
+at once, without any more scruple. "And now, Mrs. Vanderburgh, if you
+will excuse us, we are quite tired, and are going to our rooms." And he
+bowed himself off, and of course his family followed; the next moment
+Fanny and her mother were alone.
+
+"If this is to be the way," said Mrs. Vanderburgh, with a savage little
+laugh, "we might much better have stayed in Paris, for I never should
+have thought, as you know, Fanny, of coming to this out-of-the-way
+place, seeing that I don't care for the music, if I hadn't heard them
+say on the steamer that this was their date here."
+
+"Well, I wish that I was at home," declared Fanny, passionately, "and I
+never, never will come to Europe, Mamma, again as long as I live. You
+are always chasing after people who run away from you, and those who
+like me, you won't let me speak to."
+
+"Well, I shall be thankful for the day when you are once in society,"
+said her mother, every shred of self-control now gone; "and I shall
+sell my tickets for this old Wagner festival, and go back to Paris
+to-morrow morning."
+
+At that, Fanny broke into a dismal fit of complaining, which continued
+all the time they were dressing for dinner, and getting settled in
+their room, and then at intervals through that meal.
+
+Polly looked over at her gloomy face, three tables off, and her own
+fell.
+
+"You are not eating anything, child," said Grandpapa, presently, with a
+keen glance at her. "Let me order something more."
+
+"Oh, no, Grandpapa," and "yes, I will," she cried, incoherently, making
+a great effort to enjoy the nice things he piled on her plate.
+
+Jasper followed her glance as it rested on the Vanderburgh table. "They
+will spoil everything," he thought. "And to think it should happen at
+Bayreuth."
+
+"Yes, we are going," said Fanny Vanderburgh as they met after dinner in
+the corridor. Her eyes were swollen, and she twisted her handkerchief
+in her fingers. "And I did--did--did--" here she broke down and
+sobbed--"so want to hear the Wagner operas."
+
+"Don't cry," begged Polly, quite shocked. "Oh, Fanny, why can't you
+stay? How very dreadful to lose the Wagner music!" Polly could think of
+no worse calamity that could befall one.
+
+"Mamma doesn't know anybody here except your party," mumbled Fanny,
+"and she's upset, and declares that we must go back to Paris to-morrow.
+Oh, Polly Pepper, I hate Paris," she exploded. And then sobbed worse
+than ever.
+
+"Wait here," said Polly, "till I come back." Then she ran on light feet
+to Grandpapa, just settling behind a newspaper in a corner of the
+general reading room.
+
+"Grandpapa, dear, may I speak to you a minute?" asked Polly, with a
+woful feeling at her heart. It seemed as if he must hear it beating.
+
+"Why, yes, child, to be sure," said Mr. King, quite surprised at her
+manner. "What is it?" and he laid aside his paper and smiled
+reassuringly.
+
+But Polly's heart sank worse than ever. "Grandpapa," she began
+desperately, "Fanny Vanderburgh is feeling dreadfully."
+
+"And I should think she would with such a mother," exclaimed the old
+gentleman, but in a guarded tone. "Well, what of it, Polly?"
+
+"Grandpapa," said Polly, "she says her mother is going to take her back
+to Paris tomorrow morning."
+
+"How very fine!" exclaimed Mr. King, approvingly; "that is the best
+thing I have heard yet. Always bring me such good news, Polly, and I
+will lay down my newspapers willingly any time." And he gave a pleased
+little laugh.
+
+"But, Grandpapa--" and Polly's face drooped, and there was such a sad
+little note in her voice, that the laugh dropped out of his. "Fanny
+wanted above all things to hear the Wagner operas--just think of losing
+those!" Polly clasped her hands, and every bit of colour flew from her
+cheek.
+
+"Well, what can I do about it?" asked the old gentleman, in a great
+state of perturbation. "Speak out, child, and tell me what you want."
+
+"Only if I can be pleasant to Fanny," said Polly, a wave of colour
+rushing over her face. "I mean if I may go with her? Can I, Grandpapa,
+this very evening, just as if--" she hesitated.
+
+"As if what, Polly?"
+
+"As if we all liked them," finished Polly, feeling as if the words must
+be said.
+
+There was an awful pause in which Polly had all she could do to keep
+from rushing from the room. Then Grandpapa said, "If you can stand it,
+Polly, you may do as you like, but I warn you to keep them away from
+me." And he went back to his paper.
+
+
+
+
+XVIII
+
+BAYREUTH AND OLD FRIENDS
+
+
+Jasper turned around to gaze at the vast audience filing into the
+Wagner Opera House before he took his seat. "This makes me think of
+Oberammergau, Polly," he said.
+
+"To think you've seen the Passion Play," she cried, with glowing cheeks.
+
+"That was when I was such a little chap," said Jasper, "ages ago,--nine
+years, Polly Pepper,--just think; so it will be as good as new next
+year. Father is thinking a good deal of taking you there next summer."
+
+"Jasper," cried Polly, her cheeks all in a glow, and regardless of next
+neighbours, "what can I ever do to repay your father for being so very
+good to me and to all of us?"
+
+"Why, you can keep on making him comfortable, just as you are doing
+now, Polly," replied Jasper. "He said yesterday it made him grow
+younger every minute to look at you. And you know he's never sick now,
+and he was always having those bad attacks. Don't you remember when we
+first came to Hingham, Polly?" as they took their seats.
+
+"O dear me, I guess I do, Jasper, and how you saved Phronsie from being
+carried off by the big organ man," and she shivered even now at this
+lapse of years. "And all the splendid times at Badgertown and the
+little brown--"
+
+Just then a long hand came in between the people in the seat back of
+them. "I'm no end glad to see you!" exclaimed a voice. It was Tom
+Selwyn.
+
+"I'm going over into that vacant seat." Tom forgot his fear of Polly
+and his hatred of girls generally, and rushed around the aisle to
+plunge awkwardly into the seat just back of Jasper. "I'll stay here
+till the person comes." His long arms came in contact with several
+obstacles, such as sundry backs and shoulders in his progress, but he
+had no time to consider such small things or to notice the black looks
+he got in consequence.
+
+"Now, isn't this jolly!" he exclaimed. Jasper was guilty of staring at
+him; there seemed such a change in the boy, he could hardly believe it
+was really and truly Tom Selwyn.
+
+"My grandfather is well now, and he would have sent some message to you
+if he knew I was to run across you," went on Tom, looking at Jasper,
+but meaning Polly; "did you get a little trifle he sent you some weeks
+ago? He's been in a funk about it because he didn't hear."
+
+Wasn't Polly glad that her little note was on the way, and perhaps in
+the old gentleman's hands at this very time!
+
+"Yes," she said, "and he was very kind and--" Tom fumbled his tickets
+all the while, and broke in abruptly.
+
+"I didn't know as you'd like it, but it made him sick not to do it, and
+so the thing went. Glad it didn't make you mad," he ended suddenly.
+
+"He meant it all right, I'm sure," said Jasper, seeing that Polly
+couldn't speak.
+
+"Didn't he though!" exclaimed Tom.
+
+"And it didn't come till the day we left Heidelberg," said Polly,
+finding her tongue, and speaking rapidly to explain the delay; "that
+was a week ago."
+
+"Whew!" whistled Tom; "oh, beg pardon!" for several people turned
+around and stared; so he ducked his head, and was mostly lost to view
+for a breathing space. When he thought they had forgotten him, he
+bobbed it up. "Why, Grandfather picked it out--had a bushel of things
+sent up from London to choose from, you know, weeks and weeks ago, as
+soon as he got up to London. That's no end queer."
+
+"No," said Polly, "it didn't come till then. And I wrote to your
+grandfather the next morning and thanked him."
+
+"Now you did!" exclaimed Tom, in huge delight, and slapping his knee
+with one long hand. "That's no end good of you." He couldn't conceal
+how glad he was, and grinned all over his face.
+
+At this moment Mrs. Vanderburgh, who, seeing Fanny so happy again,
+concluded to stay on the strength of resurrected hopes of Polly
+Pepper's friendship, sailed into the opera house, with her daughter.
+And glancing across the aisle, for their seats were at the side, she
+caught sight of the party she was looking for, and there was a face she
+knew, but wasn't looking for.
+
+"Fanny," she cried, clutching her arm, "there is Tom Selwyn! Well, now
+we _are_ in luck!" And Tom saw her, and again he ducked, but for a
+different reason. When he raised his head, he glanced cautiously in the
+direction he dreaded. "There's that horrible person," he whispered in
+Jasper's ear.
+
+"Who?" asked Jasper, in astonishment.
+
+"That woman on the steamer--you knew her--and she was looking straight
+at us. Duck for your life, Jasper King!"
+
+"Oh, that," said Jasper, coolly, following the bob of his head. "Yes,
+Mrs. Vanderburgh, I know; and she is at our hotel."
+
+"The dickens! And you're alive!" Tom raised his head and regarded him
+as a curiosity.
+
+"Very much so," answered Jasper, smothering a laugh; "well, we mustn't
+talk any more."
+
+Polly was sitting straight, her hands folded in her lap, with no
+thought for audience, or anything but what she was to see and hear on
+that wonderful stage. Old Mr. King leaned past Parson Henderson, and
+gazed with the greatest satisfaction at her absorbed face.
+
+"I pity anybody," he said to himself, "who hasn't some little Peppers
+to take about; I only wish I had the boys, too. But fancy Joel
+listening to 'Parsifal'!"
+
+This idea completely overcame him, and he settled back into his seat
+with a grim smile.
+
+Polly never knew that Mamsie, with a happy look in her black eyes, was
+regarding her intently, too, nor that many a glance was given to the
+young girl whose colour came and went in her cheek, nor that Jasper
+sometimes spoke a low word or two. She was lost in the entrancing world
+of mystery and legend borne upward by the grand music, and she scarcely
+moved.
+
+"Well, Polly." Old Mr. King was smiling at her and holding out his
+hand. The curtains had closed for the intermission, and all the people
+were getting out of their chairs. Polly sat still and drew a long
+breath. "Oh, Grandpapa, must we go?"
+
+"Yes, indeed, I hope so," answered Mr. King, with a little laugh. "We
+shall have none too much time for our supper, Polly, as it is."
+
+Polly got out of her seat, very much wishing that supper was not one of
+the needful things of life.
+
+"It almost seems wicked to think of eating, Jasper," she said, as they
+picked up their hats and capes, where he had tucked them under the
+seats.
+
+"It would be more wicked not to eat," said Jasper, with a little laugh,
+"and I think you'll find some supper tastes good, when we get fairly at
+it, Polly."
+
+"I suppose so," said Polly, feeling dreadfully stiff in her feet, and
+beginning to wish she could have a good run.
+
+"And what we should do with you if we didn't stop for supper," observed
+Jasper, snapping the case to the opera-glasses, "I'm sure I don't know,
+Polly. I spoke to you three times, and you didn't hear me once."
+
+"Oh, Jasper!" exclaimed Polly, in horror, pausing as she was pinning on
+her big, flowered hat, with the roses all around the brim; "O dear me,
+there it goes!" as the hat spun over into the next row.
+
+"I'll get it," cried Tom Selwyn, vaulting over the tops of the seats
+before Jasper had a chance to try for it.
+
+Just then Mrs. Vanderburgh, who hadn't heard any more of the opera than
+could fit itself into her lively plans for the campaign she laid out to
+accomplish in siege of Tom Selwyn, pushed and elbowed herself along.
+"Of course the earl isn't here--and the boy is alone, and dreadfully
+taken with Jasper King, so I can manage him. And once getting him, I'll
+soon have the earl to recognise me as a relation." Then, oh! visions of
+the golden dream of bliss when she could visit such titled kin in Old
+England, and report it all when at home in New York, filled her head.
+And with her mind eaten up with it, she pushed rudely by a plain,
+somewhat dowdy-looking woman who obstructed her way.
+
+The woman raised a quiet, yet protesting face; but Mrs. Vanderburgh,
+related to an earl, surveyed her haughtily, and pressed on.
+
+"Excuse me," said the plain-looking woman, "but it is impossible for me
+to move; the people are coming out this way, Madam, and--"
+
+"And I must get by," answered Mrs. Vanderburgh, interrupting, and
+wriggling past as well as she could. But the lace on her flowing sleeve
+catching on the umbrella handle of a stout German coming the other way,
+she tore it half across. A dark flush of anger rushed over her face,
+and she vented all her spite on the plain-looking person in her path.
+"If you had moved, this wouldn't have happened!" she exclaimed.
+
+"It was impossible for me to do so," replied the woman, just as quietly
+as ever. Just then Tom Selwyn rushed up: "Mother!" to the plain-looking
+woman; "well, we _did_ get separated! Oh!" and seeing her companion he
+plunged back.
+
+Fanny Vanderburgh, well in the rear, a party of young German girls
+impeding the way, felt her mother's grasp, and looked around.
+
+"Oh, you've torn your lace sleeve!" she exclaimed, supposing the black
+looks referred to that accident.
+
+"Torn my sleeve!" echoed her mother, irately, "that's a trifle," while
+Fanny stared in surprise, knowing, by past experience, that much lesser
+accidents had made black days for her; "I'm the unluckiest person
+alive. And think of all the money your father has given me to spend,
+and it won't do any good. Fanny, I'm going straight back to Paris, as
+quickly as possible."
+
+"Why, I'm having a good time now," said Fanny, just beginning to enjoy
+herself. "Polly Pepper is real nice to me. I don't want to go home a
+bit." All this as they slowly filed out in the throng.
+
+"Well, you're going; and, oh, those Peppers and those Kings, I'm sick
+to death of their names," muttered her mother, frowning on her.
+
+"Why can't we wait for Polly?" asked Fanny, not catching the last
+words, and pausing to look back.
+
+"Because you can't, that's why. And never say a word about that Polly
+Pepper or any of the rest of that crowd," commanded her mother, trying
+to hurry on.
+
+"Polly Pepper is the sweetest girl--the very dearest," declared Fanny,
+in a passion, over her mother's shoulder, "and you know it, Mamma."
+
+"Well, I won't have you going with her, anyway, nor with any of them,"
+answered her mother, shortly.
+
+"Because you can't," echoed Fanny, in her turn, and with a malicious
+little laugh. "Don't I know? it's the same old story--those you chase
+after, run away from you. You've been chasing, Mamma; you needn't tell
+me."
+
+"Oh, Jasper," Polly was saying, "did you really speak to me?"
+
+"Three times," said Jasper, with a laugh, "but you couldn't answer, for
+you didn't hear me."
+
+"No," said Polly, "I didn't, Jasper."
+
+"And I shouldn't have spoken, for it isn't, of course, allowed. But I
+couldn't help it, Polly, it was so splendid," and his eyes kindled.
+"And you didn't seem to breathe or to move."
+
+"I don't feel as if I had done much of either," said Polly, laughing.
+"Isn't it good to take a long stretch? And oh, don't you wish we could
+run, Jasper?"
+
+He burst into another gay little laugh, as he picked up the rest of the
+things. "I thought so, Polly, and you'll want some supper yet. Well,
+here is Tom coming back again."
+
+"Indeed I shall, and a big one, Jasper," said Polly, laughing, "for I
+am dreadfully hungry."
+
+"Come to supper with us," Jasper said socially over the backs of
+several people, in response to Tom Selwyn's furious telegraphing.
+
+"Can't," said Tom, bobbing his head; "must stay with my mother. Thought
+you never would turn around." Jasper looked his surprise, and
+involuntarily glanced by Tom. "Yes, my mother's here; we've got
+separated, she's gone ahead," said Tom, jerking his head toward the
+nearest exit. "She says we'll go and see you. Where?"
+
+"Hotel Sonne," said Jasper.
+
+Tom disappeared--rushed off to his mother to jerk himself away to a
+convenient waiting-place till the disagreeable woman on the steamer had
+melted into space. Then he flew back, and in incoherent sentences made
+Mrs. Selwyn comprehend who she was, and the whole situation.
+
+The earl's daughter was a true British matron, and preserved a quiet,
+immovable countenance; only a grim smile passed over it now and then.
+At last she remarked coolly, as if commenting on the weather, "I don't
+believe she will trouble you, my son." Never a word about the lace
+episode or the crowding process.
+
+Tom sniffed uneasily. "You haven't crossed on a steamer with her,
+mother."
+
+"Never you mind." Mrs. Selwyn gave him a pat on the back. "Tom, let us
+talk about those nice people," as they filed slowly out with the crowd.
+
+Not a word did Tom lisp about the invitation to supper, but tucked his
+mother's arm loyally within his own. "Sorry I forgot to engage a
+table!" he exclaimed, as they entered the restaurant.
+
+"Why, there is Tom!" exclaimed Jasper, craning his neck as his party
+were about to sit down. "Father, Tom Selwyn is here with his mother,
+and they can't find places, I almost know, and we might have two more
+chairs easily at our table," he hurried it all out.
+
+"What is all this about?" demanded old Mr. King; "whom are you talking
+about, pray tell, Jasper?"
+
+So Jasper ran around to his father's chair and explained. The end of it
+all was, that he soon hurried off, being introduced to Tom's mother, to
+whom he presented his father's compliments, and would she do him the
+favour to join their party? And in ten minutes, every one felt well
+acquainted with the English matron, and entirely forgot that she was an
+earl's daughter. And Tom acquitted himself well, and got on famously
+with old Mr. King.
+
+But he didn't dare talk to Polly, but edged away whenever there was the
+least chance of matters falling out so that he would have to.
+
+And then it came out that the Selwyns thought of going to Munich and
+down to Lucerne.
+
+"And the Bernese Alps," put in Jasper, across the table. "How is that,
+Tom, for an outing? Can't you do it?" For it transpired that Mrs.
+Selwyn had left the other children, two girls and two smaller boys,
+with their grandfather, on the English estate. They all called this
+place home since the father was in a business in Australia that
+required many long visits, and Tom's mother had decided that he should
+have a bit of a vacation with her, so they had packed up and off,
+taking in the Wagner festival first, and here they were. "Yes," after
+she considered a bit, "we can do that. Join the party and then over to
+Lucerne, and perhaps take in the Bernese Alps."
+
+Only supposing that Polly's letter hadn't gone to the little old earl,
+Jasper kept saying over and over to himself. Just for one minute,
+suppose it!
+
+And in the midst of it all, the horn sounded; the intermission was
+over, chairs were pushed back hastily, and all flocked off. No one must
+be late, and there must be no noisy or bustling entrances into the
+opera house.
+
+And if Polly Pepper sat entranced through the rest of the matchless
+performance, Tom Selwyn--three seats back and off to the left--was just
+as quietly happy. But he wasn't thinking so much of "Parsifal" as might
+have been possible. "It's no end fine of the little mother to say
+'yes,'" he kept running over and over to himself, with a satisfied
+glance at the quiet face under the plain, English bonnet.
+
+"It's funny we don't see Fanny Vanderburgh anywhere," said Polly, as
+they went through the corridor and up the hotel stairs that night.
+
+"She and her mother probably came home earlier," said Mrs. Fisher; "you
+know we were delayed, waiting for our carriages. You will see her in
+the morning, Polly."
+
+But in the morning, it was ten o'clock before Mr. King's party gathered
+for breakfast, for Grandpapa always counselled sleeping late when out
+the night before. And when Polly did slip into her chair, there was a
+little note lying on her plate.
+
+"Fanny Vanderburgh has gone," she said, and turned quite pale.
+
+It was too true. Mrs. Vanderburgh had sold her two tickets to the
+"Flying Dutchman," to be presented that evening, and departed from
+Bayreuth.
+
+"It's no use, Polly," Fanny's note ran, "trying to make me have a good
+time. Mamma says we are to go back to Paris; and go we must. You've
+been lovely, and I thank you ever so much, and good-by."
+
+Mother Fisher found Polly, a half-hour later, curled up in a corner of
+the old sofa in her room, her face pressed into the cushion.
+
+"Why, Polly," exclaimed her mother, seeing the shaking shoulders, and,
+bending over her, she smoothed the brown hair gently, "this isn't
+right, child--"
+
+Polly sprang up suddenly and threw her arms around her mother's neck.
+Her face was wet with tears, and she sobbed out, "Oh, if I'd done more
+for her, Mamsie, or been pleasant to Mrs. Vanderburgh, she might have
+stayed."
+
+"You haven't any call to worry, Polly, child," said Mother Fisher,
+firmly. "You did all that could be done--and remember one thing, it's
+very wrong to trouble others as you certainly will if you give way to
+your feelings in this manner."
+
+"Mamsie," exclaimed Polly, suddenly wiping away the trail of tears from
+her cheek, "I won't cry a single bit more. You can trust me, Mamsie, I
+truly won't."
+
+"Trust you," said Mother Fisher, with a proud look in her black eyes,
+"I can trust you ever and always, Polly; and now run to Mr. King and
+let him see a bright face, for he's worrying about you, Polly."
+
+
+
+
+XIX
+
+MR. KING HAS A LITTLE PLAN FOR POLLY
+
+
+"Oh Jasper," exclaimed Polly, clasping her hands, "do you suppose we'll
+ever get to a piano where it's all alone, and nobody wants to play on
+it--"
+
+"But just you and I," finished Jasper. "I declare I don't know. You see
+we don't stay still long enough in any one place to hire a decent one;
+and besides, father said, when we started, that it was better for us to
+rest and travel about without any practising this summer. You know he
+did, Polly."
+
+"I know it," said Polly; "but oh, if we could just play once in a
+while," she added mournfully.
+
+"Well, we can't," said Jasper, savagely; "you know we tried that at
+Brussels, when we thought everybody had gone off. And those half a
+dozen idiots came and stared at us through the glass door."
+
+"And then they came in," added Polly, with a little shiver at the
+recollection. "But that big fat man with the black beard was the worst,
+Jasper." She glanced around as if she expected to see him coming down
+the long parlour.
+
+"Well, he didn't hear much; there didn't any of them," said Jasper;
+"that's some small satisfaction, because you hopped off the piano stool
+and ran away."
+
+"You ran just as fast, I'm sure, Jasper," said Polly, with a little
+laugh.
+
+"Well, perhaps I did," confessed Jasper, bursting into a laugh. "Who
+wouldn't run with a lot of staring idiots flying at one?" he brought up
+in disgust.
+
+"And we forgot the music," went on Polly, deep in the reminiscence,
+"and we wouldn't go back--don't you remember?--until the big fat man
+with the dreadful black beard had gone, for he'd picked it up and been
+looking at it."
+
+"Yes, I remember all about it," said Jasper; "dear me, what a time we
+had! It's enough to make one wish that the summer was all over, and
+that we were fairly settled in Dresden," he added gloomily, as he saw
+her face.
+
+"Oh, no," exclaimed Polly, quickly, and quite shocked to see the
+mischief that she had done.
+
+"We wouldn't have the beautiful summer go a bit faster, Jasper. Why,
+that would be too dreadful to think of."
+
+"But you want to get at your music, Polly."
+
+"I'll fly at it when the time comes," cried Polly, with a wise little
+nod, "never you fear, Jasper. Now come on; let's get Phronsie and go
+out and see the shops."
+
+Old Mr. King in a nook behind the curtain, dropped the newspaper in his
+lap and thought a bit. "Best to wait till we get to Lucerne," he said
+to himself, nodding his white head; "then, says I, Polly, my child, you
+shall have your piano."
+
+And when their party were settling down in the hotel at Lucerne, ending
+the beautiful days of travel after leaving Munich, Jasper's father
+called him abruptly. "See here, my boy."
+
+"What is it, father?" asked Jasper, wonderingly; "the luggage is all
+right; it's gone up to the rooms--all except the portmanteau, and
+Francis will go down to the station and straighten that out."
+
+"I'm not in the least troubled in regard to the luggage, Jasper,"
+replied his father, testily; "it's something much more important than
+the luggage question about which I wish to speak to you."
+
+Jasper stared, well knowing his father's views in regard to the luggage
+question. "The first thing that you must unpack--the very first," old
+Mr. King was saying, "is your music. Don't wait a minute, Jasper, but
+go and get it. And then call Polly, and--"
+
+"Why, father," exclaimed Jasper, "there isn't a single place to play
+in. You don't know how people stare if we touch the piano. We can't
+here, father; there's such a crowd in this hotel."
+
+"You do just as I say, Jasper," commanded his father. "And tell Polly
+to get her music; and then do you two go to the little room out of the
+big parlour, and play to your hearts' content." And he burst into a
+hearty laugh at Jasper's face, as he dangled a key at the end of a
+string, before him.
+
+"Now I do believe, father, that you've got Polly a piano and a little
+room to play in," cried Jasper, joyfully, and pouncing on the key.
+
+"You go along and do as I tell you," said Mr. King, mightily pleased at
+the success of his little plan. "And don't you tell Polly Pepper one
+word until she has taken her music down in the little room," as Jasper
+bounded off on the wings of the wind.
+
+And in that very hotel was the big fat man with the dreadful black
+beard, resting after a long season of hard work.
+
+But Polly and Jasper wouldn't have cared had they known it, as long as
+they had their own delightful little music room to themselves--as they
+played over and over all the dear old pieces, and Polly revelled in
+everything that she was so afraid she had forgotten.
+
+"I really haven't lost it, Jasper!" she would exclaim radiantly, after
+finishing a concerto, and dropping her hands idly on the keys. "And I
+was _so_ afraid I'd forgotten it entirely. Just think, I haven't played
+that for three months, Jasper King."
+
+"Well, you haven't forgotten a bit of it," declared Jasper, just as
+glad as she was. "You didn't make any mistakes, hardly, Polly."
+
+"Oh, yes, I made some," said Polly, honestly, whirling around on the
+piano stool to look at him.
+
+"Oh, well, only little bits of ones," said Jasper; "those don't
+signify. I wish father could have heard that concerto. What a pity he
+went out just before you began it."
+
+But somebody else, on the other side of the partition between the
+little music room and the big parlour, had heard, and he pulled his
+black beard thoughtfully with his long fingers, then pricked up his
+ears to hear more. And it was funny how, almost every day, whenever the
+first notes on the piano struck up in Mr. King's little music room, the
+big fat man, who was so tired with his season of hard work, never
+seemed to think that he could rest as well as in that particular corner
+up against that partition. And no matter what book or paper he had in
+his hand, he always dropped it and fell to pulling his black beard with
+his long fingers, before the music was finished.
+
+And then, "Oh, Polly, come child, you have played long enough," from
+Mother Fisher on the other side of the partition; or old Mr. King would
+say, "No more practising to-day, Miss Polly;" or Phronsie would pipe
+out, "Polly, Grandpapa is going to take us out on the lake; do come,
+Polly." And then it was funnier yet to see how suddenly the big fat man
+with the dreadful black beard seemed to find that particular corner by
+that partition a very tiresome place. And as the piano clicked down its
+cover, he would yawn, and get up and say something in very rapid German
+to himself, and off he would go, forgetting all about his book or
+newspaper, which, very likely, would tumble to the floor, and flap away
+by itself till somebody came and picked it up and set it on the sofa.
+
+One morning old Mr. King, hurrying along with his batch of English mail
+to enjoy opening it in the little music room where Jasper and Polly
+were playing a duet, ran up suddenly against a fat heavy body coming
+around an opposite angle.
+
+"Oh, I beg your pardon, sir," exclaimed Mr. King in great distress, the
+more so as he saw that the stranger's glasses were knocked off his nose
+by the collision. "I do trust they are not broken," he added, in a
+concerned tone, endeavouring to pick them up.
+
+But the big man was before him. "Not a beet, not a beet," he declared,
+adjusting them on his nose again. Then he suddenly grasped old Mr.
+King's hand. "And I be very glad, sir, _very_ glad indeed, dat I haf
+roon into you."
+
+"Indeed!" exclaimed Mr. King, releasing his hand instantly, and all the
+concern dropping out of his face.
+
+"_Very_ glad indeed!" repeated the big man, heartily; then he pulled
+his black beard, and stood quite still a moment.
+
+"If you have nothing more to remark, sir," said Mr. King, haughtily,
+"perhaps you will be kind enough to stand out of my way, and allow me
+to pass. And it would be as well for you to observe more care in the
+future, sir, both in regard to your feet, and your tongue, sir."
+
+"Yes, I am _very_ glad," began the big man again, who hadn't even heard
+Mr. King's tirade, "for now--" and he gave his black beard a final
+twitch, and his eyes suddenly lightened with a smile that ran all over
+his face, "I can speak to you of dis ting dat is in my mind. Your--"
+
+"I want to hear nothing of what is on your mind," declared old Mr.
+King, now thoroughly angry. "Stand aside, fellow, and let me pass," he
+commanded, in a towering passion.
+
+The big man stared in astonishment into the angry face, the smile
+dropping out of his own. "I beg to _ex_cuse myself," he said, with a
+deep bow, and a wave of his long fingers. "Will you pass?" and he moved
+up as tightly as possible to the wall.
+
+Old Mr. King went into the little music room in a furious rage, and
+half an hour afterward Polly and Jasper, pausing to look around, saw
+him tossing and tumbling his letters and newspapers about on the table,
+fuming to himself all the while.
+
+"Father has had bad news!" exclaimed Jasper, turning pale; "something
+about his agents, probably."
+
+"O dear me! and here we have been playing," cried Polly in remorse,
+every vestige of colour flying from her cheek.
+
+"Well, we didn't know," said Jasper, quickly. "But what can we do now,
+Polly?" he turned to her appealingly.
+
+"I don't know," she was just going to say helplessly, but Jasper's face
+made her see that something must be done. "Let's go and tell him we are
+sorry," she said; "that's what Mamsie always liked best if she felt
+badly."
+
+So the two crept up behind old Mr. King's chair: "Father, I'm _so_
+sorry," and "Dear Grandpapa, I'm _so_ sorry," and Polly put both arms
+around his neck suddenly.
+
+"Eh--what?" cried Mr. King, sitting bolt upright in astonishment. "Oh,
+bless me, children, I thought you were playing on the piano."
+
+"We were," said Polly, hurrying around to the side of the table, her
+face quite rosy now, "but we didn't know--" and she stopped short,
+unable to find another word.
+
+"--that you felt badly," finished Jasper. "Oh, father, we didn't know
+that you'd got bad news." He laid his hand as he spoke on the pile of
+tumbled-up letters.
+
+"Bad news!" ejaculated old Mr. King, in perplexity, and looking from
+one to the other.
+
+"No, we didn't," repeated Polly, clasping her hands. "Dear Grandpapa,
+we truly didn't, or we wouldn't have kept on playing all this time."
+
+Mr. King put back his head and laughed long and loud, as he hadn't done
+for many a day, his ill humour dropping off in the midst of it. "The
+letters are all right," he said, wiping his eyes, "never had better
+news. It was an impertinent fellow I met out there, that's all."
+
+"Father, who has dared--" began Jasper, with flashing eyes.
+
+"Don't you worry, my boy; it's all right, the fellow got his quietus;
+besides, he wasn't worth minding," said Mr. King, carelessly. "Why,
+here is your mother," turning to Polly. "Now then, Mrs. Fisher, what is
+it; for I see by your eye some plan is on the carpet."
+
+"Yes, there is," said Mrs. Fisher, coming in with a smile, "the doctor
+is going to take a day off."
+
+"Is that really so?" cried Mr. King, with a little laugh. "What! not
+even going to visit one of his beloved hospitals?" while Polly
+exclaimed, radiantly, "Oh, how perfectly elegant! Now we'll have
+Papa-Doctor for a whole long day!"
+
+Phronsie, who had been close to her mother's gown during the delivery
+of this important news, clasped her hands in a quiet rapture, while
+Polly exclaimed, "Now, Grandpapa, can it be the Rigi?" Jasper echoing
+the cry heartily.
+
+"I suppose it is to be the Rigi," assented old Mr. King, leaning back
+in his chair to survey them all, "that is, if Mrs. Fisher approves.
+We'll let you pick out the jaunting place," turning to her, "seeing
+that it is the doctor's holiday."
+
+"I know that Dr. Fisher wants very much to go up the Rigi," said his
+wife, in great satisfaction at the turn the plans were taking.
+
+"And we'll stay over night, father," cried Jasper, "won't we?"
+
+"Stay over night?" repeated his father, "I should say so. Why, what
+would be the good of our going up at all, pray tell, if we didn't
+devote that much time to it and have a try for a sunrise?"
+
+"We're to go up the Rigi!" exclaimed Polly, giving a little whirl, and
+beginning to dance around the room, repeating, "We're to go up the
+Rigi," exactly as if nobody knew it, and she was telling perfectly
+fresh news.
+
+"Here--that dance looks awfully good--wait for me," cried Jasper. And
+seizing her hands, they spun round and round, Phronsie scuttling after
+them, crying, "Take me, too. I want to dance, Polly."
+
+"So you shall," cried Polly and Jasper together; so they made a little
+ring of three, and away they went, Polly this time crying, "Just think,
+we're going to have the most beautiful sunrise in all this world."
+
+And on the other side of the partition, in his accustomed nook in the
+big parlour, the big fat man with the black beard sat. He pulled this
+same black beard thoughtfully a bit, when Mr. King was telling about
+the impertinent fellow. Then he smiled and jabbered away to himself
+very hard in German; and it wasn't till the King party hurried off to
+get ready for the Rigi trip, that he got up and sauntered off.
+
+And almost the first person that old Mr. King saw on getting his party
+into a car on the funicular railway, was the "impertinent fellow," also
+bound for the top of the Rigi.
+
+"Oh, Grandpapa!" Polly got out of her seat and hurried to him with
+cheeks aflame, when midway up.
+
+"I know--isn't it wonderful!" cried Grandpapa, happy in her pleasure,
+and finding it all just as marvellous as if he hadn't made the ascent
+several times.
+
+"Yes, yes!" cried Polly. "It is all perfectly splendid, Grandpapa; but
+oh, I mean, _did_ you hear what that lady said?" and she dropped her
+voice, and put her mouth close to Grandpapa's ear.
+
+"I'm sure I didn't," said old Mr. King, carelessly, "and I'm free to
+confess I'm honestly glad of it. For if there is one thing I detest
+more than another, Polly, my girl, it is to hear people, especially
+women, rave and gush over the scenery."
+
+"Oh, she didn't rave and gush," cried Polly, in a whisper, afraid that
+the lady heard. "She said, Grandpapa, that Herr Bauricke is at Lucerne;
+just think, Grandpapa, the great Herr Bauricke!"
+
+She took her mouth away from the old gentleman's ear in order to look
+in his face.
+
+"Polly, Polly," called Jasper from his seat on the farther end, "you
+are losing all this," as the train rounded a curve. "Do come back."
+
+"Now, I'm glad of that," exclaimed Grandpapa, in a tone of the greatest
+satisfaction, "for I can ask him about the music masters in Dresden and
+get his advice, and be all prepared before we go there for the winter
+to secure the very best."
+
+"And I can see him, and perhaps hear him play," breathed Polly, in an
+awestruck tone, quite lost to scenery and everything else. Jasper
+leaned forward and stared at her in amazement. Then he slipped out of
+his seat, and made his way up to them to find out what it was all about.
+
+"How did she know?" he asked, as Polly told all she knew; "I'm just
+going to ask her." But the lady, who had caught snatches of the
+conversation, though she hadn't heard Mr. King's part of it, very
+obligingly leaned forward in her seat and told all she knew.
+
+And by the time this was done, they all knew that the information was
+in the American paper printed in Paris, and circulated all over the
+Continent, and that the lady had read it that very morning just before
+setting out.
+
+"The only time I missed reading that paper," observed old Mr. King,
+regretfully.
+
+"And he is staying at our very hotel," finished the lady, "for I have
+seen you, sir, with your party there."
+
+"Another stroke of good luck," thought old Mr. King, "and quite easy to
+obtain the information I want as to a master for Polly and Jasper."
+
+"Now then, children," he said to the two hanging on the conversation,
+"run back to your seats and enjoy the view. This news of ours will
+keep."
+
+So Polly and Jasper ran back obediently, but every step of the toilsome
+ascent by which the car pushed its way to the wonderful heights above,
+Polly saw everything with the words, "Herr Bauricke is at _our_ hotel,"
+ringing through her ears; and she sat as in a maze. Jasper was nearly
+as bad.
+
+And then everybody was pouring out of the cars and rushing for the
+hotel on the summit; all but Mr. King's party and a few others, who had
+their rooms engaged by telegraphing up. When they reached the big
+central hall there was a knot of Germans all talking together, and on
+the outside fringe of this knot, people were standing around and
+staring at the central figure. Suddenly some one darted away from this
+outer circle and dashed up to them. It was the lady from their hotel.
+
+"I knew you'd want to know," she exclaimed breathlessly; "that's Herr
+Bauricke himself--he came up on our train--just think of it!--the big
+man in the middle with the black beard." She pointed an excited finger
+at the knot of Germans.
+
+Old Mr. King followed the course of the finger, and saw his
+"impertinent fellow who wasn't worth minding."
+
+
+
+
+XX
+
+"I SHOULD MAKE HIM HAPPY," SAID PHRONSIE
+
+
+Polly got Jasper away into a side corridor by a beseeching little pull
+on his sleeve. "Oh, just to think," she mourned, "I called that great
+man such unpleasant things--that he was big and fat, and--oh, oh!"
+
+"Well, he _is_ big and fat," declared Jasper. "We can't say he isn't,
+Polly."
+
+"But I meant it all against him," said Polly, shaking her head. "You
+know I did, Jasper," she added remorsefully.
+
+"Yes, we neither of us liked him," said Jasper, "and that's the honest
+truth, Polly."
+
+"And to think it was that _great_ Herr Bauricke!" exclaimed Polly. Then
+her feelings overcame her, and she sank down on the cushioned seat in
+the angle.
+
+Jasper sat down beside her. "I suppose it won't do to say anything
+about people after this until we know them. Will it, Polly?"
+
+"Jasper," declared Polly, clasping her hands, while the rosy colour
+flew over her cheek, "I'm never going to say a single--"
+
+Just then the big form of Herr Bauricke loomed up before them, as he
+turned into the corridor.
+
+Polly shrank up in her corner as small as she could, wishing she was as
+little as Phronsie, and could hop up and run away.
+
+Herr Bauricke turned his sharp eyes on them for a moment, hesitated,
+then came directly up, and stopped in front of them. "I meant--I
+_in_tended to speak to your grandfader first. Dat not seem best _now_."
+The great man was really talking to them, and Polly held her breath,
+not daring to look into his face, but keeping her gaze on his wonderful
+fingers. "My child," those wonderful fingers seized her own, and
+clasped them tightly, "you have great promise, mind you, you know only
+a leedle now, and you must work--_work--work_." He brought it out so
+sharply, that the last word was fairly shrill. "But I tink you will,"
+he added kindly, dropping his tone. Then he laid her fingers gently in
+her lap.
+
+"Oh, she does, sir," exclaimed Jasper, finding his tongue first, for
+Polly was beyond speaking. "Polly works all the time she can."
+
+"Dat is right." Herr Bauricke bobbed his head in approval, so that his
+spectacles almost fell off. "I hear dat, in de music she play. No
+leedle girl play like dat, who doesn't work. I will hear you sometime
+at de hotel," he added abruptly, "and tell you some tings dat will help
+you. To-morrow, maybe, when we go down from dis place, eh?"
+
+"Oh, sir," exclaimed Polly, springing off from her cushion before
+Jasper could stop her. "You are _so_ good--but--but--I cannot," then
+her breath gave out, and she stood quite still.
+
+"Eh?" exclaimed Herr Bauricke, and pushing up his spectacles to stare
+into her flushed and troubled face. "Perhaps I not make my meaning
+clear; I mean I _geef_ you of my time and my best _ad_vice. Now you
+understand--eh?" He included Jasper in his puzzled glance.
+
+"Yes, sir," Jasper made haste to say. "We do understand; and it is so
+very good of you, and Polly will accept it, sir." "For father will make
+it all right with him as to the payment," he reflected easily.
+
+"Ah, now," exclaimed Herr Bauricke, joyfully, a light beaming all over
+his fat face, "dat is someting like--to-morrow, den, we--"
+
+"But, oh, sir," Polly interrupted, "I cannot," and she twisted her
+hands in distress. "I--I--didn't like you, and I said so." Then she
+turned very pale, and her head drooped.
+
+Jasper leaned over, and took her hand. "Neither did I, sir," he said.
+"I was just as bad as Polly."
+
+"You not tink me nice looking--so?" said Herr Bauricke. "Well, I not
+tink so myself, eeder. And I scare you maybe, wid dis," and he twisted
+his black beard with his long fingers. "Ah, so; well, we will forget
+all dis, leedle girl," and he bent down and took Polly's other fingers
+that hung by her side. "And eef you not let me come to-morrow to your
+leedle music room, and tell you sometings to help you learn better, I
+shall know dat you no like me _now_--eh?"
+
+"Oh, sir," Polly lifted her face, flooded with rosy colour up to her
+brown hair, "if you only will forgive me?"
+
+"I no forgeef; I not remember at all," said Herr Bauricke, waving his
+long fingers in the air. "And I go to-morrow to help you, leedle girl,"
+and he strode down the corridor.
+
+Polly and Jasper rushed off, they scarcely knew how, to Grandpapa, to
+tell him the wonderful news,--to find him in a truly dreadful state of
+mind. When they had told their story, he was as much worse as could
+well be imagined.
+
+"Impossible, impossible!" was all he could say, but he brought his hand
+down on the table before him with so much force that Jasper felt a
+strange sinking of heart. What could be the matter?
+
+"Why, children, and you all" (for his whole party was before him),
+exclaimed Mr. King, "Herr Bauricke is that impertinent person who
+annoyed me this morning, and I called him 'fellow' to his face!"
+
+It was so very much worse than Jasper had dreamed, that he collapsed
+into the first chair, all Polly's prospects melting off like dew before
+the sun.
+
+"Hum!" Little Dr. Fisher was the first to speak. He took off his big
+spectacles and wiped them; then put them on his nose and adjusted them
+carefully, and glared around the group, his gaze resting on old Mr.
+King's face.
+
+Polly, who had never seen Jasper give way like this, forgot her own
+distress, and rushed up to him. "Oh, don't, Jasper," she begged.
+
+"You see I can't allow Herr Bauricke to give any lessons or advice to
+Polly after this," went on Mr. King, hastily. "Of course he would be
+paid; but, under the circumstances, it wouldn't do, not in the least.
+It is quite out of the question," he went on, as if some one had been
+contradicting him. But no one said a word.
+
+"Why don't some of you speak?" he asked, breaking the pause. "Dr.
+Fisher, you don't generally keep us waiting for your opinion. Speak out
+now, man, and let us have it."
+
+"It is an awkward affair, surely," began the little doctor, slowly.
+
+"Awkward? I should say so," frowned Mr. King; "it's awkward to the last
+degree. Here's a man who bumps into me in a hotel passage,--though, for
+that matter, I suppose it's really my fault as much as his,--and I
+offer to pick up his spectacles that were dropped in the encounter. And
+he tells me that he is glad that we ran up against each other, for it
+gives him a chance to tell me what is on his mind. As if I cared what
+was on his mind, or on the mind of any one else, for that matter," he
+declared, in extreme irritation. "And I told him to his face that he
+was an impertinent fellow, and to get out of my way. Yes, I did!"
+
+A light began to break on little Dr. Fisher's face, that presently
+shone through his big spectacles, fairly beaming on them all. Then he
+burst into a laugh, hearty and long.
+
+"Why, Adoniram!" exclaimed Mother Fisher, in surprise. Polly turned a
+distressed face at him; and to say that old Mr. King stared would be
+stating the case very mildly indeed.
+
+"Can't you see, oh, can't you see," exploded the little doctor, mopping
+up his face with his big handkerchief, "that your big German was trying
+to tell you of Polly's playing, and to say something, probably pretty
+much the same that he has said to her and to Jasper? O dear me, I
+should like to have been there to see you both," ended Dr. Fisher,
+faintly. Then he went off into another laugh.
+
+"I don't see much cause for amusement," said old Mr. King, grimly, when
+this idea broke into his mind, "for it's a certain fact that I called
+him a fellow, and told him to get out of the way."
+
+"Well, he doesn't bear you any malice, apparently," said the little
+doctor, who, having been requested to speak, saw no reason for
+withholding any opinion he might chance to have, "for, if he did, he
+wouldn't have made that handsome offer to Polly."
+
+"That may be; the offer is handsome enough," answered Mr. King, "that
+is the trouble, it's too handsome. I cannot possibly accept it under
+the awkward circumstances. No, children," he turned to Polly and
+Jasper, as if they had been beseeching him all the while, "you needn't
+ask it, or expect it," and he got out of his chair, and stalked from
+the room.
+
+Jasper buried his face in his hands, and a deep gloom settled over the
+whole party, on all but little Dr. Fisher. He pranced over to Polly and
+Jasper just as merrily as if nothing dreadful had happened. "Don't you
+be afraid, my boy," he said; "your father is a dreadfully sensible man,
+and there's no manner of doubt but that he will fix this thing up."
+
+"Oh, you don't know father," groaned Jasper, his head in his hands,
+"when he thinks the right thing hasn't been done or said. And now Polly
+will miss it all!" And his head sank lower yet.
+
+"Nonsense!" exclaimed Dr. Fisher. Yet he had a dreadful feeling coming
+over him, and he turned to Polly imploringly.
+
+"Oh, I do believe it, Jasper," cried Polly, "what Papa-Doctor says. And
+just look at Mamsie!" she cried, beneath her breath.
+
+And truly Mother Fisher was having a hard time to control herself. That
+Jasper could see as he lifted his head. And the little doctor also saw,
+and skipped back across the room to her side. And Phronsie, feeling
+plunged into the deepest woe by all this dreadful state of affairs,
+that had come too bewilderingly for her to rally to Grandpapa's side,
+first began to cry. And then, thinking better of it, went softly out of
+the door, and no one noticed her when she went--with the tears running
+down her cheeks.
+
+Down the long corridor she hurried, not knowing which way Grandpapa
+went, but turning into the little reading room, she spied him sitting
+by the table. The apartment was otherwise empty. He wasn't reading, not
+even looking at a paper, but sitting bolt upright, and lost in thought.
+
+"Grandpapa," she said, laying a soft little hand on his arm. "Oh, I'm
+so glad I found you." And she nestled up to his side.
+
+"Eh? Oh, Phronsie, child." Old Mr. King put his arm around her, and
+drew her closely to him. "So you came after your old Grand-daddy, did
+you?"
+
+"Yes, I did," said Phronsie, with a glad little cry, snuggling up
+tighter to him, while the tears trailed off down his waistcoat, but not
+before he had seen them.
+
+"Now, Phronsie, you are not to cry any more," he said, with a pang at
+the sight. "You won't, dear; promise me that."
+
+So Phronsie promised; and he held her hands, and, clearing his throat,
+he began, "Well, now I suppose they felt pretty badly, back there in
+the room, your mother and all--eh, Phronsie?"
+
+"Yes, Grandpapa," said Phronsie, her round face falling. Yet she had
+promised not to cry, and, although she had a hard time of it, every
+tear was kept back valiantly.
+
+"And Polly, now--" asked old Mr. King, cautiously, "and Jasper--how
+were they feeling?"
+
+"Grandpapa," Phronsie did not trust herself to reply, but, springing
+up, she laid her rosy little mouth close to his ear. "What does it
+all--the dreadful thing mean?" she whispered.
+
+"It means," old Mr. King whispered back, but very distinctly, "that
+your old Granddaddy is an idiot, Phronsie, and that he has been rude,
+and let his temper run away with him."
+
+"Oh, no, Grandpapa dear," contradicted Phronsie, falling back from him
+in horror. "You couldn't ever be that what you say." And she flung both
+arms around his neck and hugged him tightly.
+
+"What? An idiot? Yes, I have been an idiot of the worst kind," declared
+Mr. King, "and all the rest just as I say; rude and--why, what is the
+matter, Phronsie?" for the little arms clutched him so tightly he could
+hardly breathe.
+
+"Oh, Grandpapa," she wailed, and drawing away a bit to look at him, he
+saw her face convulsed with the effort not to cry. "Don't say such
+things. You are never naughty, Grandpapa dear; you can't be," she
+gasped.
+
+"There, there, there," ejaculated old Mr. King, frightened at the
+effect of his words and patting her yellow hair, at his wits' end what
+to say. So he broke out, "Well, now, Phronsie, you must tell me what to
+do."
+
+Thereupon Phronsie, seeing there was something she could really do to
+help Grandpapa, came out of her distress enough to sit up quite
+straight and attentive in his lap. "You see I spoke rudely to a man,
+and I called him a fellow, and he was a gentleman, Phronsie; you must
+remember that."
+
+"Yes, I will, Grandpapa," she replied obediently, while her eyes never
+wandered from his face.
+
+"And I told him to get out of the way and he did," said Mr. King,
+forcing himself to a repetition of the unpleasant truth. "O dear me,
+nothing could be worse," he groaned.
+
+"And you are sorry, Grandpapa dear?" Phronsie leaned over and laid her
+cheek softly against his.
+
+"Yes, I am, Phronsie, awfully sorry," confessed the old gentleman; "but
+what good will that do now? My temper has made a terrible mess of it
+all."
+
+"But you can tell the gentleman you are sorry," said Phronsie. "Oh,
+Grandpapa dear, do go and tell him now, this very minute." She broke
+away from him again, and sat straight on his knee, while a glad little
+smile ran all over her face.
+
+"I can't--you don't understand--O dear me!" Mr. King set her abruptly
+on the floor, and took a few turns up and down the room. Phronsie's
+eyes followed him with a grieved expression. When she saw the distress
+on his face, she ran up to him and seized his hand, but didn't speak.
+
+"You see, child,"--he grasped her fingers and held them closely,--"it's
+just this way: the gentleman wants to do me a favour; that is, to help
+Polly with her music."
+
+"Does he?" cried Phronsie, and she laughed in delight. "Oh, Grandpapa,
+how nice! And Polly will be so happy."
+
+"But I cannot possibly accept it," groaned old Mr. King; "don't you
+see, child, after treating him so? Why, how could I? The idea is too
+monstrous!" He set off now at such a brisk pace down the room that
+Phronsie had hard work to keep up with him. But he clung to her hand.
+
+"Won't that make the gentleman sorry?" panted Phronsie, trotting along
+by his side.
+
+"Eh--oh, what?" exclaimed old Mr. King, coming to a dead stop suddenly.
+"What's that you say, Phronsie?"
+
+"Won't the gentleman feel sorry?" repeated Phronsie, pushing back the
+waves of yellow hair that had fallen over her face, to look up at him.
+"And won't he feel badly then, Grandpapa?"
+
+"Eh--oh, perhaps," assented Mr. King, slowly, and passing a troubled
+hand across his brow. "Well, now, Phronsie, you come and sit in my lap
+again, and we'll talk it over, and you tell me what I ought to do."
+
+So the two got into the big chair again, and Phronsie folded her hands
+in her lap.
+
+"Now begin," said old Mr. King.
+
+"I should make the gentleman happy, Grandpapa," said Phronsie,
+decidedly.
+
+"You would--no matter what you had to do to bring it about?" asked
+Grandpapa, with a keen pair of eyes on her face. "Eh? think now,
+Phronsie."
+
+"I should make the gentleman happy," repeated Phronsie, and she bobbed
+her head decidedly. "I really should, Grandpapa."
+
+"Then the best way is to have it over with as soon as possible," said
+old Mr. King; "so come on, child, and you can see that the business is
+done up in good shape." He gathered her little fingers up in his hand,
+and setting her once more on the floor, they passed out of the
+apartment.
+
+The door of the private parlour belonging to Mr. King's rooms was flung
+wide open, and into the gloomy interior, for Mother Fisher and Jasper
+were still inconsolable, marched old Mr. King. He was arm in arm, so
+far as the two could at once compass the doorway, with Herr Bauricke;
+while Phronsie ducked and scuttled in as she could, for the big German,
+with ever so many honorary degrees to his name, held her hand fast.
+
+Old Mr. King continued his march up to Mother Fisher. "Allow me to
+introduce Herr Bauricke, Professor and Doctor of Music, of world-wide
+distinction," he said, bowing his courtly old head.
+
+And then Mother Fisher, self-controlled as she had always been,
+astonished him by turning to her husband to supply the answering word.
+
+"Glad to see you!" exclaimed the little doctor, bubbling over with
+happiness, and wringing the long fingers extended. "My wife is overcome
+with delight," which the big German understood very well; and he smiled
+his knowledge of it, as he looked into her black eyes. "She is like to
+mein Frau," he thought, having no higher praise. And then he turned
+quickly to Polly and Jasper.
+
+
+
+
+XXI
+
+ON THE RIGI-KULM
+
+
+For all that grand old Rigi's summit claimed them, it was some time
+before Mr. King's party left the little parlour. Herr Bauricke surely
+didn't want to until he had gotten it settled just what he did mean
+about Polly's music. That she showed great promise, that some faults in
+the way she had been taught were there, but it was by no means too late
+to mend them, that she had spirit and expression and love for the art.
+
+"Ah, dat is eet, after all." Herr Bauricke clasped his long fingers and
+beamed at her, and then swept the entire party. "Lofe, ah, how one must
+lofe eet! Eef not, shame, shame!" His countenance darkened frightfully,
+and he fairly glared at them, as he unclasped his hands and swung one
+over his head, while his black beard vibrated with each word.
+
+"Goodness me!" exclaimed Tom Selwyn, "it takes a musical man to sling
+around. I say, Jasper, I'd like to do a bit of boxing or cricketing
+with him." But Jasper didn't hear or see anything but Herr Bauricke and
+Polly; and, indeed, the whole room was given up to the "musical man"
+and his words.
+
+At last Polly drew a long breath; Grandpapa was taking her hand. "Let
+us all go out and explore a bit," and off they went, the entire party.
+And the "musical man," as Tom still continued to call him in private,
+proved to be as expert in the use of his feet as his fingers, for he
+led them here, there, and everywhere that promised the least chance of
+a good view.
+
+But Polly saw only the glorious future when, on the morrow, Herr
+Bauricke would really show her on the piano how best to study and to
+work! And the rosy glow of sunset wasn't one-half as bright as all her
+dreams.
+
+"Polly," said Phronsie, pulling her hand gently, as she peered up into
+her face, "are you looking at it?"
+
+"What, Pet? Oh, yes," said Polly, starting out of her revery with a
+little laugh, "you mean the sunset?"
+
+"Yes," said Phronsie, "I do mean that. Are you looking at it, Polly?
+Because if you are not looking, I wish you would, Polly."
+
+"Well, I suppose I am looking at it, Phronsie," said Polly, with
+another little laugh, "but perhaps not in just the right way, for you
+see, Phronsie, I can't seem to see anything but just the splendid thing
+that is coming to-morrow. Oh, Phronsie Pepper, just think of that."
+
+"I know," said Phronsie, with a little gurgle of delight at Polly's
+happiness, "and I am so glad, Polly."
+
+"Of course you are," declared Polly, warmly, "just as glad as can be,
+Phronsie," and she threw her arm around her. "And now I'm going to look
+at the sunset in the right way, I hope. Isn't it beautiful, child?"
+
+"Polly," declared Phronsie, suddenly wriggling away from Polly's arm,
+to stand in front of her with a beaming face, "I think it's just as
+beautiful as it can be up top here. I can see right in between that red
+cloud and that little pink teenty one. And I wish I could just go in,
+Polly."
+
+"Wouldn't it be nice?" echoed Polly, enthusiastically.
+
+"What?" asked Adela, hurrying up from a point of rocks below, where she
+had been sketching.
+
+"Oh, to go in between those clouds there and see it all," said Polly.
+
+"Dear me!" exclaimed Adela, "I shouldn't like it. I'd much rather stay
+down here, and sketch it."
+
+"We could go sailing off, oh, ever so far," said Polly, swinging her
+arms to suit the action to the words. "And you'd be stuck to your rock
+here, Adela; while, Phronsie, you and I would sit on the edge of a
+cloud, and let our feet hang over; and oh, Adela, you could sketch us
+then as we went sailing by."
+
+"How that would look!" exclaimed Adela, with such a face that Polly
+burst out into a merry laugh, and Phronsie, joining with her little
+crow of delight and clapping her hands at the idea of such fun, brought
+pretty much the whole party around them.
+
+"What's up?" cried Tom to Jasper, on the way to the girls with some
+fear, for he didn't dare even yet to talk much to Polly. As for Adela,
+he let her severely alone.
+
+"Don't know," said Jasper, "but we'll soon find out," and they did, by
+Phronsie's flying away from Polly and skipping down over the rocks to
+meet them.
+
+"Oh, Jasper, Polly's telling how we would sail on that beautiful
+cloud," announced Phronsie, her yellow hair flying from her face as she
+sped along, heedless of her steps.
+
+"Take care or you'll fall," warned Jasper. "See, your mother is looking
+worried." And, truth to tell, Mrs. Fisher, on a point of rocks a little
+way off with the others, was getting a bit alarmed as she saw the
+progress of her baby.
+
+"I'll take care," said Phronsie, sobering down at thought of Mamsie's
+being troubled, and beginning to pick her way carefully. And Jasper
+gathered up her fingers in his, thinking of the time when she toiled up
+and down the long stairway, when she first came to what was now her
+home, blessed thought! and Polly and he sat down at the foot to watch
+her.
+
+"And so Polly and you are going to try sailing on that cloud there,"
+said Jasper, squinting up at the brilliant sky.
+
+"We aren't really going, Jasper," said Phronsie, shaking her head,
+soberly, "because you see we can't. But Polly's pretending it all; and
+we're to sit on the edge and swing our feet. And Adela is going to make
+a picture of us."
+
+"Whew!" whistled Jasper. "And I say, Polly,"--for now they had
+scrambled up to the two girls,--"isn't there room for us on that cloud
+too?" While Tom kicked pebbles, and wished he knew how to talk to girls.
+
+"Perhaps," said Polly, gaily. "Oh, I suppose that those who couldn't
+get on our cloud could take the next one."
+
+"I'd rather have your cloud, Polly," said Jasper.
+
+"And Grandpapa must come too," cried Phronsie, in alarm at the very
+thought of his being left out. "I want him on our cloud, Polly."
+
+"Yes, and Mamsie and Papa-Doctor," finished Polly, ready for any
+nonsense, she was just bubbling over so with joy at thought of the
+morrow and what it would bring. "Well, it is good the cloud is big,"
+squinting up at the radiant sky.
+
+"And, Tom, you are coming on that cloud-boat."
+
+Jasper pulled him forward with a merry laugh, giving him a clap on the
+back at the same time.
+
+"Eh--oh, I can't--no, thank you," stammered Tom, thus suddenly brought
+into notice. "Excuse me," just as if the invitation had been a _bona
+fide_ one.
+
+Polly never smiled, but Adela giggled right out. Tom's face flushed,
+and he rushed off furiously, determined never to chance it again
+whereby he'd be mortified before girls--not he!
+
+All the gay time was flown, and the red and pink and purple clouds
+looked down upon a sorry, uncomfortable little group. Jasper spoke
+first. "I must go after him," and he dashed down the rocks.
+
+"O dear me, I couldn't help it," said Adela, twisting uncomfortably,
+"it was so silly in him to take it all in earnest."
+
+"He didn't really think we meant it," said Polly, her brown eyes very
+grave. Would Jasper really persuade him to forget that laugh? "But he
+is shy, and he said the first thing that came into his head."
+
+"Boys haven't any right to be shy," said Adela, fussing with her little
+sketching block and pencil, "they are so big and strong."
+
+"Why did Tom run away so fast?" asked Phronsie, only half comprehending.
+
+"Never mind, child," said Polly, with a reassuring pat on her head.
+
+"And isn't Jasper coming back?" asked Phronsie, in great distress.
+
+"Yes, oh, I guess so," said Polly. "Well, there, the pretty glow has
+all faded; see, Phronsie," pointing up to the leaden clouds that no one
+who had failed to see a few moments before could have imagined alive
+with colour. "Now we ought to run over to the others, for they'll be
+going back to the hotel."
+
+"It's all gone," said Phronsie, sadly, looking up at the darkening sky.
+"Polly, where has the pretty red and pink gone to?"
+
+"Oh, I don't know," said Polly, thinking only of Tom, and what a hard
+time Jasper must be having with him. "Take care, Phronsie, don't look
+up now--you'll fall! There, take my hand; now come on."
+
+"O dear me, I didn't mean to laugh," Adela was saying to herself as she
+fell back in the zig-zag path down the rocks. "I wish I
+hadn't--I'll--I'll--" What she meant to do wasn't very clear in her
+mind; what she did do, was to run up to her grandmother's and her room,
+and toss her sketch-book on the table, and herself on the bed, for a
+good hearty cry.
+
+Polly found her there, when they couldn't find her anywhere else, with
+much searching and running about. Little old Mrs. Gray was worrying
+dreadfully, so afraid she had been blown from the rocks; for the wind
+had now risen, and all the travellers were seeking the shelter and
+warmth of the hotel corridor and parlours.
+
+"Oh, Adela, how _could_ you?" Polly was going to say. And then she
+thought that would be the very worst thing in all the world, for
+Adela's shoulders were shaking, and it would only make her cry worse.
+And besides, Polly remembered how she had sometimes given way in just
+this fashion, and how much worse she would have been, had it not been
+for a wise, good mother. So she ran out in the hall. "I must tell her
+grandmother," she said to herself.
+
+"Have you found her?" asked Jasper, looking up from the foot of the
+staircase.
+
+"Yes," said Polly, "I have."
+
+"All right." And Jasper vanished, and Polly went slowly back, wishing
+she could be downstairs with all the dear people, instead of trying to
+comfort this dismal girl. The next moment she was kneeling down by the
+side of the bed, and trying to get hold of one of Adela's hands. But
+Adela bounced over to the farther side, and she cried out angrily,
+"It's all very well for you to say so, because you didn't do it. And
+everybody likes you. O dear me--tee--hee--boo--hoo!"
+
+"But I've often done things just as bad," confessed Polly, "and, Adela,
+I've cried like this, too. But Mamsie--oh, Adela! she made me see it
+was wrong; so I had to stop it, you know."
+
+"How is it wrong?" asked Adela, rolling over, and taking the
+handkerchief away from one eye enough to see Polly Pepper's face. "I
+can cry, I guess, if I want to, without asking anybody."
+
+"Oh, no, you can't," said Polly, decidedly. "I mean no one can."
+
+"Why not, pray tell?" said Adela, sniffing very hard. "My eyes are my
+own, and I shall cry, too, whenever I want to."
+
+"Well, I can't just tell you exactly why you can't cry when you want
+to," said Polly, afraid she wasn't going to say the right word, "but
+Mamsie could if she were here. I'll go and call her, Adela." And Polly
+sprang to her feet. "She'll come, I know."
+
+"Oh, no--no," cried Adela, in mortal alarm. "I don't want her--I mean
+I'd rather have you. You're a girl; and a woman talking at me scares
+me."
+
+"Then you mustn't cry if I stay," said Polly, stopping short, and
+seeing her advantage, "for I surely shall go, Adela," she added firmly,
+"unless you stop crying."
+
+"O dear me." Adela squirmed all over the bed. "I can't stop--I've
+always cried as much as I wanted to. O dear me--boo-hoo-hoo! I
+mean--I'll stop, don't go--" sopping up her wet face with a nervous
+hand. "See, Pol-_ly_!" for Polly had slipped out of the room. Adela
+flew off from the bed. "Polly--Polly, Pol-_ly_!" she called, in a
+piteous little tone.
+
+Polly, halfway down the stairs, looked back. "Oh, you are up," she
+said, with a smile. "Now that's fine; come." And she held out her hand.
+
+"Mercy me, and O my!" cried Adela. "I can't go looking like this; why,
+I'm a perfect sight, I know, Polly Pepper! and my nose feels all bunged
+out of shape and as big!"
+
+"Never mind," said Polly, as reassuringly, "just dash some water over
+it, and it'll be all right. I'll wait here for you."
+
+So Polly stood on her stair while Adela, bemoaning all the way that she
+didn't look fit to be seen, and that she was a perfect sight, and she
+couldn't go down among them all, stumbled back into her room. And
+pretty soon Polly heard a big splash. "O dear me--oh, what shall I do?"
+
+"What _is_ the matter?" cried Polly, deserting her stair, to run in and
+up to the washstand.
+
+"Just see what I've done," exclaimed Adela, holding out one arm. It was
+dripping wet, and the water was running off in a stream and down to
+meet a small puddle where the splash had struck on the floor.
+
+"The pitcher slipped--O dear me--ugh--" cried Adela, wriggling all over.
+
+"Stand still," said Polly, "do, Adela, till I wipe your sleeve dry."
+And she got the towel and began to sop and to pat Adela's arm.
+
+"It never'll feel dry, it's perfectly awful--ugh--Polly Pepper,"
+declared Adela, twisting away from Polly's fingers; "it's just like a
+wet snake--ugh--O dear me! and it gives me the creeps."
+
+"You'll have to put on another waist, I do think," said Polly, hanging
+up the towel, aghast to find herself growing angry at all this delay,
+and with half a mind to run and leave Adela to herself.
+
+"O dear me, and there's this water running all over the floor," cried
+Adela, stepping gingerly over the pool, and trying to pick off the wet
+sleeve from her arm at the same time.
+
+"I'll fix it," said Polly, as cheerily as she could, "while you get
+your waist on." And she sopped the water up. "There, that's done," she
+announced with satisfaction; "now do hurry, Adela."
+
+"I can't get out of this old, horrid, wet sleeve," said Adela, very red
+in the face, and pulling and twitching at it.
+
+"Take care, you'll tear it," warned Polly.
+
+"I don't care if I do," said Adela, peevishly. "O dear me, somebody's
+coming!" With that she flew into the closet and pulled to the door.
+
+"Why, Polly!" exclaimed Mother Fisher, in surprise, "what is the
+matter? We are all waiting to go in to dinner."
+
+"Oh, I'm so sorry," began Polly, feeling as if nothing would be so
+delightful as to have a good cry in Mamsie's arms and tell all the
+story.
+
+"Well, you must come right away," said Mrs. Fisher. "Why, where is
+Adela?" looking around the room.
+
+"I'm here," said Adela, from the closet.
+
+"Come out here, Adela," said Mrs. Fisher. So Adela came out, the wet
+sleeve still on her arm; but she had gotten out of the rest of the
+waist.
+
+"That's too bad," said Mrs. Fisher; and in a minute Adela's wet arm was
+free and nicely dried, and a clean waist being found, it was soon on,
+and then Mother Fisher took up the hairbrush. "We must have this all
+nice and smooth," she said. And Adela stood still, liking it all very
+much; and her hair was brushed, much as if she had been Phronsie, and
+then Mother Fisher released her with a smile. "There, now you are
+ready," she said.
+
+"She didn't scold a bit," said Adela, going after her with Polly down
+the stairs, and forgetting her red eyes and swollen nose.
+
+"Our mother never scolds," declared Polly, with her head very high,
+"never in all this world, Adela Gray."
+
+And at dinner Tom Selwyn looked across the table, and when he caught
+sight of Adela's face, and saw that some one else could feel as badly
+as he could, and he guessed the reason, he made up his mind what he was
+going to do next. And as soon as the meal was over, without giving
+himself time to think, he marched up to Adela. "Say, I didn't much mind
+because you laughed, don't you know," and held out his hand.
+
+"I've been crying ever since," said Adela, "and I didn't mean to laugh."
+
+"I know it," said Tom to the first part of her sentence, and looking at
+her nose. "Well, never mind now, so it's quits, and shake hands."
+
+"I don't know what quits is," said Adela, putting out her hand.
+
+"Oh, it's when things are evened up somehow," said Tom; "not exactly
+that, but it will do well enough by way of explaining."
+
+"And I'm never going to laugh again at anybody," said Adela, lifting
+her red eyes.
+
+"Well, come on, don't you want a game of draughts?" said Tom, awkwardly.
+
+"Draughts?" repeated Adela, very much puzzled. "I don't know it."
+
+"Why, what a whopper!" Tom was going to say, but changed it to, "Why, I
+saw you playing it last night with Polly Pepper."
+
+"Why, no, you didn't," said Adela, not very politely, "that was
+checkers."
+
+"That's the same thing," said Tom, triumphantly, "only you Americans
+call it that funny name."
+
+"Well, I think it's a great deal nicer name than draughts," said Adela;
+"that's silly."
+
+"Well, checkers; that's senseless," retorted Tom, "and, besides, you
+Americans always say 'nice' at everything." Then he looked at her red
+eyes and poor little nose, and added kindly, "Well, never mind, call it
+checkers, then, I don't care; let's have a game," and he rushed for the
+board.
+
+Mrs. Selwyn looked from her corner where she had taken a book, and
+smiled to see him playing a game with a girl. Then she nodded over to
+Jasper, and he smiled back.
+
+And Adela never once thought how she looked. And she beat Tom twice,
+and that quite set her up. And then for the next three games he routed
+her men completely off the board. And, strange to say, she kept her
+temper, and even smiled at the disaster.
+
+"That's a good game." Old Mr. King came up as the last one was going
+on. "Tom, my boy, you play a fine one."
+
+"And she fights well," said Tom, generously. "She beat me twice."
+
+"You don't say so," exclaimed Mr. King. "Well, that's doing pretty
+well, Adela, to get ahead of the English lad. But you don't stand much
+of a chance this time; Tom's got the game, sure." And so it proved in
+less time than it takes to write it.
+
+And then everybody said "good night" to everybody else; for the Alpine
+horn would sound at the earliest dawn to waken the sleepers to see the
+sunrise.
+
+"Mamsie," cried Polly, raising her head suddenly as she cuddled into
+bed, "supposing we shouldn't hear that horn--just supposing it! Oh,
+can't I stay awake? Do let me, Mamsie."
+
+"Your Grandfather has made arrangements for us all to be called," said
+Mrs. Fisher, "so we won't have to depend on the horn, and now you must
+go to sleep just as fast as ever you can. Then you'll be as bright as a
+button in the morning, Polly."
+
+"Mamsie," said Polly, "I don't think Grandpapa has kept from doing
+anything he could to make us happy, do you, Mamsie? not a single thing."
+
+"No," said Mother Fisher, "I don't, Polly."
+
+
+
+
+XXII
+
+POLLY TRIES TO HELP
+
+
+"Mamsie, what shall we do?" Polly clasped her hands in despair, and
+looked down on Phronsie, sleeping away as if she meant to take her own
+time to wake up, regardless of sunrise on the Rigi. "O dear me, and she
+went to bed so early last night on purpose."
+
+"You go right along, Polly," said Mother Fisher. "Put on your golf cape
+over your jacket, child, it's dreadfully cold out there. I shall stay
+with Phronsie, for of course we wouldn't leave her alone with Matilda,
+and all go off for a nice time."
+
+"No, of course not," cried Polly, in horror at the mere thought.
+
+"And she's in such a nice sleep and so warm, that it's a pity to wake
+her up," finished Mrs. Fisher.
+
+"O dear me," cried Polly, in distress, "I'd rather stay, Mamsie, and
+have you go."
+
+"No," said Mrs. Fisher, firmly, "I shall stay, so that is all there is
+about it, Polly. Now run along, child, and tell Matilda to hurry out
+too, for she wants to see the sunrise."
+
+Polly still lingered, until her mother looked up in surprise. "Why,
+Polly," she said, reprovingly.
+
+"O dear me!" exclaimed Polly, "I didn't mean to disobey, Mamsie, I
+really didn't; I'll go." And setting a kiss on Mother Fisher's black
+hair, she ran out on unsteady feet, and with all her comfort gone.
+
+When she joined her group it would have been rather hard to distinguish
+any of them, as everybody was wrapped up in shawls and rugs, if Jasper
+hadn't been a sort of scout in waiting for her and Mrs. Fisher and
+Phronsie. And Tom could easily be picked out, for he hung around in
+Jasper's wake, and besides, he was so very big.
+
+"Where are they?" asked Jasper, looking down the corridor back of her.
+
+"Oh, Mamsie isn't coming, nor Phronsie either, for she's asleep. And
+Mamsie made me come," finished Polly, dismally.
+
+"O dear me," said Jasper, quite gone in sympathy. Tom Selwyn poked his
+head forward to hear, but, as it was something quite beyond his powers
+to help, he thrust his hands into his pockets, and kicked aimlessly on
+the floor.
+
+"Well, come on, Polly," said Jasper, wishing he could lift the gloom
+from Polly's face, and feeling quite dismal himself.
+
+Little Dr. Fisher, muffled up in a big plaid shawl so that only his
+spectacles gleamed in between the folds and his cap, suddenly edged up
+back of Polly, and dropped the folds away from his ears so that he
+could hear what was going on. And when the group hurried out of the
+door, into the cold gray dawn, he was skipping down to his wife's room,
+in the liveliest way imaginable.
+
+Old Mr. King had gone on ahead with the parson, as he couldn't scramble
+so fast. And now he met them with, "Well, are you all here--where's
+Phronsie?"
+
+"Oh, Jasper, I can't tell him," gasped Polly, up on the tiptop bunch of
+rocks, and trying to be glad of the promise of the beautiful sunrise to
+come, for everybody agreed that it was apparently to be the best one
+that had gladdened the hearts of travellers for years. Then she whirled
+around and stared with all her might, "If there isn't Mamsie coming!"
+
+"As true as you live it is!" cried Jasper, with a good look, and
+springing down the rocks to help her up. Tom Selwyn plunged after him,
+getting there first. So in the bustle, nobody answered Mr. King. And
+he, supposing from the merry chatter that Phronsie was in the midst of
+it, concluded it best not to interrupt their fun, even if he could make
+them hear.
+
+"Your father made me come, Polly," said Mrs. Fisher, coming up between
+the two boys. "But I'd so much rather that he saw it." And her downcast
+face looked so very much like Polly, that Jasper thought matters hadn't
+bettered themselves any.
+
+"But, Mamsie," said Polly, creeping up to her with all the comfort she
+could, "it makes him happy, just as it made you happy to have me go."
+
+"I know it," said Mother Fisher, with a sigh, "but he has so few
+pleasures, Polly, and he works so hard." And her gaze wandered off to
+the distant clouds, slowly beginning to break away.
+
+Polly held her breath as they waited and looked, although her heart was
+sad when the wee little streak of light began to come over in the east.
+
+"Isn't that just beautiful!" exclaimed Jasper, trying to enjoy it as
+much as he had expected; "see, Polly, the stars seem going
+out--daylight's coming!"
+
+"I know," said Polly, "so it is." Sure enough, a little strip of gold
+touched up the leaden sky, and spread slowly.
+
+"See, it's turning pink." Mrs. Selwyn's plain, quiet face glowed. "See,
+Polly, look at that peak bathed in colour."
+
+Just then a little voice said, "Oh, isn't that beautiful!" And whirling
+around on her rock, Polly saw little Dr. Fisher staggering along with a
+big bundle in his arms, out of which was peering Phronsie's face.
+
+Mother Fisher had turned too. "Oh, Adoniram!" was all she said, as
+Polly sprang off to meet them.
+
+"Give her to me," cried Tom Selwyn, of course reaching there first,
+before either Polly or Jasper; and before Dr. Fisher quite knew how,
+Phronsie was perched on the broad shoulder, and Tom was prancing up the
+rocky path as easily as if a bird had lighted on his arm.
+
+"She woke up, luckily," said little Dr. Fisher, "and she's bundled up
+so there isn't a chance of her taking cold. Wife, this is grand!" He
+gained her side, and drew her hand under the big shawl.
+
+"You've come just in time," cried Polly, skipping around on her rock to
+the imminent danger of falling on her nose, and varying the exercises
+by cuddling Phronsie's toes, done up in a big bundle.
+
+"I declare if Papa Fisher hasn't tied them up in one of the blankets,"
+she announced merrily.
+
+"A blanket is just as good as anything when the sunrise is waiting for
+you," said the little doctor, coolly.
+
+"Isn't it!" cried Polly, back at him, happily. "Oh--oh!"
+
+Everybody echoed, "Oh-oh!" then stood hushed to silence. A rosy blush
+spread from peak to peak, and all the shadows fell away. Everything
+below, towns, villages, lakes, and forests, stood out in the clear cold
+dawn, and at last the sun burst forth in all his glory.
+
+"I'm so glad that people don't chatter," said Polly, when at last they
+turned away, for the swift clouds had shut it all out. "Did you see
+Phronsie's face, Jasper, when that light burst out?"
+
+"Yes, and father's," answered Jasper. "I expect he'd been looking for
+her; everybody is so bundled up you can hardly find your best friend.
+And then he saw her."
+
+"Yes, and she saw him and called him," said Polly, "didn't you hear
+her?"
+
+"Didn't I, though?" said Jasper; "who could help it? Wasn't father
+pleased when he got up to us, Tom, to think you had Phronsie in such
+good shape? Phronsie, you're in luck," pinching as much of her toes as
+the bundle of blanket would allow; "you've got the best place of any of
+us, up on that perch."
+
+"I like it," said Phronsie, in grave delight, "very much, indeed,"
+surveying them out of the depths of the shawl, "and I wish it needn't
+stop."
+
+"Well, it must," said Polly, with a sigh. "Dear me, see those people
+run."
+
+"Well, it's cold," said Jasper; "let's you and I race to the hotel,
+Polly."
+
+"And the show is over," said Tom, "why shouldn't they run?" as Jasper
+and Polly set off, and he strode after, getting there nearly as soon.
+
+An hour later, Polly, who couldn't get to sleep again, for a nap before
+breakfast, went out to the little balcony window just outside her door,
+where she might sit and write in her journal, and meantime catch any
+chance view that the grey scudding clouds might afford. In this way she
+strove to work off the impatience possessing her for the beautiful hour
+to come after breakfast. "I can hardly believe it now," she thought,
+and she gave herself a little pinch to see if she were really awake;
+"it seems too good to be true to think that the great Professor
+Bauricke is actually going to tell me how to learn to play well!"
+
+"Say," a voice struck upon her ear, "oh, I'm in the most awful
+distress."
+
+Polly clapped her book to, and looked up.
+
+"O dear, dear!" It was a tall, spare woman with a face that had
+something about it like Grandma Bascom's. It must have been the
+cap-frills flapping around her cheeks.
+
+"What can I do for you?" asked Polly, springing up. "Oh, do take my
+chair and sit down and tell me about it."
+
+"Oh, will you help me? The land! I couldn't set when I'm in such
+trouble," declared the old woman. "My senses, I should fly off the
+handle!" Polly, feeling that she was in the presence of some dreadful
+calamity, stood quite still. "You see, me and my sister--she's in
+highstrikes now in there." The old woman tossed her head to indicate a
+room further down the hall, whereat the cap-frills flapped wilder than
+ever. "Bein' as it belonged to both of us, she feels as bad as I do,
+but as I was the one that lost it, why it stands to reason I've got to
+shake around and get it again. Say, will you help me? You've got a pair
+of bright eyes as ever I see in a head; and what's the good of 'em if
+you can't help in trouble like this?"
+
+Polly, feeling that her eyes would never forgive her if she didn't let
+them help on such an occasion, promised.
+
+"What is it you have lost?" she asked.
+
+"Don't you know?" cried the old woman, impatiently. "Mercy me! how many
+times shall I tell you? My buzzom pin; it was took of Pa when he was a
+young man and awful handsome, and I didn't want to leave it in the room
+when we went out, cause somebody might get in, and they'd be sure to
+want it, so I pinned it on my nightcap strings and it's gone, and I
+a-gallivanting round on them rocks, a-looking at the sunrise, and I can
+see that to home all I want to. I must have been crazy."
+
+"Oh, I see; and you want me to go out and help you look for it," said
+Polly, her brow clearing.
+
+"Of course," assented the old woman, impatiently. "Land, your
+intellects ain't as bright as your eyes. My sakes!--how many times do
+you expect me to tell you? I've been a-looking and a-peeking
+everywhere, but my eyes are old, and I don't dare to tell any one to
+help me, for like enough they'd pick it up when I warn't seein', and
+slip Pa in their pocket, and I never'd see him again."
+
+Polly, feeling, if Pa were slipped in a pocket and carried off, it
+would be a calamity indeed, said heartily, "I'll get my jacket and cap
+and come right out."
+
+"She looks honest; I guess I hain't done no harm to tell her about our
+buzzom pin," said the old woman to herself as Polly disappeared. Mamsie
+being asleep, Polly could say nothing to her, but feeling that she
+would allow it if she knew, she threw on her things and ran out to meet
+the old woman, with a shawl tied over her nightcap and a big long cape
+on.
+
+"I tell you she's in highstrikes," said the old woman, going down the
+hall. "That's our room, 37, an' I've seen you an' your folks goin' by,
+so I feel in some ways acquainted. An' if I don't find Pa, I'll be
+flabbergasted myself."
+
+"Do let us hurry," said Polly, her mind now only on Pa. So they went
+down the stairs and out by the door and up the rocky path just where
+the old woman said she and sister Car'line took when they went out to
+see the sunrise.
+
+"An' I wish we'd kept in bed," ejaculated Polly's companion. "I most
+lost my teeth out, they chattered so; and so did Car'line hers. But
+that wouldn't 'a' been nothin' to losin' Pa, cause we could 'a' got
+more teeth; but how could we 'a' got him took when he was nineteen and
+so handsome? There! here we stopped, just at this identical spot!"
+
+"Well, I think we shall find it," said Polly, consolingly. "How did the
+pin look?" she asked, for the first time remembering to ask, and
+beginning to poke around in the crevices.
+
+"My land sakes! I never see such a girl for wanting to be told over and
+over," exclaimed the old woman, irritably, picking up first one ample
+gaiter and then another to warm her cold toes in her hands. "Haven't I
+told you he was awful handsome? Well, he had on his blue coat and big
+brass buttons for one thing, an' his shirt front was ruffled. And--"
+
+"Was it gold around it?" asked Polly, poking away busily.
+
+"Gold? I guess it was; and there was dents in it, where Car'line an' I
+bit into it when we were babies, 'cause mother give it to us when our
+teeth was comin'--'twas better'n a chicken bone, she said."
+
+"Oh," said Polly.
+
+"Well, now you know," said Car'line's sister, "an' don't for mercy's
+sakes ask any more useless questions. I'm most sorry I brung you."
+
+"I might go down and get the boys, Jasper and Tom--they'd love to
+help," said Polly, feeling that she was very much out of place, and
+there was no hope of finding Pa under the circumstances.
+
+The old woman clutched her arm and held her fast. "Don't you say a
+single word about any boys," she commanded. "I hate boys," she
+exploded, "they're the worry of our lives, Car'line and mine,--they get
+into our garden, and steal all our fruit, and they hang on behind our
+chaise when we ride out, and keep me a-lookin' round an' slashin' the
+whip at 'em the whole livelong time; O my--_boys!_"
+
+"What in the world is Polly Pepper doing up on those rocks?" cried
+Jasper, just spying her. "Come on, Tom, and let's see." And they seized
+their caps, and buttoned their jackets against the wind which had just
+sprung up, and dashed off to see for themselves.
+
+"Ugh--you go right away!" screamed Car'line's sister, as their heads
+appeared over the point of rocks, and shaking both hands fiercely at
+them.
+
+"Whew!" whistled Jasper, with his eyes in surprise on Polly.
+
+"And what old party are you?" demanded Tom, finding it easy to talk to
+her, as she was by no means a girl. "And do you own this mountain,
+anyway?"
+
+"Oh, don't," begged Polly. "And Jasper, if you would go away, please,
+and not ask any questions."
+
+"All right," said Jasper, swallowing his disappointment not to know.
+"Come on, Tom, Polly doesn't want us here."
+
+"An' I won't have you here," screamed the old woman, harder than ever.
+"So get away as soon as you can. Why, you are boys!"
+
+"I know it." Tom bobbed his head at her. "We've always been, ma'am."
+
+"An' boys are good for nothing, an' lazy, an' thieves--yes, I wouldn't
+trust 'em." So she kept on as they hurried back over the rocky path.
+
+"That's a tiger for you!" ejaculated Tom. Then he stopped and looked
+back a little anxiously. "Aren't you afraid to leave Polly with her?"
+
+"No," said Jasper; "it would trouble Polly to have us stay." Yet he
+stopped and looked anxious too. "We will wait here."
+
+And after a while, down came the two searchers--the old woman quite
+beside herself now, and scolding every bit of the way,--"that she
+didn't see what bright eyes were for when they couldn't find
+anything--an' now that Pa'd gone sliding down that mountain, they might
+as well give up, she an' Car'line"--when a sudden turn in the path
+brought the boys into view waiting behind the rocks. Then all her fury
+burst upon them.
+
+"See here, now," cried Tom, suddenly squaring up to her and looking at
+the face between the nodding cap-frills, "we are ready to take a
+certain amount of abuse, my friend and I, but we won't stand more, I
+can tell you."
+
+"Oh, don't," began Polly, clasping her hands. "Oh, Tom, _please_ keep
+still. She doesn't know what she's saying, for she's lost her pin with
+her father on."
+
+"Hey?" cried Jasper. "Say it again, Polly," while Tom shouted and
+roared all through Polly's recital.
+
+"Was it an old fright with a long nose in a blue coat and ruffles, and
+as big as a turnip?" he asked between the shouts. While Polly tried to
+say, "Yes, I guess so," and Miss Car'line's sister so far overcame her
+aversion to boys as to seize him by the arm, Tom shook her off like a
+feather. "See here, old party," he cried, "that ancient pin of yours is
+reposing in the hotel office at this blessed moment. Jasper and I,"
+indicating his friend, "ran across it on the rocks up there more than
+an hour ago, and--"
+
+"Oh, Pa's found!" exclaimed the old woman, in a shrill scream of
+delight, beginning to trot down to the hotel office.
+
+"Yes, it would have been impossible for Pa to have got off this
+mountain without making a landslide," said Tom, after her.
+
+
+
+
+XXIII
+
+IN THE SHADOW OF THE MATTERHORN
+
+
+They had been days at dear Interlaken, walking up and down the
+_Hoheweg_, of which they never tired, or resting on the benches under
+the plane and walnut trees opposite their hotel, just sitting still to
+gaze their fill upon the _Jungfrau_. This was best of all--so Polly and
+Jasper thought; and Phronsie was content to pass hour after hour there,
+by Grandpapa's side, and imagine all sorts of pretty pictures and
+stories in and about the snow-clad heights of the majestic mountain.
+
+And the throng of gaily dressed people sojourning in the big hotels,
+and the stream of tourists, passed and repassed, with many a curious
+glance at the stately, white-haired old gentleman and the little
+yellow-haired girl by his side.
+
+"A perfect beauty!" exclaimed more than one matron, with a sigh for her
+ugly girls by her side or left at home.
+
+"She's stunning, and no mistake!" Many a connoisseur in feminine
+loveliness turned for a last look, or passed again for the same purpose.
+
+"Grandpapa," Phronsie prattled on, "that looks just like a little tent
+up there--a little white tent; doesn't it, Grandpapa dear?"
+
+"Yes, Phronsie," said Grandpapa, happily, just as he would have said
+"Yes, Phronsie," if she had pointed out any other object in the snowy
+outline.
+
+"And there's a cunning little place where you and I could creep into
+the tent," said Phronsie, bending her neck like a meditative bird. "And
+I very much wish we could, Grandpapa dear."
+
+"We'd find it pretty cold in there," said Grandpapa, "and wish we were
+back here on this nice seat, Phronsie."
+
+"What makes it so cold up there, Grandpapa, when the sun shines?" asked
+Phronsie, suddenly. "Say, Grandpapa, what makes it?"
+
+"Oh, it's so far up in the air," answered old Mr. King. "Don't you
+remember how cold it was up on the Rigi, and that was about nine
+thousand feet lower?"
+
+"Oh, Grandpapa!" exclaimed Phronsie, in gentle surprise, unable to
+compass such figures.
+
+Mr. King's party had made one or two pleasant little journeys to the
+Lauterbrunnen Valley, staying there and at Muerren, and to Grindelwald
+as well; but they came back to sit on the benches by the walnut and the
+plane trees, in front of the matchless Jungfrau. "And this is best of
+all," said Polly.
+
+And so the days slipped by, till one morning, at the breakfast table,
+Mrs. Selwyn said, "Tomorrow we must say good-by--my boy and I."
+
+"Hey--what?" exclaimed Mr. King, setting his coffee-cup down, not very
+gently.
+
+"Our vacation cannot be a very long one," said Tom's mother, with a
+little smile; "there are my father and my two daughters and my other
+boys in England."
+
+Tom's face was all awry as Mr. King said, "And you mean to say, Mrs.
+Selwyn, that you really must move on to-morrow?"
+
+"Yes; we really must," she said decidedly. "But oh," and her plain,
+quiet face changed swiftly, "you cannot know how sorry we shall be to
+leave your party."
+
+"In that case, Mrs. Fisher,"--old Mr. King looked down the table-length
+to Mamsie,--"we must go too; for I don't intend to lose sight of these
+nice travelling companions until I am obliged to." Tom's face was one
+big smile. "Oh, goody!" exclaimed Polly, as if she were no older than
+Phronsie.
+
+Jasper clapped Tom's back, instead of wasting words.
+
+"So we will all proceed to pack up without more ado after breakfast.
+After all, it is wiser to make the move now, for we are getting so that
+we want to take root in each place."
+
+"You just wait till you get to Zermatt," whispered Polly to Phronsie,
+who, under cover of the talk buzzing around the table, had confided to
+her that she didn't want to leave her beautiful mountain. "Grandpapa is
+going to take us up to the Gorner Grat, and there you can see another
+mountain,--oh, so near! he says it seems almost as if you could touch
+it. And it's all covered with snow, Phronsie, too!"
+
+"Is it as big as my mountain here?" asked Phronsie.
+
+"Yes, bigger, a thousand feet or more," answered Polly, glad that she
+had looked it up.
+
+"Is it?" said Phronsie. "Every mountain is bigger, isn't it, Polly?"
+
+"It seems to be," said Polly, with a little laugh.
+
+"And has it a little white tent on the side, just like my mountain
+here?" asked Phronsie, holding Polly's arm as she turned off to catch
+the chatter of the others.
+
+"Oh, I suppose so," answered Polly, carelessly. Then she looked up and
+caught Mamsie's eye, and turned back quickly. "At any rate, Phronsie,
+it's all peaked on the top--oh, almost as sharp as a needle--and it
+seems to stick right into the blue sky, and there are lots and lots of
+other mountains--oh, awfully high,--and the sun shines up there a good
+deal, and it's too perfectly lovely for anything, Phronsie Pepper."
+
+"Then I want to go," decided Phronsie. "I do so want to see that white
+needle, Polly."
+
+"Well, eat your breakfast," said Polly, "because you know we all have
+ever so much to do to-day to get off."
+
+"Yes, I will," declared Phronsie, attacking her cold chicken and roll
+with great vigour.
+
+"It seems as if the whole world were at Zermatt," said the parson,
+looking out from the big piazza crowded with the hotel people, out to
+the road in front, with every imaginable tourist passing and repassing.
+Donkeys were being driven up, either loaded down to their utmost with
+heavy bags and trunks, or else waiting to receive on their patient
+backs the heavier people. Phronsie never could see the poor animals,
+without such distress coming in her face that every one in the party
+considered it his or her bounden duty to comfort and reassure her. So
+this time it was Tom's turn to do so.
+
+"Oh, don't you worry," he said, looking down into her troubled little
+face where he sat on the piazza railing swinging his long legs, "they
+like it, those donkeys do!"
+
+"Do they?" asked Phronsie, doubtfully.
+
+"Yes, indeed," said Tom, with a gusto, as if he wished he were a
+donkey, and in just that very spot, "it gives them a chance to see
+things, and to hear things, too, don't you know?" went on Tom, at his
+wits' end to know how he was going to come out of his sentences.
+
+"Oh," said Phronsie, yet she sighed as she saw the extremely fat person
+just being hauled up to a position on a very small donkey's back.
+
+"You see, if they don't like it," said Tom, digging his knife savagely
+into the railing, "they have a chance to kick up their heels and
+unsettle that heavy party."
+
+"O dear me!" exclaimed Phronsie, in great distress, "that would hurt
+the poor woman, Tom."
+
+"Well, it shows that the donkey likes it," said Tom, with a laugh,
+"because he doesn't kick up his heels."
+
+"And so," ran on Tom, "why, we mustn't worry, you and I, if the donkey
+doesn't. Just think,"--he made a fine diversion by pointing with his
+knife-blade up to the slender spire of the Matterhorn--"we're going up
+on a little jaunt to-morrow, to look into that fellow's face."
+
+Phronsie got out of her chair to come and stand by his side. "I like
+that white needle," she said, with a gleeful smile. "Polly said it was
+nice, and I like it."
+
+"I should say it was," declared Tom, with a bob of his head. "Phronsie,
+I'd give, I don't know what, if I could climb up there." He thrust his
+knife once more into the railing, where it stuck fast.
+
+"Don't." begged Phronsie, her hand on his sleeve, "go up that big white
+needle, Tom."
+
+"No, I won't; it's safe to promise that," he said grimly, with a little
+laugh. "Good reason why; because I can't. The little mother wouldn't
+sleep nights just to think of it, and I promised the granddaddy that I
+wouldn't so much as think of it, and here I am breaking my word; but I
+can't help it." He twitched his knife out suddenly, sprawled off from
+the railing, and took several hasty strides up and down the piazza.
+
+"Well, that's all right, Phronsie," he said, coming back to get astride
+the railing again; this time he turned a cold shoulder on Phronsie's
+"white needle." "Now, to-morrow, we'll have no end of fun." And he
+launched forth on so many and so varied delights, that Phronsie's
+pleased little laugh rang out again and again, bringing rest to many a
+wearied traveller, tired with the sights, sounds, and scenes of a
+European journey.
+
+"I wish we could stay at this nice place," said Phronsie, the next
+morning, poking her head out over the side of the car, as it climbed
+off from the Riffelalp station.
+
+"Take care, child," said Grandpapa, with a restraining hand.
+
+"You would want to stop at every place," said Polly, from the seat in
+front, with a gay little laugh. "And we never should get on at that
+rate. But then I am just as bad," she confessed.
+
+"So am I," chimed in Jasper. "Dear me, how I wanted to get a chance to
+sketch some of those magnificent curves and rapids and falls in the
+Visp River coming up."
+
+"Oh, that dear, delicious Visp River!" echoed Polly, while Adela began
+to bemoan that it was the best thing they had seen, and the car whizzed
+them by so fast, she couldn't do a thing--O dear!
+
+"I got some snap-shots, but I don't believe they are good for
+anything," said Jasper, "just from the pure perversity of the thing."
+
+"Take my advice," said Tom, lazily leaning forward, "and don't bother
+with a camera anyway."
+
+"As if you expected any one to take up with such a piece of advice,"
+ejaculated Jasper, in high disdain. "Say something better than that,
+Tom, if you want to be heard."
+
+"Oh, I don't expect to be heard, or listened to in the slightest," he
+said calmly. "Anybody who will trot round with a kodak hanging to his
+neck by a villanous strap--can't be--"
+
+"Who's got a villanous strap hanging to his neck?" cried Jasper, while
+the rest shouted as he picked at the fern-box thus hanging to Tom.
+
+"Oh, that's quite a different thing," declared Tom, his face growing
+red.
+
+"I know; one is a kodak, and the other is a fern-box," said Jasper,
+nodding. "I acknowledge they are different," and they all burst out
+laughing again.
+
+"Well, at least," said Tom, joining in the laugh, "you must
+acknowledge, too, that I go off by myself and pick up my wild flowers
+and green things, and I'm not bothering round focussing every living
+thing and pointing my little machine at every freak in nature that I
+see."
+
+"All right," said Jasper, good-naturedly, "but you have the strap round
+your neck all the same, Tom."
+
+And Phronsie wanted to stay at the Riffelberg just as much; and old Mr.
+King was on the point of saying, "Well, we'll come up here for a few
+days, Phronsie," when he remembered Mrs. Selwyn and her boy, and how
+they must get on. Instead, he cleared his throat, and said, "We shall
+see it after dinner, child," and Phronsie smiled, well contented.
+
+But when she reached the Corner Grat station, and took Grandpapa's
+hand, and began to ascend the bridle path to the hotel, she couldn't
+contain herself, and screamed right out, "Oh, Grandpapa, I'd rather
+stay here."
+
+"It _is_ beautiful, isn't it?" echoed old Mr. King, feeling twenty
+years younger since he started on his travels. "Well, well, child, I'm
+glad you like it," looking down into her beaming little face.
+
+"You are very much to be envied, sir. I can't help speaking to you and
+telling you so," said a tall, sober-looking gentleman, evidently an
+English curate off on his vacation, as he caught up with him on the
+ascent, where they had paused at one of the look-offs, "for having that
+child as company, and those other young people."
+
+"You say the truth," replied old Mr. King, cordially; "from the depths
+of my heart I pity any one who hasn't some children to take along when
+going abroad. But then they wouldn't be little Peppers," he added,
+under his breath, as he bowed and turned back to the view.
+
+"There's dear Monte Rosa," cried Polly, enthusiastically. "Oh, I just
+love her."
+
+"And there's Castor and Pollux," said Jasper.
+
+"And there's the whole of them," said Tom, disposing of the entire
+range with a sweep of his hand. "Dear me, what a lot there are, to be
+sure. It quite tires one."
+
+"Oh, anybody but a cold-blooded Englishman!" exclaimed Jasper, with a
+mischievous glance, "to travel with."
+
+"Anything on earth but a gushing American!" retorted Tom, "to go round
+the world with."
+
+"I wish I could sketch a glacier," bemoaned Adela, stopping every
+minute or two, as they wound around the bridle path, "but I can't; I've
+tried ever so many times."
+
+"Wait till we get to the _Mer de Glace_," advised Tom. "You can sit
+down in the middle of it, and sketch away all you want to."
+
+"Well, I'm going to," said Adela, with sudden determination. "I don't
+care; you can all laugh if you want to."
+
+"You can sketch us all," suggested Jasper, "for we shall have horrible
+old stockings on."
+
+"I sha'n't have horrible old stockings on," said Adela, in a dudgeon,
+sticking out her foot. "I wear just the same stockings that I do at
+home, at school in Paris, and they are quite nice."
+
+"Oh, I mean you'll have to put on coarse woollen ones that the peasant
+women knit on purpose,--we all shall have to do the same, on over our
+shoes," explained Jasper.
+
+"O dear me!" cried Adela, in dismay.
+
+"And I think we shall slip and slide a great deal worse with those
+things tied on our feet, than to go without any," said Polly, wrinkling
+up her brows at the idea.
+
+"'Twouldn't be safe to go without them," said Jasper, shaking his head,
+"unless we had nails driven in our shoes."
+
+"I'd much rather have the nails," cried Polly, "oh, much rather,
+Jasper."
+
+"Well, we'll see what father is going to let us do," said Jasper.
+
+"Wasn't that fun snowballing--just think--in July," cried Polly,
+craning her neck to look back down the path toward the Riffelberg
+station.
+
+"Did you pick up some of that snow?" asked Adela.
+
+"Didn't we, though!" exclaimed Jasper. "I got quite a good bit in my
+fist."
+
+"My ball was such a little bit of a one," mourned Polly; "I scraped up
+all I could, but it wasn't much."
+
+"Well, it did good execution," said Tom; "I got it in my eye."
+
+"Oh, did it hurt you?" cried Polly, in distress, running across the
+path to walk by his side.
+
+"Not a bit," said Tom. "I tried to find some to pay you back, and then
+we had to fly for the cars."
+
+The plain, quiet face under the English bonnet turned to Mrs. Fisher as
+they walked up the path together. "I cannot begin to tell you what
+gratitude I am under to you," said Tom's mother, "and to all of you.
+When I think of my father, I am full of thankfulness. When I look at my
+boy, the goodness of God just overcomes me in leading me to your party.
+May I tell you of ourselves some time, when a good opportunity offers
+for a quiet talk?"
+
+"I'd like nothing better," said Mother Fisher, heartily. "If there is
+one person I like more than another, who isn't of our family, or any of
+our home friends, it's Mrs. Selwyn," she had confided to the little
+doctor just a few days before. "She hasn't any nonsense about her, if
+she is an earl's daughter."
+
+"Earl's daughter," sniffed the little doctor, trying to slip a collar
+button into a refractory binding. "Dear me, now that's gone--no,
+'tisn't--that's luck," as the button rolled off into a corner of the
+bureau-top where it was easily captured.
+
+"Let me do that for you, Adoniram," said Mother Fisher, coming up to
+help him.
+
+"I guess you'll have to, wife, if it's done at all," he answered,
+resigning himself willingly to her hands; "the thing slips and slides
+like all possessed. Well, now, I was going to say that I wouldn't hate
+a title so much, if there was a grain of common sense went along with
+it. And that Mrs. Selwyn just saves the whole lot of English nobility,
+and makes 'em worth speaking to, in my opinion."
+
+And after they had their dinner, and were scattered in groups in the
+bright sunshine, sitting on the wooden benches by the long tables, or
+taking photographs, or watching through the big glass some mountain
+climbers on one of the snowy spurs of the Matterhorn, "the good
+opportunity for a quiet talk" came about.
+
+"Now," said Mother Fisher, with a great satisfaction in her voice, "may
+we sit down here on this bench, Mrs. Selwyn, and have that talk?"
+
+Tom's mother sat down well pleased, and folding her hands in her lap,
+this earl's daughter, mistress of a dozen languages, as well as
+mistress of herself on all occasions, began as simply and with as much
+directness as a child.
+
+"Well, you know my father. Let me tell you, aside from the
+eccentricities, that are mere outside matters, and easily explained, if
+you understood the whole of his life, a kinder man never lived, nor a
+more reasonable one. But it was a misfortune that he had to be left so
+much alone, as since my mother's death a dozen years ago has happened.
+It pained me much." A shadow passed over her brow, but it was gone
+again, and she smiled, and her eyes regained their old placid look. "I
+live in Australia with my husband, where my duty is, putting the boys
+as fast as they were old enough, and the little girls as well, into
+English schools. But Tom has always been with my father at the
+vacations, for he is his favourite, as of course was natural, for he is
+the eldest. And though you might not believe it, Mrs. Fisher, my father
+was always passionately fond of the boy."
+
+"I do believe it," said Mother Fisher, quietly, and she put her hand
+over the folded ones. Mrs. Selwyn unclasped hers, soft and white, to
+draw within them the toil-worn one.
+
+"Now, that's comfortable," she said, with another little smile.
+
+"And here is where his eccentricity became the most dangerous to the
+peace of mind of our family," continued Mrs. Selwyn. "My father seemed
+never able to discover that he was doing the lad harm by all sorts of
+indulgence and familiarity with him, a sort of hail-fellow-well-met way
+that surprised me more than I can express, when I discovered it on my
+last return visit to my old home. My father! who never tolerated
+anything but respect from all of us, who were accustomed to despotic
+government, I can assure you, was allowing Tom!--well, you were with
+him on the steamer," she broke off abruptly. The placid look was gone
+again in a flash.
+
+"Yes," said Mother Fisher, her black eyes full of sympathy; "don't let
+that trouble you, dear Mrs. Selwyn; Tom was pure gold down
+underneath--we saw that--and the rest is past."
+
+"Ah,"--the placid look came back as quickly--"that is my only
+comfort--that you did. For father told the whole, not sparing himself.
+Now he sees things in the right light; he says because your young
+people taught it to him. And he was cruelly disappointed because you
+couldn't come down to visit him in his home."
+
+"We couldn't," said Mother Fisher, in a sorry voice, at seeing the
+other face.
+
+"I understand--quite," said Tom's mother, with a gentle pressure of the
+hand she held. "And then the one pleasure he had was in picking out
+something for Polly."
+
+"Oh, if the little red leather case _had_ gone back to the poor old
+man!" ran through Mother Fisher's mind, possessing it at once.
+
+"I don't think his judgment was good, Mrs. Fisher, in the selection,"
+said Mrs. Selwyn, a small pink spot coming on either cheek; "but he
+loves Polly, and wanted to show it."
+
+"And he was so good to think of it," cried Mother Fisher, her heart
+warming more and more toward the little old earl.
+
+"And as he couldn't be turned from it, and his health is precarious if
+he is excited, why, there was nothing to be done about it. And then he
+insisted that Tom and I come off for a bit of a run on the Continent,
+the other children being with him. And as my big boy"--here a loving
+smile went all over the plain face, making it absolutely
+beautiful--"had worried down deep in his heart over the past, till I
+was more troubled than I can tell you, why, we came. And then God was
+good--for then we met you! Oh, Mrs. Fisher!"
+
+She drew her hands by a sudden movement away, and put them on Mother
+Fisher's shoulders. And then that British matron, rarely demonstrative
+with her own children, even, leaned over and kissed Polly's mother.
+
+"I can't see why it's so warm up here," said Polly, racing over to
+their bench, followed by the others. "Dear me, it's fairly hot." And
+she pulled off her jacket.
+
+"Don't do that, Polly," said her mother.
+
+"Oh, Mamsie, it's so very hot," said Polly; but she thrust her arms
+into the sleeves and pulled it on again.
+
+"I know; but you've been running," said Mrs. Fisher, "and have gotten
+all heated up."
+
+"Well, it's perfectly splendid to travel to places where we can run and
+race," said Polly, in satisfaction, throwing herself down on the rocks.
+The others all doing the same thing, Mr. King and the Parson and Mrs.
+Henderson found them, and pretty soon the group was a big one. "Well,
+well, we are all here together, no--where is Mrs. Gray?" asked Mr.
+King, presently.
+
+"She is resting in the hotel," said Mother Fisher, "fast asleep I think
+by this time."
+
+"Yes," said Adela, "she is. I just peeked in on her, and she hasn't
+moved where you tucked her up on the lounge."
+
+"Grandpapa," asked Polly, suddenly, from the centre of the group, "what
+makes it so very warm up here, when we are all surrounded by snow?"
+
+"You ask me a hard thing," said old Mr. King. "Well, for one thing, we
+are very near the Italian border; those peaks over there, you
+know,--follow my walking-stick as I point it,--are in sunny Italy."
+
+"Well, it is just like sunny Italy up here," said Polly, "I think,"
+blinking, and pulling her little cap over her eyes.
+
+"It's all the Italy you will get in the summer season," said Grandpapa.
+"You must wait for cold weather before I take one of you there."
+
+
+
+
+XXIV
+
+THE ROUND ROBIN
+
+
+"Dear me, how the summer is going!" mourned Polly, as they caught on
+the return journey the last glimpse of the roaring, tumbling Visp, and
+not all the craning of the necks could compass another view, as the
+cars drew them away from the rushing river.
+
+"Never mind, Polly," said Jasper, "there's all next summer; and after
+our winter in Dresden, and all our hard work over music, won't it be
+fine, though, to jaunt round again?" and his eyes glistened.
+
+"Dresden!" echoed Polly, sitting quite straight with very red
+cheeks;--"oh, Jasper!"
+
+The magic word, "Dresden," had unlocked visions of months of future
+delight, bringing back every word of dear Herr Bauricke; all the
+instruction he had given her, on those happy days at Lucerne, that
+Polly felt quite sure were engraven deep on her heart to last forever
+and ever.
+
+"And won't I study, though!" exclaimed Polly, to herself, "and make the
+professor that Herr Bauricke has engaged for me, glad that he teaches
+me, oh, won't I!"
+
+"Well, I'm sorry the summer is going," said Adela, "because then I've
+got to leave you at Paris, and go into school."
+
+"But you like your school," said Polly, brightly, "you've said so a
+dozen times, Adela."
+
+"Yes, I do," said Adela, "and I've got some sketches to take back, and
+Mademoiselle will be glad of that."
+
+"And you'll go on drawing and painting until you get to be a great
+artist," ran on Polly, enthusiastically, "and then we'll see something
+you've done, in the Louvre, maybe."
+
+"The Louvre!" cried Adela; "O dear me, Polly Pepper."
+
+"I don't care," said Polly, recklessly, pushing back the little rings
+of brown hair from her brow, "they'll be good enough, the pictures you
+are going to do, to put into the Louvre, anyway, Adela Gray."
+
+Tom Selwyn had been very sober during all this merry chatter; and now
+in his seat across the narrow aisle, he drummed his heels impatiently
+on the floor. His mother looked over at him, and slipping out of her
+seat, went over to him. "Any room here, Tom, for mother?" she said.
+
+"Oh,--ah,--I should say so!" Tom slipped out, gave her the window seat,
+then flew back.
+
+"Now, this is comfy," observed Mrs. Selwyn, as the train sped on. "Tom,
+see here!"
+
+"What's up, little mother?" asked Tom, in surprise, at her unusual
+manner.
+
+"It's just this, Tom. You know we are going to Chamonix and up the _Mer
+de Glace_ with Mr. King's party."
+
+Tom bobbed his head, not allowing himself to exclaim, "But that will be
+only a short journey, now, and we must soon say 'good-by.'"
+
+"Well, I've been thinking that I should like to go on to Geneva, and to
+Paris," continued Mrs. Selwyn, "only you dislike Paris so much, Tom,"
+she added.
+
+"Oh, you're the bulliest--I mean--excuse me--you're no end a brick--oh,
+I mean--I can't say what I mean," brought up Tom, in despair. And he
+ran one long arm around her neck very much to the detriment of her neat
+collar.
+
+"Then you can overcome your dislike to Paris enough to go there?" asked
+his mother, with a little twinkle in her eye.
+
+"My dislike!" roared Tom, "O dear me!" as everybody looked around.
+"Why, I just love Paris!" he finished in an awful whisper, close to the
+plain, black bonnet.
+
+When the news was circulated, as it was pretty soon, that the party was
+not to be broken into at all till Paris was a completed story, the
+jubilation was such as to satisfy even Tom. And as this particular
+party had the car entirely to themselves, it wasn't so very dreadful as
+it seems, and the elder members allowed indulgent smiles at it all.
+
+That night in the market-place at Martigny, Jasper, who was ahead with
+his father, ran back to Polly, and the others lingering behind. "Oh, do
+hurry," he begged, "it's the prettiest sight!"
+
+"Oh, what is it?" cried Polly, as they scampered off.
+
+There, in the centre of the market-place, was a ring of little girls,
+hand-in-hand, singing a little French song, and going round and round
+in a circle. They were of all ages and sizes, the littlest one in a
+blue pinafore, being about three years of age, and so chubby she had to
+be helped along continually by a big girl, evidently her sister. This
+big sister stopped the ring game, every now and then, to kiss the round
+face by the side of her gown; an example that was followed by so many
+of the other girls, that the game seemed to be never quite finished.
+And once in a while, big sister would pick up the chubby, little,
+blue-pinafored maiden and carry her through a considerable portion of
+the game, then down she would put her on her two chubby feet, and away
+they all circled without any break in the proceedings at all.
+
+"Oh! isn't it 'Oats, Peas, Beans, and Barley grow'?" cried Polly, as
+they watched them intently.
+
+"Ever so much like it," said Tom. "See those boys; now they are going
+to make trouble."
+
+"Oh, they sha'n't!" declared Polly. "O dear me!" as one boy drew near,
+on the side next to the travellers, and watching his chance, picked at
+a flying apron or two. But the ring of girls paid no more attention to
+him, than they had to any other outside matters, being wholly absorbed
+in the game. So Polly and the others breathed freely again.
+
+But up came another boy. "O dear me!" cried Polly, aghast. When number
+three put in an appearance, she gave up all hope at once.
+
+"They're jealous chaps," cried Tom, "and are vexed because they can't
+get into the game! Hear them jeer!" And his long arm went out and
+picked a jacket-end of an urchin, who, incautiously regarding such
+quiet travellers as not worth minding, had hovered too near, while
+trying to tease the girls.
+
+"Here, you, sir," cried Tom, with a bit of a shake, and a torrent of
+remarkably good French not to be disregarded; then he burst into a
+laugh. And the urchin laughed too, thinking this much better fun to
+tussle with the tall lad, than to hang around a parcel of girls. And
+presently a woman came and took little blue pinafore off, and then the
+rest of the girls unclasped their hands, and the ring melted away, and
+the game was over.
+
+"I'm glad the girls over here have fun," said Polly, as Grandpapa and
+his party moved off. "Isn't it nice to think they do?"
+
+"It isn't much matter where you live, there's a good deal to be gotten
+out of life; if you only know how," said the parson, thinking busily of
+the little brown house.
+
+Two or three days of rest at Martigny put everybody in good shape, and
+gave them all a bit of time to pick up on many little things that were
+behindhand. Tom looked over all his floral treasures, with their last
+additions made at the Riffelalp, and discarded such as hadn't pressed
+well. And Jasper and Polly rushed up to date with their journals, and
+wrote letters home; and Adela worked up her studies and sketches.
+
+Tom looked on silently when Polly and Jasper were scraping their pens
+in a lively fashion in the little writing room of the hotel. "That's my
+third letter, Polly," announced Jasper, on the other side of the table.
+"Now, I am going to begin on Joel's."
+
+"One, two," said Polly, counting, "why, I thought I'd written three;
+well, this one is most finished, Jasper."
+
+"Yes," said Jasper, glancing over at her, "is that your last page,
+Polly?"
+
+"Yes," said Polly, hurrying away. Then she thought of what Mamsie had
+said, and slackened her speed.
+
+Tom cleared his throat, and tried to speak, but the words wouldn't come
+nicely, so he burst out, "I say, I wish you'd write to my granddaddy,
+both of you," and then he stood quite still, and very red in the face.
+
+Polly looked up quickly, her pen dropping from her fingers, and Jasper
+deserted his fourth letter and stared.
+
+"Why," said Polly, finding her tongue, "we wouldn't dare, Tom Selwyn."
+
+"Dare!" said Tom, delighted to think that no terrible result had really
+ensued from his words, that after they were out, had scared him
+mightily. "Oh, if you knew granddaddy!" And he sank into a chair by the
+table, and played with the heap of picture postal cards that Polly was
+going to address next.
+
+"We might," said Polly, slowly, "write a letter, all of us. A kind of a
+Round Robin thing, you know, and send that."
+
+"So we could," cried Jasper; "how would that do, Tom?"
+
+"The very thing!" exclaimed Tom, striking his hand so heavily on the
+table, that for a minute it looked as if the ink-bottle hopped.
+
+"Take care, there's no reason you should knock things over because you
+are overjoyed," cried Jasper, gaily. "Well, let's leave our letters
+to-day, Polly, and set to on the Round Robin."
+
+"All right," said Polly, glad to think there was anything she could
+really do to please the little old earl, "but would your mother like
+it, Tom?" She stopped slowly in putting her unfinished letter into the
+little writing-case, and looked at him.
+
+"If you think there's a shadow of doubt on that score, I'd best run and
+ask her now." Tom got himself out of the chair, and himself from the
+room, and in an incredibly short space of time, back there he was. "My
+mother says, 'Thank Polly for thinking of it; it will do father more
+good than anything else could possibly do.'"
+
+"I don't suppose you want any more answer," said Tom, quite radiant,
+and looking down at Polly.
+
+"No, only I didn't think first of it," said Polly, in a distressed
+little tone.
+
+"Why, Polly Pepper!" exclaimed Tom, "I certainly heard you say 'Round
+Robin,' when I'll venture to say not a soul of us had even thought of
+it; we certainly hadn't said so."
+
+"Well, you spoke of the letter first," said Polly, unwilling to take
+the credit for all the comfort going to the little old earl, "and I
+shall tell your mother so, Tom."
+
+"But I didn't say 'Round Robin,'" persisted Tom, "wasn't smart enough
+to think of it."
+
+"And let's get to work," cried Jasper, huddling up his three letters.
+"I'll post yours, too, Polly; give them here."
+
+"O dear, my stamps are all gone," said Polly, peering into the little
+box in one corner of her writing-case.
+
+"I've plenty," said Jasper, hurrying off; "I'll stick on two for you."
+
+"Oh, no, Jasper," cried Polly, after him, "you know Mamsie would not
+allow me to borrow."
+
+"It isn't borrowing," said Jasper, turning back slowly. "I'll give them
+to you, Polly."
+
+"But Mamsie said when we started I should get my stamps when I needed
+them," said Polly. "You know she did, Jasper."
+
+"Yes, she did," said Jasper, uncomfortably. Then his face brightened,
+and he said, "And she's right, Polly," while Polly fished a franc out
+of Joel's little money-bag that hung at her belt. "Do get the stamps,
+please, Jasper, and put them on," as he took up her two letters. And
+she gave the bag a little pat for Joel's sake, wishing it was his
+stubby black hair that her fingers could touch.
+
+"Dear me, you are dreadfully particular about taking two postage
+stamps, seems to me," said Adela, who had taken that time, as she
+hadn't any letters to write, to work up one of her studies from memory
+of the Visp.
+
+Tom's blue eyes flashed dangerously, then he cleared his throat,
+whistled, and walked to the window.
+
+"I don't know where we are going to get nice white paper for our 'Round
+Robin,'" said Polly, leaning her elbows on the table, and her chin in
+her hands.
+
+"I know!" ejaculated Tom, whirling on his heel, and dashing out. In he
+came, swinging three or four goodly sheets. "Filched 'em out of the old
+woman's room," he said.
+
+"Oh, Tom!" began Polly.
+
+"I mean, the housekeeper--matron--conciergerie--whatever you call the
+gentle lady who runs this house--was fortunately at our desk where she
+has the pleasure of making up our bills, and I worked on her feelings
+till she parted with 'em," explained Tom.
+
+"Oh!" said Polly; "well, I'm glad she gave them."
+
+"Never you fear but what they'll be in our bills, Polly," said Tom, who
+couldn't believe by this time that he hadn't always known Polly Pepper.
+
+"It's dreadfully thin paper," said Adela, critically, getting off from
+the sofa to pick at one corner of the sheet Polly was beginning to
+divide.
+
+"I'm glad we have any," hummed Polly, happily.
+
+"Thank your stars you have," said Tom, as gaily. And Jasper running in,
+the table was soon surrounded by the makers of the Round Robin, Adela
+deserting her sketch-book and pulling up a chair.
+
+"And Phronsie must come," said Polly, snipping away to get the paper
+the right width. "O dear me, I can't cut it straight. Do you please
+finish it, Jasper."
+
+"That's all right," said Jasper, squinting at it critically,
+"only--just this edge wants a little bit of trimming, Polly." And he
+snipped off the offending points.
+
+"I'll fetch Phronsie," cried Tom, springing off.
+
+"And hurry," cried Polly and Jasper, together, after him.
+
+"Polly," said Phronsie, as Tom came careering in with her on his
+shoulder. "I want to write, too, I do," she cried, very much excited.
+
+"Of course, you shall, Pet. That's just what we want you for," cried
+Polly, clearing a place on the table; "there, do pull up a chair,
+Jasper."
+
+"Now, Phronsie, I think you would better begin, for you are the
+littlest," and she flapped the long strip down in front of her.
+
+"Oh, Polly, you begin," begged Tom.
+
+"No, I think Phronsie ought to," said Polly, shaking her head.
+
+"I want Polly to," said Phronsie, wriggling away from the pen that
+Polly held out alluringly.
+
+"But Polly wants you to," said Jasper. "I really would, Phronsie dear,
+to please her."
+
+To please Polly, being what Phronsie longed for next to pleasing
+Mamsie, she gave a small sigh and took the pen in unsteady fingers.
+
+"Wait a minute, Phronsie!" exclaimed Polly, in dismay, "I believe we've
+made a mistake, Jasper, and got the wrong sheet." And Polly turned off
+with him to examine the rest of the paper.
+
+Phronsie, who hadn't heard what Polly said, her small head being full
+of the responsibility of beginning the important letter, and
+considering, since it was to be done, it was best to have it over with
+as soon as possible, fell to scribbling the letters as fast as she
+could, all of them running down hill.
+
+"Well, I'm glad to see that we haven't made any mistake," cried Polly,
+turning back in relief. "Oh, Phronsie, you haven't begun!"
+
+She spoke so sharply that Phronsie started, and a little drop of ink
+trembling on the point of her pen concluded to hop off. So it did and
+jumped down on the clean white paper to stare up at them all like a
+very bad black eye.
+
+"Oh, see what she's written!" cried Polly, quite aghast, and tumbling
+into her chair, she pointed at the top.
+
+"Deer Mister Erl," scrawled clear across the top.
+
+"I didn't--mean--oh, you said do it, Polly." Phronsie threw herself out
+of her chair, and over into Polly's lap, burrowing and wailing
+piteously.
+
+"O dear me, how could I say anything?" cried Polly, overcome with
+remorse and patting Phronsie's yellow hair; "but it is so very
+dreadful. O dear me! Phronsie, there, there, don't cry. O dear me!"
+
+Tom's mouth trembled. "It's all right. Granddaddy'll like it," he said.
+
+"Oh, Tom Selwyn," gasped Polly, looking up over Phronsie's head, "you
+don't suppose we'd let that letter go."
+
+"I would," said Tom, coolly, running his hands in his pockets. "I tell
+you, you don't know my granddaddy. He's got lots of fun in him," he
+added.
+
+"Phronsie," said Jasper, rushing around the table, "you are making
+Polly sick. Just look at her face."
+
+Phronsie lifted her head where she had burrowed it under Polly's arm.
+When she saw that Polly's round cheeks were really quite pale, she
+stopped crying at once. "Are you sick, Polly?" she asked, in great
+concern.
+
+"I sha'n't be," said Polly, "if you won't cry any more, Phronsie."
+
+"I won't cry any more," declared Phronsie, wiping off the last tear
+trailing down her nose. "Then you will be all well, Polly?"
+
+"Then I shall be all as well as ever," said Polly, kissing the wet
+little face.
+
+When they got ready to begin on the letter again, it was nowhere to be
+found, and Tom had disappeared as well.
+
+"He took it out," said Adela, for the first time finding her tongue. "I
+saw him while you were all talking."
+
+While they were wondering over this and were plunged further yet in
+dismay, Tom came dancing in, waving the unlucky sheet of the Round
+Robin over his head. "My mother says," he announced in triumph, "that
+father will get no end of fun over that if you let it go. It will cheer
+him up."
+
+So that ended the matter, although Polly, who dearly loved to be
+elegant, had many a twinge whenever her eye fell on the letter at which
+Phronsie was now labouring afresh.
+
+"We must put in little pictures," said Polly, trying to make herself
+cheery as the work went busily on.
+
+"Polly, you always do think of the best things!" exclaimed Jasper,
+beaming at her, which made her try harder than ever to smile. "I
+wouldn't feel so badly, Polly," he managed to whisper, when Phronsie
+was absorbed with her work; "he'll like it probably just as father did
+the gingerbread boy."
+
+"But that was different," groaned Polly.
+
+"Pictures!" Tom Selwyn was saying, "oh, there's where I can come in
+fine with assistance. I'm no good in a letter." And again he rushed
+from the room.
+
+"That's three times that boy has gone out," announced Adela, "and he
+joggles the table awfully when he starts. And he made me cut clear into
+that edge. See, Polly." She was trimming the third strip of paper, for
+the Round Robin was to be pasted together and rolled up when it was all
+done.
+
+"He seems to accomplish something every time he goes," observed Jasper,
+drily. "Halloo, just look at him now!"
+
+In came Tom with a rush, and turned a small box he held in his hand
+upside down on the table.
+
+"O dear me!" exclaimed Adela, as her scissors slipped, "now you've
+joggled the table again!" Then she caught Polly's eye. "Aren't those
+pictures pretty?" she burst out awkwardly.
+
+"Aren't they so!" cried Tom, in satisfaction, while Polly oh-ed and
+ah-ed, and Phronsie dropped her pen suddenly making a second blot; only
+as good fortune would have it, it was so near the edge that they all on
+anxious examination decided to trim the paper down, and thus get rid of
+it.
+
+"I don't see how you got so many," said Jasper, in admiration, his
+fingers busy with the heap.
+
+"Oh, I've picked 'em up here and there," said Tom. "I began because I
+thought the kids at home might like 'em. And then it struck me I'd make
+a book like yours."
+
+"Well, do save them now," said Jasper, "and we'll give some of our
+pictures, though the prettiest ones are in our books," he added
+regretfully.
+
+"Rather not--much obliged," Tom bobbed his thanks. "I want to donate
+something to granddaddy, and I tell you I'm something awful at a
+letter."
+
+"All right, seeing you wish it so," said Jasper, with a keen look at
+him, "and these are beauties and no mistake; we couldn't begin to equal
+them."
+
+When the letter was finally unrolled and read to Grandpapa, who strayed
+into the reading room to see what Phronsie was doing, it certainly was
+a beauty. Picture after picture, cut from railroad guide books,
+illustrated papers, and it seemed to Jasper gathered as if by magic,
+with cunning little photographs, broke up the letter, and wound in and
+out with funny and charming detail of some of their journey.
+
+"I wrote that all myself," hummed Phronsie, smoothing her gown, in
+great satisfaction, pointing to the opening of the letter.
+
+"O dear me!" exclaimed Polly, softly, for she couldn't even yet get
+over that dreadful beginning.
+
+"The rest of it is nice," whispered Jasper, "and I venture to say,
+he'll like that the best of all."
+
+Mr. King thought so, too, and he beamed at Phronsie. "So you did," he
+cried; "now that's fine. I wish you'd write me a letter sometime."
+
+"I'm going to write you one now," declared Phronsie. Since Grandpapa
+wanted anything, it was never too soon to begin work on it.
+
+"Do," cried old Mr. King, in great satisfaction. So he put down the
+Round Robin, Adela crying out that she wanted her grandmother to see
+it; and Polly saying that Mamsie, and Papa-Doctor, and the Parson and
+Mrs. Henderson must see it; "and most important of all," said Jasper,
+breaking into the conversation, "Mrs. Selwyn must say if it is all
+right to go."
+
+At that Polly began to have little "creeps" as she always called the
+shivers. "O dear me!" she exclaimed again, and turned quite pale.
+
+"You don't know my mother," exclaimed Tom, "if you think she won't like
+that. She's got lots of fun in her, and she always sees the sense of a
+thing."
+
+"But she's so nice," breathed Polly, who greatly admired Mrs. Selwyn,
+"and so elegant."
+
+Tom bobbed his head and accepted this as a matter of course. "That's
+the very reason she understands things like a shot--and knows how to
+take 'em," he said; "and I tell you, Polly," he declared with a burst
+of confidence that utterly surprised him, "I'd rather have my mother
+than any other company I know of; she's awful good fun!"
+
+"I know it," said Polly, brightly, with a little answering smile.
+"Well, I hope she'll like it."
+
+"Never you fear," cried Tom, seizing the Round Robin; and waving it
+over his head, it trailed off back of him like a very long and broad
+ribbon. "Come on, now, all fall into line!"
+
+"Take care!" cried Jasper, as he ran after with Polly and Adela, "if
+you dare to tear that, sir!" while Phronsie at the big table laboured
+away on her letter, Grandpapa sitting by to watch the proceedings, with
+the greatest interest.
+
+And one look at Mrs. Selwyn's face, as she read that Round Robin, was
+enough for Polly! And then to post it.
+
+"Dear me," said Polly, when that important matter was concluded,
+"suppose anything should happen to it now, before it gets there!"
+
+
+
+
+XXV
+
+ON THE _MER DE GLACE_
+
+
+"Well, we can't all get into one carriage," said Polly, on the little
+brick-paved veranda of the hotel, "so what is the use of fussing,
+Adela?"
+
+"I don't care," said Adela, "I'm going to ride in the same carriage
+with you, Polly Pepper, so there!" and she ran her arm in Polly's, and
+held it fast.
+
+Jasper kicked his heel impatiently against one of the pillars where the
+sweetbrier ran; then he remembered, and stopped suddenly, hoping nobody
+had heard. "The best way to fix it is to go where we are put," he said
+at last, trying to speak pleasantly.
+
+"No, I'm going with Polly," declared Adela, perversely, holding Polly
+tighter than ever.
+
+"I'm going with you, Polly," cried Phronsie, running up gleefully,
+"Grandpapa says I may."
+
+"Well, so am I," announced Adela, loudly.
+
+Tom Selwyn gave a low whistle, and thrust his hands in his pockets, his
+great and only comfort on times like these.
+
+"Anything but a greedy girl," he sniffed in lofty contempt.
+
+Meanwhile the horses were being put in the carriages, the stable men
+were running hither and thither to look to buckle and strap, and a lot
+of bustle was going on that at any other time would have claimed the
+boys. Now it fell flat, as a matter of interest.
+
+"Halloo--k-lup!" The drivers gave the queer call clear down in their
+throats, and hopped to their places on the three conveyances, and with
+a rattle and a flourish the horses now spun around the fountain in the
+little courtyard to come up with a swing to the veranda.
+
+"Now, then," said Grandpapa, who had been overseeing every detail,
+"here we are," running his eyes over his party; "that's right," in
+great satisfaction. "I never saw such a family as I have for being
+prompt on all occasions. Well then, the first thing I have to do is to
+get you settled in these carriages the right way."
+
+Adela, at that, snuggled up closer than ever to Polly, and gripped her
+fast.
+
+"Now, Mrs. Fisher," said old Mr. King, "you'll ride with Mrs. Selwyn in
+the first carriage, and you must take two of the young folks in with
+you."
+
+"Oh, let Polly and me go in there!" cried Adela, forgetting her
+wholesome fear of the stately old gentleman in her anxiety to get her
+own way.
+
+"Polly is going with me and Phronsie," said Mr. King. "Hop in, Adela,
+child, and one of you boys."
+
+Tom ducked off the veranda, while Adela, not daring to say another
+syllable, slowly withdrew her arm from Polly's and mounted the carriage
+step, with a miserable face.
+
+"Come on, one of you boys," cried Mr. King, impatiently. "We should
+have started a quarter of an hour ago--I don't care which one, only
+hurry."
+
+"I can't!" declared Tom, flatly, grinding his heel into the pebbles,
+and looking into Jasper's face.
+
+"Very well,"--Jasper drew a long breath,--"I must, then." And without
+more ado, he got into the first carriage and they rattled off to wait
+outside the big gate till the procession was ready to start.
+
+Old Mrs. Gray, the parson's wife and the parson, and little Dr. Fisher
+made the next load, and then Grandpapa, perfectly delighted that he had
+arranged it all so nicely, with Polly and Phronsie, climbed into the
+third and last carriage, while Tom swung himself up as a fourth.
+
+"They say it is a difficult thing to arrange carriage parties with
+success," observed Mr. King. "I don't find it so in the least," he
+added, complacently, just on the point of telling the driver to give
+the horses their heads. "But that is because I've such a fine party on
+my hands, where each one is willing to oblige, and--"
+
+"Ugh!" exclaimed Tom Selwyn, with a snort that made the old gentleman
+start. "I'm going to get out a minute--excuse me--can't explain." And
+he vaulted over the wheel.
+
+"Bless me, what's come to the boy!" exclaimed Mr. King; "now he's
+forgotten something. I hope he won't be long."
+
+But Tom didn't go into the hotel. Instead, he dashed up to carriage
+number one. "Get out," he was saying to Jasper, and presenting a very
+red face to view. "I'm going in here."
+
+"Oh, no," said Jasper; "it's all fixed, and I'm going to stay here."
+And despite all Tom could say, this was the sole reply he got. So back
+he went, and climbed into old Mr. King's carriage again, with a very
+rueful face.
+
+Old Mr. King viewed him with cold displeasure as the driver smacked his
+whip and off they went to join the rest of the party.
+
+"You must go first," sang out the little doctor, as Grandpapa's
+carriage drove up; "you are the leader, and we'll all follow you."
+
+"Yes, yes," shouted the parson, like a boy.
+
+And the occupants of carriage number one saying the same thing,
+Grandpapa's conveyance bowled ahead; and he, well pleased to head the
+procession, felt some of his displeasure at the boy sitting opposite to
+him dropping off with each revolution of the wheels.
+
+But Tom couldn't keep still. "I didn't want to come in this carriage,
+sir!" he burst out.
+
+"Eh! what?" Old Mr. King brought his gaze again to bear upon Tom's face.
+
+"Well, you are here now," he said, only half comprehending.
+
+"Because Jasper won't take the place," cried Tom, setting his teeth
+together in distress. "That's what I got out for."
+
+"Oh, I see," said Mr. King, a light beginning to break through.
+
+Tom wilted miserably under the gaze that still seemed to go through and
+through him, and Polly looked off at her side of the carriage, wishing
+the drive over the _Tete Noire_ was all ended. Old Mr. King turned to
+Phronsie at his side.
+
+"Well, now," he said, taking her hand, "we are in a predicament,
+Phronsie, for it evidently isn't going to be such an overwhelming
+success as I thought."
+
+"What is a predicament?" asked Phronsie, wrenching her gaze from the
+lovely vine-clad hills, which she had been viewing with great
+satisfaction, to look at once into his face.
+
+"Oh, a mix-up; a mess generally," answered Grandpapa, not pausing to
+choose words. "Well, what's to be done, now,--that is the question?"
+
+Tom groaned at sight of the face under the white hair, from which all
+prospect of pleasure had fled. "I was a beastly cad," he muttered to
+himself.
+
+Phronsie leaned over Mr. King's knee. "Tell me," she begged, "what is
+it, Grandpapa?"
+
+"Oh, nothing, child," said Grandpapa, with a glance at Polly's face,
+"that you can help, at least."
+
+Polly drew a long breath. "Something must be done," she decided. "Oh, I
+know. Why, Grandpapa, we can change before we get to the halfway
+place," she cried suddenly, glad to think of something to say. "Can't
+we? And then we can all have different places."
+
+"The very thing!" exclaimed Mr. King, his countenance lightening.
+"Come, Tom, my boy, cheer up. I'll put Jasper and every one else in the
+right place soon. Here you, stop a bit, will you?"--to the driver.
+
+"K-lup!" cried the driver, thinking it a call to increase speed; so the
+horses bounded on smartly for several paces, and no one could speak to
+advantage.
+
+"Make him hold up, Tom!" commanded Mr. King, sharply. And Tom knowing
+quite well how to accomplish this, Grandpapa soon stood up in the
+carriage and announced, "In half an hour, or thereabout, if we come to
+a good stopping-place, I shall change some of you twelve people about
+in the carriages. Pass the word along."
+
+But Adela didn't ride with Polly. For rushing and pushing as the change
+about was effected, to get her way and be with Polly, she felt her arm
+taken in a very light but firm grasp.
+
+"No, no, my dear,"--it was old Mr. King,--"not that way. Here is your
+place. When a little girl pushes, she doesn't get as much as if she
+waits to be asked."
+
+"It had to be done," he said to himself, "for the poor child has had no
+mother to teach her, and it will do her good." But he felt sorry for
+himself to be the one to teach the lesson. And so they went over the
+_Tete Noire_ to catch the first sight of Mont Blanc.
+
+      *      *      *      *      *
+
+"I'm going to have a donkey for my very own," confided Phronsie,
+excitedly, the next morning, to Jasper, whom she met in the little
+sun-parlour.
+
+"No!" cried Jasper, pretending to be much amazed, "you don't say so,
+Phronsie!"
+
+"Yes, I am," she cried, bobbing her yellow head. "Grandpapa said so; he
+really did, Jasper. And I'm going to ride up that long, big mountain on
+my donkey." She pointed up and off, but in the wrong direction.
+
+"Oh, no, Phronsie, that isn't the way we are going. The Montanvert is
+over here, child," corrected Jasper.
+
+"And I'm going to ride my donkey," repeated Phronsie, caring little
+which way she was going, since all roads must of course lead to
+fairy-land, "and we're going to see the water that's frozen, and
+Grandpapa says we are to walk over it; but I'd rather ride my donkey,
+Jasper," confided Phronsie, in a burst of confidence.
+
+"I guess you'll be glad enough to get off from your donkey by the time
+you reach the top of Montanvert," observed Jasper, wisely.
+
+"Well, now, Phronsie, we are not going for a day or two, you know, for
+father doesn't wish us to be tired."
+
+"I'm not a bit tired, Jasper," said Phronsie, "and I do so very much
+wish we could go to-day."
+
+"O dear me!" exclaimed Jasper, with a little laugh, "why, we've only
+just come, Phronsie! It won't be so very long before we'll be off.
+Goodness! the time flies so here, it seems to me we sha'n't hardly turn
+around before those donkeys will be coming into this yard after us to
+get on their backs."
+
+But Phronsie thought the time had never dragged so in all her small
+life; and, although she went about hanging to Grandpapa's hand as sweet
+and patient as ever, all her mind was on the donkeys; and whenever she
+saw one,--and the street was full, especially at morning and in the
+late afternoon, of the little beasts of burden, clattering up the stony
+roads,--she would beg to just go and pat one of the noses, if by chance
+one of the beasts should stand still long enough to admit of such
+attention.
+
+"Oh, no, Phronsie," expostulated old Mr. King, when this pleasing
+little performance had been indulged in for a half a dozen times. "You
+can't pat them all; goodness me, child, the woods are full of them," he
+brought up in dismay.
+
+"Do they live in the woods?" asked Phronsie, in astonishment.
+
+"I mean, the place--this whole valley of Chamonix is full of donkeys,"
+said Grandpapa, "so you see, child, it's next to impossible to pat all
+their noses."
+
+"I hope I'm going to have that dear, sweet little one," cried Phronsie,
+giving up all her mind, since the soft noses couldn't be patted, to
+happy thoughts of to-morrow's bliss. "See, Grandpapa," she pulled his
+hand gently, "to ride up the mountain on."
+
+"Well, you'll have a good one, that is, as good as can be obtained,"
+said the old gentleman; "but as for any particular one, why, they're
+all alike to me as two peas, Phronsie."
+
+But Phronsie had her own ideas on the subject, and though on every
+other occasion agreeing with Grandpapa, she saw good and sufficient
+reason why every donkey should be entirely different from every other
+donkey. And when, on the next morning, their procession of donkeys
+filed solemnly into the hotel yard, she screamed out, "Oh, Grandpapa,
+here he is, the very one I wanted! Oh, may I have him? Put me up, do!"
+
+"He's the worst one of the whole lot," groaned Grandpapa, his eye
+running over the file, "I know by the way he puts his vicious old feet
+down. Phronsie, here is a cunning little fellow," he added, artfully
+trying to lead her to one a few degrees better, he fondly hoped. But
+Phronsie already had her arms up by her particular donkey's neck, and
+her cheek laid against his nose, and she was telling him that he was
+her donkey, for she thought Grandpapa would say "Yes." So what else
+could he do, pray tell, but say "Yes"? And she mounted the steps, and
+was seated, her little brown gown pulled out straight, and the saddle
+girth tightened, and all the other delightful and important details
+attended to, and then the reins were put in her overjoyed hands.
+
+She never knew how it was all done, seeing nothing, hearing nothing of
+the confusion and chatter, of the mounting of the others, her gaze
+fixed on the long ears before her, and only conscious that her very own
+donkey was really there, and that she was on his back. And it was not
+until they started and the guide who held her bridle loped off into an
+easy pace, by the animal's head, that she aroused from her dream of
+bliss as a sudden thought struck her. "What is my donkey's name?" she
+asked softly.
+
+The man loped on, not hearing, and he wouldn't have understood had he
+heard.
+
+"I don't believe he has any name," said old Mr. King just behind.
+"Phronsie, is your saddle all right? Do you like it, child?" all in one
+breath.
+
+"I like it very much," answered Phronsie, trying to turn around.
+
+"Don't do that, child," said Grandpapa, hastily. "Sit perfectly still,
+and on no account turn around or move in the saddle."
+
+"I won't, Grandpapa," she promised, obediently, and presently she began
+again, "I want to know his name, Grandpapa, so that I can tell my pony
+when I get home."
+
+"Oh, well, we'll find out," said Grandpapa. "Here you, can't you tell
+the name of that donkey?" he cried to the guide holding Phronsie's
+bridle. "Oh, I forgot, he doesn't understand English," and he tried it
+in French.
+
+But this was not much better, for old Mr. King, preferring to use none
+but the best of French when he employed any, was only succeeding in
+mystifying the poor man so that he couldn't find his tongue at all, but
+stared like a clod till the old gentleman's patience was exhausted.
+
+At last Jasper, hearing what the trouble was, shouted out something
+from his position in the rear, that carried the meaning along with it,
+and Phronsie the next minute was delighted to hear "Boolah," as the
+guide turned and smiled and showed all his teeth at her, his pleasure
+was so great at discovering that he could really understand.
+
+"Why, that's the name of my donkey," said Polly, patting the beast's
+rough neck. "He told me so when he helped me to mount."
+
+"So it is mine," announced Jasper, bursting into a laugh. "I guess they
+only have one name for the whole lot."
+
+"Well, don't let us tell Phronsie so," said Polly, "and I shall call
+mine 'Greybeard' because he's got such a funny old stiff beard and it
+is grey."
+
+"And I shall christen mine 'Boneyard,'" declared Jasper, "for he's got
+such a very big lot of bones, and they aren't funny, I can tell you."
+
+And so with fun and nonsense and laughter, as soon as they wound around
+by the little English church and across the meadows, and struck into
+the pine wood, the whole party of twelve, Grandpapa and all, began to
+sing snatches from the newest operas down to college songs. For
+Grandpapa hadn't forgotten his college days when he had sung with the
+best, and he had the parson on this occasion to keep him company, and
+the young people, of course, knew all the songs by heart, as what young
+person doesn't, pray tell! So the bits and snatches rolled out with a
+gusto, and seemed to echo along the whole mountain side as the
+procession of sure-footed animals climbed the steep curves.
+
+"Oh, Polly, your donkey is going over," exclaimed Adela, who rode the
+second in the rear after Polly; "he flirts his hind legs right over the
+precipice every time you go round a curve."
+
+"Well, he brings them round all right," said Polly, composedly; and,
+with a little laugh, "Oh, isn't this too lovely for anything!" she
+cried, with sparkling eyes.
+
+"Well, don't let him," cried Adela, huddling up on her donkey, and
+pulling at the rein to make him creep closer to the protecting earth
+wall.
+
+"Na--na," one of the guides ran up to her, shaking his head. Adela,
+fresh from her Paris school had all her French, of the best kind too,
+at her tongue's end, but she seemed to get on no better than Mr. King.
+
+"My French is just bad enough to be useful," laughed Jasper. So he
+untangled the trouble again, and made Adela see that she really must
+not pull at her bridle, but allow the donkey to go his own gait, for
+they were all trained to it.
+
+"Your French is just beautiful," cried Polly. "Oh, Jasper, you know
+Monsieur always says--"
+
+"Don't, Polly," begged Jasper, in great distress.
+
+"No, I won't," promised Polly, "and I didn't mean to. But I couldn't
+help it, Jasper, when you spoke against your beautiful French."
+
+"We've all heard you talk French, Jasper, so you needn't feel so cut up
+if Polly should quote your Monsieur," cried Tom, who, strange to say,
+no matter how far he chanced to ride in the rear, always managed to
+hear everything.
+
+"That's because we are everlastingly turning a corner," he explained,
+when they twitted him for it, "and as I'm near the end of the line I
+get the benefit of the doubling and twisting, for the front is always
+just above me. So don't say anything you don't want me to hear, old
+fellow," he sang out to Jasper on the bridle path "just above," as Tom
+had said.
+
+"Now, don't you want to get off?" cried Jasper, deserting his donkey,
+and running up to Phronsie, as they reached the summit and drew up
+before the hotel.
+
+"Oh, somebody take that child off," groaned old Mr. King, accepting the
+arm of the guide to help him dismount, "for I can't. Every separate and
+distinct bone in my body protests against donkeys from this time forth
+and forevermore. And yet I've got to go down on one," he added ruefully.
+
+"No, I don't want to get down," declared Phronsie, still holding fast
+to the reins; "can't I sit on my donkey, Jasper, while you all walk
+over on the frozen water?"
+
+"Oh, my goodness, no!" gasped Jasper. "Why, Phronsie, you'd be tired to
+death--the very idea, child!"
+
+"No," said Phronsie, shaking her yellow hair obstinately, "I wouldn't
+be tired one single bit, Jasper. And I don't want to get down from my
+donkey."
+
+"Well, if you didn't go over the _Mer de Glace_, why, we couldn't any
+of us go," said Jasper, at his wits' end how to manage it without
+worrying his father, already extremely tired, he could see, "and that's
+what we've come up for--"
+
+Phronsie dropped the reins. "Take me down, please, Jasper," she said,
+putting out her arms.
+
+"How are you now, father?" cried Jasper, running over to him when he
+had set Phronsie on the ground.
+
+"It's astonishing," said old Mr. King, stretching his shapely limbs,
+"but all that dreadful sensation I always have after riding on one of
+those atrocious animals is disappearing fast."
+
+"That's good," cried Jasper, in delight. "Well, I suppose we are all
+going to wait a bit?" he asked, and longing to begin the tramp over the
+_Mer de Glace_.
+
+"Wait? Yes, indeed, every blessed one of us," declared his father.
+"Goodness me, Jasper, what are you thinking of to ask such a question,
+after this pull up here? Why, we sha'n't stir from this place for an
+hour."
+
+"I supposed we'd have to wait," said Jasper, rushing off over the
+rocks, feeling how good it was to get down on one's feet again, and run
+and race. And getting Polly and Tom and Adela, they ran down where the
+donkeys were tethered and saw them fed, and did a lot of exploring; and
+it didn't seem any time before an Alpine horn sounded above their
+heads, and there was Grandpapa, tooting away and calling them to come
+up and buy their woollen socks; for they were going to start.
+
+So they scrambled up, and picked out their socks, and, each seizing a
+pair in one hand and an alpenstock with a long, sharp spike on the end
+in the other, they ran off down the zigzag path to the glacier, two or
+three guides helping the others along. At the foot of the rocky path
+the four drew up.
+
+"O dear, it's time to put on these horrible old stockings," grumbled
+Adela, shaking hers discontentedly.
+
+"'Good old stockings,' you'd much better say," broke in Jasper.
+
+"They're better than a broken neck," observed Tom, just meaning to ask
+Polly if he could put hers on for her. But he was too slow in getting
+at it, and Jasper was already kneeling on the rocks and doing that very
+thing.
+
+"Now I'm all ready," announced Polly, stamping her feet, arrayed in
+marvellous red-and-white striped affairs. "Thank you, Jasper. Oh, how
+funny they feel!"
+
+"Shall I help you?" asked Tom, awkwardly enough, of Adela.
+
+"Oh, I don't want them on, and I don't mean to wear them," said Adela,
+with a sudden twist. "I'm going to throw them away."
+
+"Then you'll just have to stay back," said Jasper, decidedly, "for no
+one is to be allowed on that glacier who doesn't put on a pair."
+
+"I won't slip--the idea!" grumbled Adela. Yet she stuck out her foot,
+and Tom, getting down on his knees, suppressed a whistle as he securely
+tied them on. Then the boys flew into theirs instanter.
+
+"Mine are blue," said Phronsie, as the others filed slowly down the
+winding path between the rocks, and she pointed to the pair dangling
+across her arm. "I am so very glad they are blue, Grandpapa."
+
+"So am I, Pet," he cried, delighted to find that he was apparently as
+agile as the parson. No one could hope to equal little Dr. Fisher, who
+was here, there, and everywhere, skipping about among the rocks like a
+boy let loose from school.
+
+"Well, well, the children are all ready," exclaimed old Mr. King,
+coming upon the four, impatient to begin their icy walk.
+
+"Didn't you expect it?" cried little Dr. Fisher, skipping up.
+
+"Well, to say the truth, I did," answered old Mr. King, with a laugh.
+"Now, Phronsie, sit down on that rock, and let the guide tie on your
+stockings." So Phronsie's little blue stockings were tied on, and after
+Grandpapa had gallantly seen that everybody else was served, he had his
+pulled on over his boots and fastened securely, and the line of march
+was taken up.
+
+"You go ahead, father," begged Jasper, "and we'll all follow."
+
+So old Mr. King, with Phronsie and a guide on her farther side, led the
+way, and the red stockings and the brown and the black, and some of
+indescribable hue, moved off upon the _Mer de Glace_.
+
+"It's dreadfully dirty," said Adela, turning up her nose. "I thought a
+glacier was white when you got up to it."
+
+"Oh, I think it is lovely!" cried Polly; "and that green down in the
+crevasse--look, Adela!"
+
+"It's a dirty green," persisted Adela, whose artistic sense wouldn't be
+satisfied. "O dear me!" as her foot slipped and she clutched Mrs.
+Henderson, who happened to be next.
+
+"Now, how about the woollen stockings?" asked Tom, while Polly and
+Jasper both sang out, "Take care," and "Go slowly."
+
+Adela didn't answer, but stuck the sharp end of her alpenstock smartly
+into the ice.
+
+"Something is the matter with my stocking," at last said the parson's
+wife, stopping and holding out her right foot.
+
+The guide nearest her stopped, too, and kneeling down on the ice, he
+pulled it into place, for it had slipped half off.
+
+"Now be very careful," warned Grandpapa, "and don't venture too near
+the edge," as he paused with Phronsie and the guide. The others, coming
+up, looked down into a round, green pool of water that seemed to stare
+up at them, as if to say, "I am of unknown depth, so beware of me."
+
+"That gives me the 'creeps,' Polly, as you say," Mrs. Henderson
+observed. "Dear me, I shall never forget how that green water looks;"
+and she shivered and edged off farther yet. "Supposing any one _should_
+fall in!"
+
+"Well, he'd go down right straight through the globe, seems to me,"
+said Tom, with a last look at the pool as they turned off, "It looks as
+if it had no end, till one would fetch up on the other side."
+
+"I love to hop over these little crevasses," said Polly, and suiting
+the action to the word.
+
+"Something is the matter with my stocking again," announced Mrs.
+Henderson to the guide, presently. "I am sorry to trouble you, but it
+needs to be fixed."
+
+He didn't understand the words, but there was no mistaking the foot
+thrust out with the woollen sock, now wet and sodden, half off again.
+So he kneeled down and pulled it on once more.
+
+Before they reached the other side, the parson's wife had had that
+stocking pulled on six times, until at last, the guide, finding no more
+pleasure in a repetition of the performance, took a string from his
+pocket, and bunching up in his fist a good portion of the stocking
+heel, he wound the string around it and tied it fast, cut off the
+string, and returned the rest to his pocket.
+
+"Why do you tie up the heel?" queried Mrs. Henderson. "I should think
+it much better to secure it in front." But he didn't understand, and
+the rest were quite a good bit in advance, and hating to give trouble,
+she went on, the stocking heel sticking out a few inches. But she kept
+it on her foot, so that might be called a success.
+
+The little Widow Gray was not going over the _Mauvais Pas_, neither was
+Mrs. Selwyn, as she had traversed it twice before. So, on reaching the
+other side, they were just about bidding good-by to the others, when,
+without a bit of warning, the parson's wife, in turning around, fell
+flat, and disappeared to the view of some of them behind a boulder of
+ice.
+
+All was confusion in an instant. The guides rushed--everybody
+rushed--pellmell to the rescue; Tom's long legs, as usual, getting him
+there first. There she was in a heap, in a depression of ice and snow
+and water.
+
+"I'm all right, except"--and she couldn't help a grimace of pain--"my
+foot."
+
+The little doctor swept them all to one side, as they seated her on one
+of the boulders of ice. "Humph! I should think likely," at sight of the
+tied-up stocking heel. "You stepped on that, and it flung you straight
+as a die and turned your foot completely over."
+
+"Yes," said Mrs. Henderson. Then she saw the guide who had tied the
+stocking looking on with a face of great concern. "Oh, don't say
+anything, it makes him feel badly," she mumbled, wishing her foot
+wouldn't ache so.
+
+Little Dr. Fisher was rapidly untying the unlucky stocking; and,
+whipping off the boot, he soon made sure that no ligaments were broken.
+Then he put on the boot and the woollen sock, being careful to tie it
+in front over the instep, and whipping out his big handkerchief he
+proceeded to bandage the ankle in a truly scientific way. "Now, then,
+Mrs. Henderson, you are all right to take the walk slowly back to the
+hotel."
+
+Parson Henderson took his wife's hand. "Come, Sarah," he said, gently
+helping her up.
+
+"Oh, you are going over the _Mauvais Pas_," she cried in distress at
+the thought of his missing it.
+
+"Come, Sarah," he said gently, keeping her hand in his.
+
+"I'll go back with her too," said little Dr. Fisher.
+
+"Oh, Adoniram!" exclaimed his wife, but it was under her breath, and no
+one heard the exclamation.
+
+"I think Dr. Fisher ought to go with the other party; he will be needed
+there," Mrs. Selwyn was saying, in her quiet way. "And I will bathe
+Mrs. Henderson's foot just as he says it should be done, so good-by,"
+and any one looking down with a field glass from the Montanvert hotel,
+could have seen at this point, two parties, one proceeding to the
+_Mauvais Pas_ and the _Chapeau_, and the other of three ladies, the
+parson and a guide, wending their way slowly on the return across the
+crevasses.
+
+
+
+
+XXVI
+
+"WELL, HERE WE ARE IN PARIS!"
+
+
+Notwithstanding all the glory of the shops, and the tempting array of
+the jewellery and trinkets of every description therein displayed,
+after a few days of sailing on the exquisite lake, and some walks and
+drives, Polly, down deep in her heart, was quite ready to move on from
+Geneva. And, although she didn't say anything, old Mr. King guessed as
+much, and broke out suddenly, "Well, are you ready to start, Polly?"
+
+"Yes, Grandpapa," she answered. "I have the presents for the girls. I'm
+all ready."
+
+"Why, Polly, you haven't anything for yourself," Mother Fisher
+exclaimed, as Polly ran into her room and told the news--how Grandpapa
+said they were to pack up and leave in the morning. "You haven't bought
+a single thing."
+
+"Oh, I don't want anything," said Polly. "I've so many things at home
+that Grandpapa has given me. Mamsie, isn't this pin for Alexia just too
+lovely for anything?"
+
+She curled up on the end of the bed, and drew it out of its little box.
+"I think she'll like it," with anxious eyes on Mother Fisher's face.
+
+"Like it?" repeated her mother. "How can she help it, Polly?"
+
+"I think so too," said Polly, happily, replacing it on the bed of
+cotton, and putting on the cover to look over another gift.
+
+Mrs. Fisher regarded her keenly. "Well, now, Polly," she said,
+decidedly, "I shall go down and get that chain we were looking at. For
+you do need that, and your father and I are going to give it to you."
+
+"Oh, Mamsie," protested Polly, "I don't need it; really, I don't."
+
+"Well, we shall give it to you," said Mother Fisher. Then she went over
+to the bed and dropped a kiss on Polly's brown hair.
+
+"Mamsie," exclaimed Polly, springing off the bed, and throwing her arms
+around her mother's neck, "I shall love that chain, and I shall wear it
+just all the time because you and Papa-Doctor gave it to me."
+
+When they neared Paris, Adela drew herself up in her corner of the
+compartment. "I expect you'll stare some when you get to Paris, Polly
+Pepper."
+
+"I've been staring all the time since we started on our journey, Adela,
+as hard as I could," said Polly, laughing.
+
+"Well, you'll stare worse than ever now," said Adela, in an important
+way. "There isn't anything in all this world that isn't in Paris," she
+brought up, not very elegantly.
+
+"I don't like Paris." Tom let the words out before he thought.
+
+"That's just because you are a boy," sniffed Adela. "Oh, Polly, you
+ought to see the shops! When Mademoiselle has taken us into some, I
+declare I could stay all day in one. Such dreams of clothes and
+bonnets! You never saw such bonnets, Polly Pepper, in all your life!"
+She lifted her hands, unable to find words enough.
+
+"And the parks and gardens, I suppose, are perfectly lovely," cried
+Polly, feeling as if she must get away from the bonnets and clothes.
+
+"Yes, and the Bois de Boulogne to drive in, that's elegant. Only
+Mademoiselle won't take us there very often. I wish I was rich, and I'd
+have a span of long-tailed, grey horses, and drive up and down there
+every day."
+
+Polly laughed. "Well, I should like the tram-ways and the stages," said
+Polly.
+
+"Oh, those don't go into the Bois de Boulogne," cried Adela, in a tone
+of horror. "Why, Polly Pepper, what are you thinking of?" she exclaimed.
+
+This nettled Tom. "Of something besides clothes and bonnets," he broke
+out. Then he was sorry he had spoken.
+
+"Well, there's the Louvre," said Polly, after an uncomfortable little
+pause.
+
+"Yes," said Adela, "that's best of all, and it doesn't cost anything;
+so Mademoiselle takes us there very often."
+
+"I should think it would be," cried Polly, beaming at her, and
+answering the first part of Adela's sentence. "Oh, Adela, I do so long
+to see it."
+
+"And you can't go there too often, Polly," said Jasper.
+
+"It's the only decent thing in Paris," said Tom, "that I like, I mean;
+that, and to sail up and down on the Seine."
+
+"We'll go there the first day, Polly," said Jasper, "the Louvre, I
+mean. Well, here we are in Paris!" And then it was all confusion, for
+the guards were throwing open the doors to the compartments, and
+streams of people were meeting on the platform, in what seemed to be
+inextricable confusion amid a babel of sounds. And it wasn't until
+Polly was driving up in the big cab with her part of Mr. King's
+"family," as he called it, through the broad avenues and boulevards,
+interspersed with occasional squares and gardens, and the beautiful
+bridges here and there across the Seine, gleaming in the sunshine, that
+she could realise that they were actually in Paris.
+
+And the next day they did go to the Louvre. And Adela, who was to stay
+a day or two at the hotel with them before going back into her school,
+was very important, indeed. And she piloted them about, the parson and
+Mrs. Henderson joining their group; the others, with the exception of
+the little Widow Gray, who stayed at home to look over Adela's clothes,
+and take any last stitches, going off by themselves.
+
+"I do want to see the Venus de Milo," said Polly, quite gone with
+impatience. "Oh, Adela, these paintings will wait."
+
+"Well, that old statue will wait, too," cried Adela, pulling her off
+into another gallery. "Now, Polly, Mademoiselle says, in point of art,
+the pictures in here are quite important."
+
+"Are they?" said poor Polly, listlessly.
+
+"Yes, they are," said Adela, twitching her sleeve, "and Mademoiselle
+brings us in this room every single time we come to the Louvre."
+
+"It's the early French school, you know," she brought up glibly.
+
+"Well, it's too early for us to take it in," said Tom. "Come, I'm for
+the Venus de Milo. It's this way;" and Adela was forced to follow,
+which she did in a discontented fashion.
+
+"Oh!" cried Polly, catching her breath, and standing quite still as she
+caught sight of the wonderful marble, instinct with life, at the end of
+the long corridor below stairs. "Why, she's smiling at us," as the
+afternoon sunshine streamed across the lovely face, to lose itself in
+the folds of the crimson curtain in the background.
+
+The parson folded his arms and drew in long breaths of delight. "It's
+worth fifty journeys over the ocean to once see that, Sarah," he said.
+
+"Do come back and look at the pictures," begged Adela, pulling Polly's
+arm again after a minute or two.
+
+"Oh, don't!" exclaimed Polly, under her breath. "Oh, she's _so_
+beautiful, Adela!"
+
+"Well, it's much better to see the pictures," said Adela. "And then we
+can come here again to-morrow."
+
+"Oh, I haven't seen this half enough," began Polly, "and I've wanted to
+for so long." Then she glanced at Adela's face. "Well, all right," she
+said, and turned off, to come directly into the path of Grandpapa, with
+Phronsie clinging to his hand, and the rest of his part of the "family"
+standing in silent admiration.
+
+"We thought we'd come here first," said old Mr. King. "I don't mean to
+see anything else to-day. The Venus de Milo is quite enough for me.
+To-morrow, now, we'll drop in again, and look at some of the pictures."
+
+"There is beauty enough in that statue," said a lady, who just passed
+them, to the gentleman with her, "to satisfy any one; but living beauty
+after all is most appealing. Just look at that child's face, Edward."
+
+They were guilty of standing in a niche at a little remove, and
+studying Phronsie with keen, critical eyes.
+
+"It's a wonderful type of beauty," said Edward; "yellow hair and brown
+eyes,--and such features."
+
+"I don't care about the features," said the lady, "it's the expression;
+the child hasn't a thought of herself, and that's wonderful to begin
+with."
+
+"That's about it," replied Edward, "and I suppose that's largely where
+the beauty lies, Evelyn."
+
+"Let us walk slowly down the corridor again," said Evelyn, "and then
+come up; otherwise we shall attract attention to be standing here and
+gazing at them."
+
+"And I'd like to see that little beauty again," remarked Edward, "I'll
+confess, Evelyn."
+
+So Evelyn and Edward continued to gaze at intervals at the living
+beauty, and Mr. King and his party were absorbed in the marble beauty;
+and Adela was running over in her mind how she meant to have Polly
+Pepper all to herself at the visit to the Louvre the next afternoon,
+when she would show her the pictures she specially liked.
+
+But they didn't any of them go to the Louvre that next day, as it
+happened. It was so beautifully bright and sunshiny, that Grandpapa
+said it would be wicked to pass the day indoors; so they had all the
+morning in a walk, and a sail on the Seine,--and that pleased Tom,--and
+all the afternoon, or nearly all, sitting up in state in carriages,
+driving up and down the Bois de Boulogne. And _that_ pleased Adela.
+
+And when they tired of driving, old Mr. King gave orders for the
+drivers to rest their horses. And then they all got out of the
+carriages, and walked about among the beautiful trees, and on the
+winding, sheltered paths.
+
+"It's perfectly lovely off there," said Polly, "and almost like the
+country," with a longing glance off into the green, cool shade beyond.
+So they strolled off there, separating into little groups; Polly and
+Jasper in front, and wishing for nothing so much as a race.
+
+"I should think we might try it," said Jasper; "there is no one near to
+see. Come on, Polly, do."
+
+"I suppose we ought not to," said Polly, with a sigh, as Adela overtook
+them.
+
+"Ought not to what?" she asked eagerly.
+
+"Jasper and I were wanting to run a race," said Polly.
+
+"Why, Polly Pepper! You are in Paris!" exclaimed Adela, quite shocked.
+
+"I know it," said Polly, "and I wish we weren't. O dear! this seems
+just like the country, and--"
+
+Just then a child screamed. "That's Phronsie!" exclaimed Polly, her
+cheek turning quite white. And she sped back over the path.
+
+"Oh, no, Polly," Jasper tried to reassure her, as he ran after her.
+They were having their race, after all, but in a different way from
+what they had planned.
+
+"Dear me! you are running!" said Adela, who hadn't got it into her head
+what for, as she didn't connect the scream with any of their party. And
+she walked just as fast as she could to catch up with them. As that was
+impossible, she gave a hasty glance around the shrubbery, and seeing no
+one to notice her, she broke out into a lively run.
+
+"Yes, Phronsie," Grandpapa was saying, as the young people had left
+them, and the others had wandered off to enjoy the quiet, shady paths,
+"this place was the old Foret de Rouvray. It wasn't a very pretty place
+to come to in those days, what with the robbers and other bad people
+who infested it. And now let us go and find a seat, child, and I'll
+show you one or two little pictures I picked up in the shop this
+morning; and you can send them in your next letter, to Joel and David,
+if you like."
+
+Old Mr. King took out his pocket-book, and had just opened it, when a
+man darted out from the thick shrubbery behind him, cast a long,
+searching glance around, and quick as lightning, threw himself against
+the stately old gentleman, and seized the pocket-book.
+
+It was then that Phronsie screamed long and loud.
+
+"What ho!" exclaimed Mr. King, starting around to do battle; but the
+man was just disappearing around the clump of shrubbery.
+
+"Which way?" Tom Selwyn dashed up. It didn't seem as if Phronsie's cry
+had died on her lips.
+
+Old Mr. King pointed without a word. And Polly and Jasper were close at
+hand. Polly flew to Phronsie, who was clinging to Grandpapa's hand, and
+wailing bitterly. "What is it? Oh! what is it?" cried Polly.
+
+"My pocket-book," said Grandpapa; "some fellow has seized it, and
+frightened this poor child almost to death." He seemed to care a great
+deal more about that than any loss of the money.
+
+"Which way?" cried Jasper, in his turn, and was off like a shot on
+getting his answer.
+
+Tom saw the fellow slink with the manner of one who knew the ins and
+outs of the place well,--now gliding, and ducking low in the sparser
+growth, now making a bold run around some exposed curve, now dashing
+into a dense part of the wood.
+
+"I'll have you yet!" said Tom, through set teeth; "I haven't trained at
+school for nothing!"
+
+A thud of fast-flying feet in his rear didn't divert him an instant
+from his game, although it might be a rescue party for the thief, in
+the shape of a partner,--who could tell? And realising, if he caught
+the man at all, he must do one of his sprints, he covered the ground by
+a series of flying leaps,--dashed in where he saw his prey rush; one
+more leap with all his might, and--"I have you!" cried Tom.
+
+The man under him, thrown to the ground by the suddenness of Tom's leap
+on him, was wriggling and squirming with all the desperation of a
+trapped creature, when the individual with the flying footsteps hove in
+sight. It was Jasper. And they had just persuaded the robber that it
+would be useless to struggle longer against his fate, when the parson,
+running as he hadn't run for years, appeared to their view. And after
+him, at such a gait that would have been his fortune, in a professional
+way, was the little doctor. His hat was gone, and his toes scarcely
+seemed to touch the ground. He was last at the scene, simply because
+the news had only just reached him as he sauntered leisurely up to meet
+Mr. King in his promenade.
+
+When the thief saw him, he looked to see if any more were coming, and
+resigned himself at once and closed his eyes instinctively.
+
+He was a miserable-looking man--tall, thin, and stoop shouldered--they
+saw, when they got him on his feet. Unkempt and unwashed, his long,
+black hair hung around a face sallow in the extreme. And he shook so,
+as Tom and Jasper marched him back, escorted by the body-guard of the
+parson and the little doctor, that the two boys put their hands under
+his arms to help him along.
+
+"Well--well--well!" ejaculated Mr. King, as he saw this array. Polly
+gathered Phronsie's other hand in hers, while she clung closer than
+ever to Grandpapa.
+
+"Here's your pocket-book," said Tom, handing the article over; "he
+hasn't spent much."
+
+"Don't, Tom," said Jasper, "joke about it."
+
+"Can't help it," said Tom. "Well, now, shall we turn him over to the
+_sergents de ville?"_
+
+"Turn him over?" repeated Mr. King. "I should say so," he added drily,
+"and give him the best recommendation for a long term, too. What else
+is there to do, pray tell?"
+
+"Grandpapa," suddenly cried Phronsie, who hadn't taken her eyes from
+the man's face, "what are you going to do--where is he going?"
+
+"We are going to hand him over to the police, child," answered old Mr.
+King, harshly. "And as soon as possible, too."
+
+"Grandpapa, perhaps he's got some little children at home; ask him,
+Grandpapa, do."
+
+"No, no, Phronsie," said Mr. King, hastily. "Say no more, child; you
+don't understand. We must call the _sergents de ville."_
+
+At the words _sergents de ville_ the man shivered from head to foot,
+and wrenched his hands free from the boys' grasp to tear open his poor
+coat, and show a bare breast, covered with little, apparently, but the
+skin drawn over the bones. He didn't attempt to say anything.
+
+"Oh, my goodness!" exclaimed old Mr. King, starting backward and
+putting up his hands to his face to shut out the sight. "Cover it up,
+man--bless me--no need to ask him a question. Why, the fellow is
+starving."
+
+His little children--four of them--his wife--all starving--hadn't a bit
+to eat since, he could scarcely say when, it seemed so very long ago
+since he had eaten last--it all came out in a torrent of words that
+choked him, and like the true Frenchman that he was, he gestured in a
+way that told the story with his face and his fingers, as well as with
+his tongue.
+
+A _sergent de ville_ strolled by and looked curiously at the group, but
+as Mr. King met his eye coolly, and the party seemed intelligent and
+well able to take care of themselves, it wasn't necessary to tender his
+services--if they were talking to a worthless vagabond.
+
+"Hum--hum--very bad case; very bad case, indeed!" Mr. King was
+exploding at intervals, while the torrent was rushing on in execrable
+French as far as accent went. No one else of the spellbound group could
+have spoken if there had been occasion for a word. Then he pulled out
+the pocket-book again, and taking out several franc notes of a good
+size, he pressed them between the man's dirty fingers. "Go and get
+something to eat," was all he said, "and take care of the children."
+
+
+
+
+XVII
+
+"I'VE FOUND HIM!" EXCLAIMED JASPER
+
+
+And for the next few days Phronsie talked about the poor man, and
+wished they could see his children, and hoped he had bought them some
+nice things to eat, and worried over him because he was all skin and
+bones.
+
+"Ah! the bones were real, even if the children aren't," Grandpapa would
+say to himself. "Well, I suppose I have been taken in, but at least the
+fellow hasn't starved to death."
+
+And then off they would go sight-seeing as fast as possible, to take up
+the mind of Phronsie, who watched for Grandpapa's poor man in every
+wretched creature she saw. And there were plenty of them.
+
+And then Adela went back to school, happy in the thought of the little
+pile of sketches she had to show as her summer's work, and with ever so
+many studies and bits to finish up under Mademoiselle's direction; and
+little old Mrs. Gray, breathing blessings on Mr. King's head, departed
+for her English country home.
+
+"Now, then, I have ever so much shopping to do," announced old Mr.
+King, briskly, "and I shall want you to help me, Phronsie."
+
+"I'll help you, Grandpapa," promised Phronsie, well pleased, and
+gravely set herself to the task.
+
+So they wandered away by themselves, having the most blissful of times,
+and coming home to the hotel, they would gaily relate their adventures;
+and Phronsie would often carry a little parcel or two, which it was her
+greatest delight to do; and then the trail of big boxes would follow
+them as they were sent home to the hotel to tell of their experiences
+in the shops.
+
+"And Grandpapa is going to get me a new doll," announced Phronsie, on
+one of these days.
+
+"Do you mean a peasant doll to add to the collection?" asked Polly; for
+old Mr. King had bought a doll in the national costume in every country
+in which they had travelled, and they had been packed away, together
+with the other things as fast as purchased, and sent off home across
+the sea.
+
+"Yes," said Phronsie. "I do, Polly, and it's to be a most beautiful
+French doll--oh!"
+
+And sure enough, Mr. King, who knew exactly what kind of a doll he
+meant to purchase, and had kept his eyes open for it, stumbled upon it
+by a piece of rare good luck in a shop where he least expected to find
+it.
+
+"Oh, may I carry her home, Grandpapa?" begged Phronsie, hanging over
+the doll in a transport. "Please don't have her shut up in a box--but
+do let me carry her in my arms."
+
+"Oh, Phronsie, she's too big," objected Mr. King, "and very heavy."
+
+"Oh, Grandpapa, she's not heavy," cried Phronsie, not meaning to
+contradict, but so anxious not to have her child sent home shut up in a
+box, that she forgot herself.
+
+"Well, I don't know but what you may," said Grandpapa, relenting. "I
+will call a cab after we get through with this next shop," he
+reflected, "and it won't hurt her to carry the doll that short
+distance." So they came out of the shop, and deciding to take a short
+cut, they started across the boulevard, he taking the usual precaution
+to gather Phronsie's hand in his.
+
+As they were halfway across the street, with its constant stream of
+pedestrians and vehicles, a sudden gust of wind flapped the doll's pink
+silk cape up against Phronsie's eyes, and taking her hand away from
+Grandpapa's a second to pull down the cape, for she couldn't see, she
+slipped, and before she knew it, had fallen on top of the doll in the
+middle of the street.
+
+A reckless cabby, driving as only a French cabman can, came dashing
+down the boulevard directly in her path, while a heavily loaded omnibus
+going in the opposite direction was trying to get out of his way. Ever
+so many people screamed; and some one pulled Mr. King back as he
+started to pick her up. It was all done in an instant, and every person
+expected to see her killed, when a long, gaunt individual in a shabby
+coat dashed in among the plunging horses, knocked up the head of the
+one belonging to the reckless cabby, swung an arm at the other pair to
+divert their course, and before any one could quite tell how, he picked
+up Phronsie and bore her to the curbstone. Some one got Mr. King to the
+same point, too exhausted with fright to utter a word.
+
+When he came out of his shock, the shabby man was standing by Phronsie,
+the crowd that saw nothing in the incident to promise further
+diversion, having melted away, and she was holding his hand, her
+little, mud-stained face radiant with happiness. "Oh, Grandpapa," she
+piped out, "it's your poor man!"
+
+"The dickens it is!" exploded Mr. King. "Well, I'm glad to find you.
+Here, call a cab, will you? I must get this child home; that's the
+first thing to be done."
+
+The shabby man hailed a cab, but the cabman jeered at him and whirled
+by. So the old gentleman held up his hand; Phronsie all this time,
+strange to say, not mentioning her doll, and Mr. King, who wouldn't
+have cared if a hundred dolls had been left behind, not giving it a
+thought. Now she looked anxiously on all sides. "Oh, where is she,
+Grandpapa dear?" she wailed, "my child; where is she?"
+
+"Never mind, Phronsie," cried Mr. King, "I'll get you another one
+to-morrow. There, get in the cab, child."
+
+"But I want her--I can't go home without my child!" And Phronsie's lip
+began to quiver. "Oh, there she is, Grandpapa!" and she darted off a
+few steps, where somebody had set the poor thing on the pavement,
+propped up against a lamp-post.
+
+"Oh, you can't carry her home," said Mr. King, in dismay at the muddy
+object splashed from head to foot, with the smart pink cape that had
+been the cause of the disaster, now torn clear through the middle, by
+the hoof of a passing horse. He shuddered at the sight of it. "Do leave
+it, Phronsie, child."
+
+"But she's sick now and hurt; oh, Grandpapa, I can't leave my child,"
+sobbed Phronsie, trying with all her might to keep the tears back. All
+this time the shabby man stood silently by, looking on.
+
+A bright thought struck the old gentleman. "I'll tell you, Phronsie,"
+he said quickly. "Give the doll to this man for one of his little
+children; they'll take care of it, and like it."
+
+"Oh, Grandpapa!" screamed Phronsie, skipping up and down and clapping
+her muddy little hands, then she picked up the doll and lifted it
+toward him. "Give my child to your little girl, and tell her to take
+good care of it," she said.
+
+As Phronsie's French had long been one of Grandpapa's special
+responsibilities in the morning hours, she spoke it nearly as well as
+Polly herself, so the man grasped the doll as he had seized the money
+before.
+
+"And now," said Mr. King, "you are not going to run away this time
+without telling me--oh, bless me!"
+
+This last was brought out by an excited individual rushing up over the
+curbstone to get out of the way of a passing dray, and the
+walking-stick which he swung aloft as a protection, coming into
+collision with Mr. King's hat, knocked it over his eyes.
+
+"A thousand pardons, Monsieur!" exclaimed the Frenchman, bowing and
+scraping.
+
+"You may well beg a thousand pardons," cried Mr. King, angrily, "to go
+about in this rude fashion through the street."
+
+"A thousand pardons," repeated the Frenchman, with more _empressement_
+than before, and tripping airily on his way.
+
+When old Mr. King had settled his hat, he turned back to the man. "Now
+tell me--why--" The man was nowhere to be seen.
+
+"It surely does look bad," said the old gentleman to himself as he
+stepped into the cab with Phronsie; "that man's children are a myth.
+And I wanted to do something for them, for he saved Phronsie's life!"
+
+This being the only idea he could possibly retain all the way home to
+the hotel, he held her closely within his arm, Phronsie chattering
+happily all the way, how the little girl she guessed was just receiving
+the doll, and wondering what name she would give it, and would she wash
+its face clean at once, and fix the torn and muddy clothes?
+
+"Oh, yes, yes, I hope so," answered Grandpapa, when she paused for an
+answer. Jasper came running out as the cab drove into the court. "Oh!"
+he exclaimed, at sight of Phronsie's face, then drove the words on his
+tongue back again, as he lifted her out.
+
+"Give her to Polly to fix up a bit," said his father. "She's all right,
+Jasper, my boy, I can't talk of it now. Hurry and take her to Polly."
+
+And for the following days, Mr. King never let Phronsie out of his
+sight. A new and more splendid doll, if possible, was bought, and all
+sorts and styles of clothes for it, which Phronsie took the greatest
+delight in caring for, humming happily to herself at the pleasure the
+poor man's little girl was taking at the same time with her other child.
+
+"Grandpapa," she said, laying down the doll carefully on the sofa, and
+going over to the table where Mr. King had just put aside the
+newspaper, "I do wish we could go and see that poor man and all his
+children--why didn't he tell us where he lived?"
+
+"The dickens!" exclaimed old Mr. King, unguardedly, "because the fellow
+is an impostor, Phronsie. He saved your life," and he seized Phronsie
+and drew her to his knee, "but he lied about those children. O dear
+me!" And he pulled himself up.
+
+"Then he hasn't any little children?" said Phronsie, opening her eyes
+very wide, and speaking very slowly.
+
+"Er-oh-I don't know," stammered Grandpapa; "it's impossible to tell,
+Phronsie."
+
+"But you don't believe he has any," said Phronsie, with grave
+persistence, fastening her brown eyes on his face.
+
+"No, Phronsie, I don't," replied old Mr. King, in desperation. "If he
+had, why should he run in this fashion when I was just asking him where
+he lived?"
+
+"But he didn't hear you, Grandpapa," said Phronsie, "when the man
+knocked your hat off."
+
+"Oh, well, he knew enough what I wanted," said Mr. King, who, now that
+he had let out his belief, was going to support it by all the reasons
+in his power. "No, no, Phronsie, it won't do; the fellow was an
+impostor, and we must just accept the fact, and make the best of it, my
+child."
+
+"But he told a lie," said Phronsie, in horror, unable to think of
+anything else.
+
+"Well." Mr. King had no words to say on that score, so he wisely said
+nothing.
+
+"That poor man told a lie," repeated Phronsie, as if producing a wholly
+fresh statement.
+
+"There, child, I wouldn't think anything more of it," said Grandpapa,
+soothingly, patting her little hand.
+
+"Grandpapa," said Phronsie, "I've given away my child, and she's sick
+because she fell and hurt her, and there isn't any little girl,
+and--and--that poor man told a lie!" And she flung herself up against
+Grandpapa's waistcoat, and sobbed as if her heart would break.
+
+Old Mr. King looked wildly around for Polly. And as good fortune would
+have it, in she ran. This wasn't very strange, for Polly kept nearly as
+close to Phronsie in these days, as Grandpapa himself.
+
+"Here, Polly," he called brokenly, "this is something beyond me. You
+must fix it, child."
+
+"Why, Phronsie!" exclaimed Polly, in dismay, and her tone was a bit
+reproachful. "Crying? Don't you know that you will make Grandpapa very
+sick unless you stop?"
+
+Phronsie's little hand stole out from over her mouth where she had been
+trying to hold the sobs back, and up to give a trembling pat on old Mr.
+King's cheek.
+
+"Bless you, my child," cried Grandpapa, quite overcome, so that Polly
+said more reproachfully, "Yes, very sick indeed, Phronsie, unless you
+stop this minute. You ought to see his face, Phronsie."
+
+Phronsie gathered herself up out of his arms, and through a rain of
+tears looked up at him.
+
+"Are you sick, Grandpapa?" she managed to ask.
+
+"Yes, dear; or I shall be if you don't stop crying, Phronsie," said Mr.
+King, pursuing all the advantage so finely gained.
+
+"I'll stop," said Phronsie, her small bosom heaving. "I really will,
+Grandpapa."
+
+"Now, you are the very goodest child," exclaimed Polly, down on her
+knees by Grandpapa's side, cuddling Phronsie's toes, "the very most
+splendid one in all this world, Phronsie Pepper."
+
+"And you'll be all well, Grandpapa?" asked Phronsie, anxiously.
+
+"Yes, child," said old Mr. King, kissing her wet face; "just as well as
+I can be, since you are all right."
+
+"And, oh, Grandpapa, can't we go to Fontainebleau to-day?" begged Polly.
+
+"Phronsie, just think--it will be precisely like the country, and we
+can get out of the carriages, and can run and race in the forest. Can't
+we, Grandpapa?"
+
+"All you want to," promised Grandpapa, recklessly, and only too
+thankful to have something proposed for a diversion. "The very thing,"
+he added enthusiastically. "Now, Polly and Phronsie, run and tell all
+the others to get ready, just as fast as they can, and we'll be off.
+Goodness me, Jasper, what makes you run into a room in this fashion?"
+
+"I've found him!" exclaimed Jasper, dashing in, and tossing his cap on
+the table, and his dark hair back from his forehead. "And he's all
+right--as straight as a die," he panted.
+
+"Now what in the world are you talking of?" demanded his father, in
+extreme irritation. "Can't you make a plain statement, and enlighten us
+without all this noise and confusion, pray tell?"
+
+Polly, who had Phronsie's hand in hers, just ready to run off, stood
+quite still with glowing cheek.
+
+"Oh, I do believe--Grandpapa--it is--it is!"--she screamed
+suddenly--"your poor man! Isn't it, Jasper--isn't it?" she cried,
+turning to him.
+
+"Yes, Polly," said Jasper, still panting from his run up the stairs;
+"and do hurry, father, and see for yourself; and we'll all go to him.
+I'll tell you all about it on the way."
+
+When Mr. King comprehended that the man was found, and that he was "all
+right," as Jasper vehemently repeated over and over, he communicated
+that fact to Phronsie, whose delight knew no bounds, and in less time
+than it takes to write it, Tom, who was the only one of the party to be
+collected on such short notice, had joined them, and they were bowling
+along in a big carriage, Jasper as guide, to the spot where the man was
+waiting.
+
+"You see it was just this way," Jasper was rapidly telling off. "I was
+going down by the Madeleine, and I thought I would bring Phronsie some
+flowers; so I stopped at the market, and I couldn't find a little pot
+of primroses I wanted, though I went the whole length; and at last,
+when I had given up, I saw just one in front of a woman who sat at the
+very end."
+
+"Do hurry, Jasper, and get to the conclusion," said his father,
+impatiently.
+
+Polly dearly loved to have the story go on in just this way, as she
+leaned forward, her eyes on Jasper's face, but she said nothing, only
+sighed.
+
+"Well," said Jasper, "I'll tell it as quickly as I can, father. And
+there were a lot of children, father, all round the woman where she sat
+on a box, and she was tying in a bunch some flowers that were huddled
+in her lap, and the children were picking out the good ones for her;
+and just then a man, who was bending over back of them all, breaking
+off some little branches from a big green one, straightened up
+suddenly, and, father, as true as you live," cried Jasper, in intense
+excitement, "it was your poor man!"
+
+"The children?" asked Mr. King, as soon as he could be heard for the
+excitement.
+
+"Are all his," cried Jasper, "and he took the money you gave him, and
+set his wife up in the flower business down in front of the Madeleine.
+Oh! and Phronsie, the doll you gave him was sitting up on another box,
+and every once in a while the littlest girl would stop picking out the
+flowers in her mother's lap, and would run over and wipe its face with
+her apron."
+
+
+
+
+XXVIII
+
+"WELL, I GOT HIM HERE," SAID THE LITTLE EARL
+
+
+They were really on their way to see the little old earl, after all!
+How it came about, Mr. King, even days after it had all been decided,
+couldn't exactly remember. He recalled several conversations in Paris
+with Tom's mother, who showed him bits of letters, and one in
+particular that somehow seemed to be a very potent factor in the plan
+that, almost before he knew it, came to be made. And when he held out,
+as hold out he did against the acceptance of the invitation, he found
+to his utmost surprise that every one, Mother Fisher and all, was
+decidedly against him.
+
+"Oh, well," he had declared when that came out, "I might as well give
+in gracefully first as last." And he sat down at once and wrote a very
+handsome note to the little old earl, and that clinched the whole
+business.
+
+And after the week of this visit should be over, for old Mr. King was
+firmness itself on not accepting a day more, they were to bid good-by
+to Mrs. Selwyn and Tom, and jaunt about a bit to show a little of Old
+England to the Hendersons, and then run down to Liverpool to see them
+off, and at last turn their faces toward Dresden, their winter
+home--"and to my work!" said Polly to herself in delight.
+
+So now here they were, actually driving up to the entrance of the park,
+and stopping at the lodge-gate.
+
+An old woman, in an immaculate cap and a stiff white apron over her
+best linsey-woolsey gown which she had donned for the occasion, came
+out of the lodge and courtesied low to the madam, and held open the big
+gate.
+
+"How have you been, Mrs. Bell?" asked Mrs. Selwyn, with a kind smile,
+as the carriage paused a bit.
+
+"Very well, my lady," said Mrs. Bell, her round face glowing with
+pride. "And the earl is well, bless him! and we are glad to welcome you
+home again, and Master Tom."
+
+"And I'm glad enough to get here, Mrs. Bell," cried Tom. "Now drive on
+at your fastest, Hobson."
+
+Hobson, who knew very well what Master Tom's fastest gait was,
+preferred to drive through the park at what he considered the dignified
+pace. So they rolled on under the stately trees, going miles, it seemed
+to Polly, who sat on the back seat with Tom.
+
+He turned to her, unable to conceal his impatience. "Anybody would
+think this pair were worn out old cobs," he fumed. "Polly, you have no
+idea how they can go, when Hobson lets them out. What are you wasting
+all this time for, crawling along in this fashion, Hobson, when you
+know we want to get on?"
+
+Thus publicly addressed, Hobson let the handsome bays "go" as Tom
+expressed it, and they were bowled along in a way that made Polly turn
+in delight to Tom.
+
+"There--that's something like!" declared Tom. "Don't you like it,
+Polly?" looking into her rosy face.
+
+"Like it!" cried Polly, "why, Tom Selwyn, it's beautiful. And these
+splendid trees--" she looked up and around. "Oh, I never saw any so
+fine."
+
+"They're not half bad," assented Tom, "these oaks aren't, and we have
+some more, on the other end of the park, about five miles off, that--"
+
+"Five miles off!" cried Polly, with wide eyes. "Is the park as big as
+that, Tom?"
+
+He laughed. "That isn't much. But you'll see it all for yourself," he
+added. Then he rushed off into wondering how his dogs were. "And, oh,
+you'll ride with the hounds, Polly!"
+
+Just then some rabbits scurried across the wood, followed by several
+more pattering and leaping through the grass.
+
+"Oh, Tom, see those rabbits!" cried Polly, excitedly.
+
+"Yes, the warrens are over yonder," said Tom, bobbing his head in the
+right direction.
+
+"What?" asked Polly, in perplexity.
+
+"Rabbit-warrens; oh, I forgot, you haven't lived in England. You seem
+so much like an English girl, though," said Tom, paying the highest
+compliment he knew of.
+
+"Well, what are they?" asked Polly, quite overcome by the compliment
+coming from Tom.
+
+"Oh, they are preserves, you know, where the rabbits live, and they are
+not allowed to be hunted here."
+
+"Oh, do you ever hunt rabbits?" cried Polly, in horror, leaning out of
+her side of the big coach to see the scurrying little animals.
+
+"Not often," said Tom, "we mostly ride after the fox. You'll ride with
+the hounds, Polly," he cried with enthusiasm. "We'll have a hunt while
+you're here, and we always wind up with a breakfast, you know. Oh,
+we'll have no end of sport." He hugged his long arms in huge
+satisfaction.
+
+And away--and away over the winding road and underneath the stately
+trees, rolled the big coach, to be followed by the other carriages,
+like a dream it seemed to Polly, and more than ever, when at last they
+stopped in front of a massive pile of buildings with towers and arches
+and wings.
+
+And the little old earl was kissing her rosy cheek in the most courtly
+fashion, and saying while he shook her hand in his long fingers, "And
+how do you do, my dear?" And Mrs. Selwyn was by his other side. And Tom
+was screeching out, "How do you do, Granddaddy!" And then, "Oh, Elinor
+and Mary!" to two quiet, plain-looking girls standing in the
+background. And "Ah, how d'ye kids!" as the faces of his two small
+brothers appeared. And Polly forgot all about the fact that she was in
+an earl's house, and she laughed and chatted; and in two minutes one of
+Tom's sisters was on either side of her, and the small boys in front,
+and the little groups were moving in and out of the old hall, as
+Grandpapa and the rest came in, and the head housekeeper in a black
+silk gown that seemed quite able to stand alone, and a perfect relay of
+stiff figures in livery were drawn up underneath the armour hanging on
+the wall.
+
+And the little old earl worked his way up to her, and he had Grandpapa
+on his arm. "Well, I got him here," he said with twinkling eyes, and a
+chuckle.
+
+But the next morning--oh, the next morning!--when Polly tried to
+compass as much of the thronging attractions as she could, and Jasper
+was at his wits' end whenever he was appealed to, to decide what he
+wanted to do first--"cricket," or "punting on the river," that ran
+through the estate, or "riding through the park, and to the village
+owned by his grandfather"? "I always go see the tenantry as soon as I
+get home," said Tom, simply.
+
+"Oh, then, let us go there by all means," said Jasper, quickly.
+
+"I mean--oh, I'm no end awkward," exclaimed Tom, breaking off, his face
+covered with confusion. "It's not necessary to go at once; we can fetch
+up there to-morrow."
+
+"Oh, do let us go, Tom," begged Polly, clasping her hands. "I should
+dearly love most of all to see the tenantry and those dear little
+cottages." And so that was decided upon.
+
+And Tom had his beloved hunt, several of the gentry being asked. And
+Polly rode a special horse selected by the little old earl himself.
+
+"It's perfectly safe; he has an excellent disposition," he declared to
+old Mr. King, "and he'll carry her all right."
+
+"I'm not afraid," said Mr. King, "the child rides well."
+
+"So she must--so she must, I was sure of it," cried the little old
+earl, with a series of chuckles. And he busied himself especially with
+seeing her mounted properly when the party gathered on the lawn in
+front of the old hall. The hounds were baying and straining at the
+leashes, impatient to be off; the pink hunting-coats gave dashes of
+colour as their owners moved about over the broad green sward,--under
+the oaks,--and Polly felt her heart beat rapidly with the exhilarating
+sights and sounds. It was only when they were off, and Tom riding up by
+her side expatiated on the glory of running down the fox and "being in
+at the death," that the colour died down on her cheek.
+
+"Oh, Tom!" she said, reining in her horse. If he hadn't been the
+possessor of a good disposition, he certainly would have bolted in his
+disappointment at being pulled up so abruptly. "It's so cruel to kill
+the poor fox in that way."
+
+"Eh--what!" exclaimed Tom, not hearing the words, falling back to her
+side, consternation all over his face. "Why, I never knew Meteor to
+break in this way before."
+
+"Oh, it isn't his fault," said Polly, hastily, and patting her horse's
+neck. "I pulled him up. Oh, Tom, it's all so very cruel."
+
+"Eh?" said Tom, in a puzzled way.
+
+"To kill the fox in this way," said Polly, her heart sinking as she
+thought how dreadful it was for her to object, when visiting, to
+anything her host might plan. "O dear me!" and she looked so distressed
+that Tom turned comforter at once.
+
+"We all do it," he was saying, as Jasper rode up.
+
+"Anything the matter?" he asked in great concern. "What's happened?"
+
+"Nothing," said Tom, "only Polly doesn't like the fox-hunt."
+
+"It's so cruel," cried Polly, turning to Jasper, with a little pink
+spot coming in either cheek. "I ought to have thought of it before, but
+I didn't; it only seemed so very splendid to be rushing along with the
+horses and dogs. But to chase that poor fox to death--O dear me!"
+
+"We'll go back," suggested Tom, in distress; "don't be afraid, Polly,
+I'll make it all right with granddaddy." He concealed as best he might
+his awful disappointment as the echoes of the horn, the baying of the
+dogs, and now and then a scrap of chatter or a peal of laughter was
+borne to them on the wind.
+
+"Polly," said Jasper, in a low voice, "it isn't quite right, is it, to
+disturb the party now? Just think, Tom will go back with us."
+
+The pink spots died out on Polly's cheek. "No, Jasper," she said, "it
+isn't right. Tom, you needn't say one word about going back, for I am
+going on." She gave the rein to Meteor and dashed off.
+
+"We'll have a race through the park some day, Polly," called Tom, as he
+sped after her, "without any fox."
+
+"Too bad, Polly, you weren't in at the death," said the little old
+earl, sympathisingly, when at the hunt-breakfast following, the brush
+dangling to a victorious young lady's belt, had been admired as an
+extremely fine one. "Never mind; better luck next time, little girl."
+
+But the fete to the tenantry, oh! that was something like, and more to
+Polly's taste, when this annual affair, postponed while Tom's mother
+and Tom were away, took place. For days before, the preparations had
+been making, the stewards up to their eyes in responsibility to carry
+out the plans of the little old earl, who meant on this occasion to
+outdo all his former efforts, and show his American friends how an
+Englishman treats those under his care.
+
+Oh, the big joints of beef, the haunches of venison, the fowls, the
+meat pies and the gooseberry tarts, the beer and the ale, and the tea
+for the old women, with nuts and sweeties for the children! Oh, Polly
+knew about it all, as she went about with the little old earl while he
+gave his orders, her hand in his, just as if she were no older than
+Phronsie, and not such a tall, big girl.
+
+And Mrs. Selwyn was busy as a bee, and Mother Fisher was just in her
+element here, in helping her; for flannel petticoats were to be given
+out, and stuff frocks, and pieces of homespun, and boots and shoes, as
+prizes for diligent and faithful service; or an order for coals for the
+coming winter for some poor cottager, or packages of tea, or some other
+little comfort. And before any of them quite realised it, the days flew
+by, and in two more of them the King party would be off.
+
+"It's perfectly useless to mention it," said the little old earl, quite
+confident in his power to influence old Mr. King to remain when he saw
+how happily everything was running on. "My dear sir, you were asked for
+a fortnight."
+
+"And I accepted for a week," retorted Mr. King, "and I go when that
+time is up. We've had a visit--I can't express it to you, what a fine
+time--as near to perfection as it is possible for a visit to be; but
+day after to-morrow we surely must leave."
+
+Tom was so despondent, as well as the old earl, that it was necessary
+to cheer him up in some way. "Just think what a splendid thing for us
+to be in the midst of that fete for the peasantry," exclaimed Polly,
+with sparkling eyes. "It's quite too lovely for our last day."
+
+But Tom wasn't to be raised out of his gloom in this way. "We've had
+only one game of cricket," he said miserably.
+
+"And one afternoon at tennis, and we've been out punting on the river
+three times," said Polly.
+
+"What's that? only a bagatelle," sniffed Tom, "compared to what I meant
+to do."
+
+"Well, let's have the race on horseback this afternoon," proposed
+Polly, "down through the park, that you said you were going to have,
+Tom. Wouldn't that be nice?"
+
+"Do," urged Jasper. "It would be so capital, Tom."
+
+"All right," assented Tom, "if you'd really rather have that than
+anything else; but it seems as if I ought to think up something more
+for the last afternoon, but the fete; and that doesn't count."
+
+"Oh, nothing could be finer," declared Polly, and Jasper joined. So Tom
+rushed off to the stables to give the orders. And Polly on Meteor was
+soon flying up and down with the boys, and Elinor and Mary. And the two
+small lads trotted after on their Shetland ponies, in and out the
+winding roads of the park confines, without any haunting fear of a poor
+red fox to be done to death at the end.
+
+And on the morrow, the sun condescended to come out in all his glory,
+upon the groups of tenantry scattered over the broad lawns. There were
+games in abundance for the men and boys; and others for the children.
+There were chairs for the old women, and long benches for those who
+desired to sit under the spreading branches of the great oaks to look
+on. And there were cups of tea, and thin bread and butter passed around
+by the white-capped maids, superintended by the housekeeper and the
+butler, quite important in their several functions. This was done to
+appease the hunger before the grand collation should take place later.
+And there was music by the fiddlers on the upper terrace, and there
+was,--dear me, it would take quite too long to tell it all!
+
+And at last, the order was given to fall into line, and march around
+the long tables resplendent with their cold joints and hot joints;
+their pasties, and tarts, and cakes, and great flagons of ale. And over
+all was a wealth of bloom from the big old English gardens in the rear
+of the old hall. The posies filled Polly with delight, as she and Tom's
+sisters and Phronsie had gathered them under the direction of the
+gardeners in the early morning; and then--oh, best of all--Mrs. Selwyn
+had allowed her to give the finishing touches to them as they became
+the decoration for the feast.
+
+And the little old earl called the large assemblage to order, and the
+vicar asked the grace, and the feast was begun!
+
+And then one of the tenants found his feet, and leaning on his staff,
+he thanked the Earl of Cavendish for all his goodness, and he hoped
+there would be many blessings in store for 'im and 'is, and sank on his
+bench again, mopping his face with his big red handkerchief.
+
+And then the little old earl responded in as pretty a speech as could
+well be imagined, in which he forgot nothing that he ought to say. And
+there were many "God bless 'ims!" to follow it, and then there were
+cries of "Master Tom, Master Tom," who appeared to be an immense
+favourite; and the earl, well pleased, pulled him forward, saying, "Go
+ahead, youngster, and give it to them."
+
+And Tom, extremely red in the face, tried to duck away, but found
+himself instead in front of the longest table, with everybody looking
+at him. And he mumbled out a few words and bobbed his head. And every
+one was just as well pleased. And then they gave cheer on cheer for the
+earl, and as many more for his oldest grandson. And then the little old
+earl raised his hand and said, "And now, my men, give a rousing good
+one for my dear American friends!"
+
+And didn't they do it!
+
+And on the following morning, the old hall, with its towers and its
+wings, had only the memory of the happy week to sustain it.
+
+      *      *      *      *      *
+
+Jasper ran up to Polly on the deck. "We ought to go," he said, "the
+order has been given to leave the steamer."
+
+"Yes, Polly," said Mother Fisher, "we must go, child."
+
+"Give my love to dear Grandma Bascom," said Polly, for about the
+fiftieth time. "Oh, Mrs. Henderson, and don't forget to take over the
+new cap just as soon as you can, will you?"
+
+"I won't forget," promised the parson's wife.
+
+"And take mine to my dear Mrs. Beebe," begged Phronsie, twitching
+gently at Mrs. Henderson's sleeve, "and tell her I got pink ribbon
+because I know she loves that best."
+
+"I won't forget," said Mrs. Henderson, again.
+
+"Oh, and give the big handkerchief to my dear Mr. Beebe," said
+Phronsie, "please, Mrs. Henderson, to tie his throat up in, because,
+you know, he says it gets so cold when he goes out."
+
+"I'll remember every single thing," promised the parson's wife. "Don't
+you worry, children. Oh, how we hate to leave you, only we are going to
+see our boys. We really are, Polly!" And her eyes shone.
+
+"Polly! Polly!" called Jasper.
+
+"All off who aren't going!" roared the order out again.
+
+"Polly!" The little doctor seized one arm and Phronsie's hand. "There
+now, here you are!" and whisked them off, amid "good-by--good-by"--and
+a flutter of handkerchiefs.
+
+"And give my love to dear Grandma Bascom," piped Phronsie, on the wharf
+by old Mr. King's side, as the big steamer slowly pushed from its
+moorings.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Five Little Peppers Abroad, by Margaret Sidney
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Five Little Peppers Abroad, by Margaret Sidney
+#4 in our series by Margaret Sidney
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+Title: Five Little Peppers Abroad
+
+Author: Margaret Sidney
+
+Release Date: November, 2004 [EBook #6987]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on February 20, 2003]
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+Edition: 10
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+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: Latin-1
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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FIVE LITTLE PEPPERS ABROAD ***
+
+
+
+
+This eBook was produced by Michelle Shephard, Charles Franks
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+FIVE LITTLE PEPPERS ABROAD
+
+by
+
+MARGARET SIDNEY
+
+
+Illustrated by
+FANNY Y. CORY
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+When the friends of the Pepper family found that the author was firm in
+her decision to continue their history no further, they brought their
+appeals for the details of some of those good times that made the
+"little brown house" an object-lesson.
+
+In these appeals, the parents were as vigorous as the young people for
+a volume of the stories that Polly told, to keep the children happy in
+those hard days when her story-telling had to be a large factor in
+their home-life; and also for a book of their plays and exploits,
+impossible to be embodied in the continued series of their history, so
+that all who loved the "Five Little Peppers" might the better study the
+influences that shaped their lives.
+
+Those requests were complied with; the author realising that the
+detailed account held values, by which stronger light might be thrown
+on the family life in the "little brown house."
+
+And now the pressure is brought to bear for a book showing the Little
+Peppers over the ocean, recorded in "Five Little Peppers Midway." And
+the author is very glad to comply again; for foreign travel throws a
+wholly different side-light upon the Pepper family. So here is the
+book.
+
+It is in no sense to be taken as a story written for a guide-book,
+--although the author lives in it again her repeated enjoyment of the
+sights and scenes which are accurately depicted. A "Baedeker," if
+carefully studied, is really all that is needed as a constant companion
+to the traveller; while for supplementary helps and suggestions, there
+are many valuable books along the same line. This volume is given up to
+the Peppers; and they must live their own lives and tell their own
+story while abroad just as they choose.
+
+As the author has stated many times, her part is "simply to set down
+what the Peppers did and said, without trying to make them say or do
+anything in particular." And so over the ocean they are just as much
+the makers of their own history as when they first opened the door of
+the "little brown house" to
+
+                                 MARGARET SIDNEY.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+CHAPTER
+
+     I. OVER THE OCEAN
+    II. TWO ENGLISH FRIENDS
+   III. PHRONSIE GOES VISITING
+    IV. STEAMER LIFE
+     V. A FISH STORY AND OTHER THINGS
+    VI. A LITTLE SURPRISE
+   VII. OFF FOR HOLLAND
+  VIII. "WE WILL COME AGAIN AND STAY A WEEK"
+    IX. A BOX FOR THE PEPPER BOYS
+     X. DANGER
+    XI. THE TWO BIRTHDAYS IN OLD HOLLAND
+   XII. THE HENDERSON BOX
+  XIII. "THE CLEANEST PLACE IN ALL HOLLAND"
+   XIV. THE ISLAND OF MARKEN
+    XV. MR. KING DOES HIS DUTY
+   XVI. "LET US FLY AT THOSE BOOKS"
+  XVII. POLLY WROTE A NICE LITTLE NOTE
+ XVIII. BAYREUTH AND OLD FRIENDS
+   XIX. MR. KING HAS A LITTLE PLAN FOR POLLY
+    XX. "I SHOULD MAKE HIM HAPPY," SAID PHRONSIE
+   XXI. ON THE RIGI-KULM
+  XXII. POLLY TRIES TO HELP
+ XXIII. IN THE SHADOW OF THE MATTERHORN
+  XXIV. THE ROUND ROBIN
+   XXV. ON THE _MER DE GLACE_
+  XXVI. "WELL, HERE WE ARE IN PARIS!"
+ XXVII. "I'VE FOUND HIM!" EXCLAIMED JASPER
+XXVIII. "WELL, I GOT HIM HERE," SAID THE LITTLE EARL
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+"Now don't you want to get off?"
+
+He clung to his pear with both hands and ate away with great
+satisfaction
+
+"Fan-ny!--the Earl of Cavendish!" She could go no further
+
+Phronsie sat opposite him
+
+"Mamsie's got her two bothers," said Polly
+
+"Look at that girl!"
+
+She picked up the skirt of her gown
+
+Phronsie ducked and scuttled in as she could
+
+
+
+
+_Five Little Peppers Abroad_
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+OVER THE OCEAN
+
+
+"Dear me," said Polly, "I don't see wherever she can be, Jasper. I've
+searched just everywhere for her." And she gave a little sigh, and
+pushed up the brown rings of hair under her sailor cap.
+
+"Don't worry, Polly," said Jasper, with a reassuring smile. "She's with
+Matilda, of course. Come, Polly, let's you and I have a try at the
+shuffle-board by ourselves, down on the lower deck."
+
+"No, we can't," said Polly, with a dreadful longing at her heart for
+the charms of a game; "that is, until we've found Phronsie." And she
+ran down the deck. "Perhaps she is in one of the library corners,
+though I thought I looked over them all."
+
+"How do you know she isn't with Matilda, Polly?" cried Jasper, racing
+after, to see Polly's little blue jacket whisking ahead of him up the
+companion-way.
+
+"Because"--Polly stopped at the top and looked over her shoulder at
+him--"Matilda's in her berth. She's awfully seasick. I was to stay with
+Phronsie, and now I've lost her!" And the brown head drooped, and Polly
+clasped her hands tightly together.
+
+"Oh, no, she can't be lost, Polly," said Jasper, cheerfully, as he
+bounded up the stairs and gained her side; "why, she couldn't be!"
+
+"Well, anyway, we can't find her, Jasper," said Polly, running on. "And
+it's all my fault, for I forgot, and left her in the library, and went
+with Fanny Vanderburgh down to her state-room. O dear me!" as she sped
+on.
+
+"Well, she's in the library now, most likely," said Jasper, cheerfully,
+hurrying after, "curled up asleep in a corner." And they both ran in,
+expecting to see Phronsie's yellow head snuggled into one of the
+pillows.
+
+But there was no one there except a little old gentleman on one of the
+sofas back of a table, who held his paper upside down, his big
+spectacles on the end of his nose, almost tumbling off as he nodded
+drowsily with the motion of the steamer.
+
+"O dear me!" exclaimed Polly; "now we shall wake him up," as they
+tiptoed around, peering in every cosey corner and behind all the tables
+for a glimpse of Phronsie's little brown gown.
+
+"No danger," said Jasper, with a glance over at the old gentleman;
+"he's just as fast asleep as can be. Here, Polly, I think she's
+probably tucked up in here." And he hurried over to the farther side,
+where the sofa made a generous angle.
+
+Just then in stalked a tall boy, who rushed up to the little old
+gentleman. "Here, Granddad, wake up." And he shook his arm smartly.
+"You're losing your glasses, and then there'll be a beastly row to
+pay."
+
+"O dear me!" cried Polly aghast, as she and Jasper whirled around.
+
+"Hey--what--what!" exclaimed the old gentleman, clutching his paper as
+he started forward. "Oh,--why, I haven't been asleep, Tom."
+
+"Ha! Ha! tell that to the marines," cried Tom, loudly, dancing in
+derision, "You've been sleeping like a log. You'd much better go down
+and get into your state-room. But give me a sovereign first." He held
+out his hand as he spoke. "Hurry up, Granddad!" he added impatiently.
+
+The old gentleman put his hand to his head, and then rubbed his eyes.
+
+"Bustle up," cried the boy, with a laugh, "or else I'll run my fist in
+your pocket and help myself."
+
+"Indeed, you won't," declared the old gentleman, now thoroughly awake.
+
+"Ha! Ha!" laughed the boy. "You see if I won't, Granddad." Yet he
+dropped his imperious tone, and waited, though impatiently, while the
+big pocket-book was drawn out.
+
+"What do you want with money on board the boat?" demanded the old
+gentleman.
+
+"Give me a sovereign, Granddad," cried Tom, controlling his impatience
+as best he might, with many a cross look at the wrinkled old face under
+the white hair.
+
+His Grandfather slowly drew out the coin, and Tom twitched it eagerly
+from the long, thin fingers.
+
+"I don't see how you can need money on board the boat," repeated the
+old gentleman.
+
+"Never you mind what I want it for, Grand-daddy," said Tom, laughing
+loudly and shaking the sovereign at him as he ran off; "that's my
+business, and not yours."
+
+Polly had not taken her eyes off their faces. Now she turned toward
+Jasper. "Oh, how very dreadful!" she gasped--then would have given
+everything if she had kept still, for the old gentleman whirled around
+and saw them for the first time.
+
+"Hey--who are you--and what are you listening there for--hey?" he
+demanded sharply. He had little black eyes, and they now snapped in a
+truly dreadful way at them.
+
+"We came to find her little sister," said Jasper, politely, for Polly
+was quite beyond speaking.
+
+"Sister? I don't know anything about your sister," said the old
+gentleman, irascibly. "And this room isn't a place for children, I can
+tell you," he added, as if he owned the library and the whole ship.
+
+Jasper made no reply.
+
+"Phronsie isn't here." Polly clasped her hands again tighter than ever.
+"And, oh, Jasper!" and she looked at the angry old face before them
+with pitying eyes.
+
+"What I say to my grandson, Tom, and what he says to me, is our own
+business!" exclaimed the old gentleman in a passion, thumping the table
+with his clenched hand. "And no one else has a right to hear it."
+
+"I am so very sorry we heard it," said Polly, the colour which had
+quite gone from her cheek now rushing back. "And we are going right
+away, sir."
+
+"You would much better," said the old man, nodding angrily. "And you,
+boy, too; I suppose you think yourself better than my Tom. But you are
+not--not a bit of it!" And suddenly he tried to start to his feet, but
+lurched heavily against the table instead.
+
+Polly and Jasper rushed over to him. "Lean on me, sir," said Jasper,
+putting both arms around him, while Polly ran to his other side, he was
+shaking so dreadfully.
+
+The old gentleman essayed to wave them off. "Let me alone," he said
+feebly; "I'm going after my grandson, Tom." His voice sank to a
+whisper, and his head dropped to his breast. "He's got money--he's
+always getting it, and I'm going to see what he's doing with it."
+
+"Polly," said Jasper, "you help me put him back on the sofa; there,
+that's it," as the old man sank feebly down against the cushions; "and
+then I'll run and find his grandson."
+
+It was just the time when everybody seemed to be in the state-rooms, or
+out on deck in steamer chairs, so Polly sat there at the old man's
+head, feeling as if every minute were an hour, and he kept gurgling,
+"Tom's a bad boy--he gets money all the time, and I'm going to see what
+he's doing with it," with feeble waves of his legs, that put Polly in a
+fright lest he should roll off the sofa at every lurch of the steamer.
+
+"Tom is coming," at last she said, putting her hand on the hot
+forehead. "Please stay still, sir; you will be sick."
+
+"But I don't want Tom to come," cried the old gentleman, irritably.
+"Who said I wanted him to come? Hey?" He turned up his head and looked
+at her, and Polly's hand shook worse than ever when the little snapping
+eyes were full on her face, and she had all she could do to keep from
+running out of the room and up on deck where she could breathe freely.
+
+"I am so sorry," she managed to gasp, feeling if she didn't say
+something, she should surely run. "Does your head feel better?" And she
+smoothed his hot forehead gently just as Phronsie always did
+Grandpapa's when it ached. And when she thought of Phronsie, then it
+was all she could do to keep the tears back. Where could she be? And
+would Jasper never come back?
+
+And just then in ran Tom with a great clatter, complaining noisily
+every step of the way. "I told you you'd much better get off to your
+stateroom, Granddad!" he exclaimed. "Here, I'll help you down there."
+And he laid a hasty hand on the feeble old arm.
+
+"I think he is sick," said Polly, gently. Jasper came hurrying in.
+"Phronsie is all right," he had time to whisper to Polly.
+
+"Oh, Jasper!" the colour rushed into her cheek that had turned quite
+white. "I am so glad."
+
+"Nonsense!" exclaimed Tom, abruptly. "It's only one of his crotchets.
+You don't know; he gets up plenty of 'em on occasion."
+
+"What did you want a sovereign for?" asked the old gentleman,
+querulously, taking his sharp little eyes off Polly to fasten them on
+his grandson's face. "Say, I _will_ know."
+
+"And I say no matter," retorted Tom, roughly. "And you ought to come
+down to your state-room where you belong. Come, Granddad!" And he tried
+again to lay hold of his arm. But the little old gentleman sank back,
+and looked up at Polly again. "I think I'll stay here," he said.
+
+"I say," began the boy, in an embarrassed way, "this is dreadfully
+rough on you," and then he looked away from Polly to Jasper. "And if
+you knew him as well as I do," nodding his head at his Grandfather,
+"you wouldn't get in such a funk."
+
+Polly was busy smoothing the hot forehead under the white hair, and
+appeared not to notice a word he said.
+
+"Your Grandfather really appears ill," said Jasper. "And the doctor
+might give him something to help him."
+
+Tom burst into a short laugh and kicked his heel against the table.
+"Hoh! hoh! I say, you don't know him; oh, what muffs you are! He's well
+enough, only he's determined not to go to his state-room where he
+belongs, but to kick up a row here."
+
+"Very well," said Jasper, coolly, "since you are determined to do
+nothing for his relief, I shall take it upon myself to summon the
+doctor." He stepped to a table a bit further off, and touched the
+electric button back of it.
+
+"Here, don't do that," remonstrated Tom, springing forward. But it was
+too late, and the steward who attended to calls on the library stepped
+in.
+
+"It isn't the hour for giving out books," he began.
+
+Tom was stamping his foot impatiently, and scowling at Jasper,
+alternately casting longing glances out the nearest port-hole.
+
+"It isn't books we want," said Jasper, quickly, "but this old
+gentleman"--whose head was now heavily sunken on his breast, and whose
+cheek was quite white--"appears to be very ill, and to need the
+doctor."
+
+"Is that so?" The steward leaned over and peered into the old face.
+"Well, he doesn't look just right, and that's a fact. Is he your
+father?"
+
+"Oh, no," said Jasper, quickly, "I don't know who he is. But, do hurry,
+for he's sick, and needs the doctor at once."
+
+"I'll get Dr. Jones." Off ran the steward toward the surgeon's cabin.
+
+"See what you've done," cried Tom, in a towering passion. "Kicked up a
+pretty mess--when I tell you I've seen my Grandfather just as bad a
+hundred times."
+
+Jasper made no reply, and Polly continued to stroke gently the poor
+head.
+
+"Well--well--well!" exclaimed Mr. King, coming in, "to be sure, it's
+very stupid in me not to think of looking in the library for both of
+you before. O dear me--bless me!" And he came to a dead stop of
+astonishment.
+
+"Father," cried Jasper, "this poor man seems very ill."
+
+"Oh, yes," breathed Polly, pitifully, "he really is, Grandpapa." And
+she put out her hand to seize one of Mr. King's. "And Jasper has sent
+for the doctor."
+
+"And none too soon, I should say," remarked Mr. King, grimly, with a
+keen glance into the old man's face. "Raise his feet a little higher,
+Jasper; put a pillow under them; there, that's it. Well, the doctor
+should be hurried up." He glanced quickly around. "Here, you boy,"
+seeing Tom, "run as you never have run before, and tell the doctor to
+come quickly."
+
+"There isn't any need," began Tom.
+
+"Do you _go_!" commanded Mr. King, pointing to the door. And Tom
+went.
+
+"Father, that boy is his grandson," said Jasper, pointing to the sick
+man.
+
+Mr. King stared into Jasper's face, unable to make a reply.
+
+"He is," declared Polly. "Oh, Grandpapa, he really is!" Then she buried
+her flushed face up against Mr. King's arm.
+
+"There is no need to waste words," said Mr. King, finding his tongue.
+"There, there, Polly, child," fondling her brown head, "don't feel
+badly. I'm sure you've done all you could."
+
+"'Twas Jasper; he did it all--I couldn't do anything," said Polly.
+
+"Oh, Polly, you did everything," protested Jasper.
+
+"Yes, yes, I know, you both did," said Mr. King. "Well, here's the
+doctor, thank the Lord!"
+
+And then when nobody wanted them, the library seemed to be full of
+people, and the news spreading out to the decks, many of the passengers
+got out of their steamer chairs, and tried to swarm into the two
+doorways.
+
+Tom, who never knew how he summoned Dr. Jones, being chiefly occupied
+in astonishment at finding that he obeyed a command from a perfect
+stranger, did not come back to the library, but kept himself with the
+same amazed expression on his face, idly kicking his heels in a quiet
+corner of the deck near by. He never thought of such a thing as being
+worried over his Grandfather, for he couldn't remember when the old
+gentleman hadn't been subject to nervous attacks; but somehow since "a
+row," as he expressed it, "had been kicked up," it was just as well to
+stay in the vicinity and see the end of it. But he wasn't going inside
+--no, not he!
+
+After awhile, Tom was just beginning to yawn, and to feel that no one
+could expect him to waste time like that, and probably his Grandfather
+was going to sleep it out on the sofa, and the stupid doctor would find
+that there was nothing the matter, only the old man was nervous. "And
+I'm going back to the fellows," decided Tom, shaking his long legs.
+
+"Oh, here you are!" cried Jasper, running up to him. "Come quickly,"
+seizing his arm.
+
+"Hey, here, what are you about?" roared Tom at him, shaking off the
+hand.
+
+"You must excuse me for wasting no ceremony," said Jasper, sternly. It
+struck Tom that he looked very much like the old gentleman who had told
+him to _go!_ "Your Grandfather is very ill; something is the
+matter with his heart, and the doctor has sent me for you. He says he
+may not live an hour." It was necessary to tell the whole of the
+dreadful truth, for Tom was still staring at him in defiance.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+TWO ENGLISH FRIENDS
+
+
+"I don't want you," muttered the old gentleman, feebly, turning his
+head away from Tom, and then he set his lips tightly together. But he
+held to Polly's hand.
+
+"You would better go out," Dr. Jones nodded to Tom. "It excites him."
+
+The second time Tom was told to go. He stood quite still. "He's my
+Grandfather!" he blurted out.
+
+"Can't help it," said Dr. Jones, curtly; "he's my patient. So I tell
+you again it is imperative that you leave this room." Then he turned
+back to his work of making the sick man comfortable without taking any
+more notice of the boy.
+
+Tom gave a good long look at as much of his Grandfather's face as he
+could see, then slunk out, in a dazed condition, trying to make himself
+as small as possible. Jasper found him a half hour afterward, hanging
+over the rail away from curious eyes, his head buried on his arms.
+
+"I thought you'd like to know that your Grandfather is better," said
+Jasper, touching the bent shoulder.
+
+"Get away, will you?" growled Tom, kicking out his leg, unmindful where
+it struck.
+
+"And the doctor has gotten him into his state-room, and he is as
+comfortable as he could be made." Jasper didn't add that Dr. Jones had
+asked him to come back, and that the old man was still insisting that
+Polly should hold his hand.
+
+"In that case," declared Tom, suddenly twitching up his head, "I will
+go down there." His face was so drawn that Jasper started, and then
+looked away over the sea, and did not appear to notice the clenched
+hand down by the boy's side.
+
+"I--I--didn't know he was sick." Tom brought it out in gusts, and his
+face worked worse than ever in his efforts not to show his distress.
+The only thing he could do was to double up his hand tighter than ever,
+as he tried to keep it back of him.
+
+"I understand," nodded Jasper, still looking off over the blue water.
+
+"And now I'll go down," said Tom, drawing a long breath and starting
+off. Oh! and Dr. Jones had said the last thing to Jasper as he rushed
+off with the good news to Tom, "On no account let that boy see his
+Grandfather. I won't answer for the consequences if you do."
+
+"See here," Jasper tore his gaze off from the shimmering water. "The
+doctor doesn't--doesn't think you ought to see your Grandfather now."
+
+"Hey!" cried Tom, his drawn lips flying open, and his big blue eyes
+distending in anger. "He's my Grandfather. I rather think I shall do as
+I've a mind to," and he plunged off.
+
+"Tom!" Jasper took long steps after him. "Beg your pardon, this is no
+time for thinking of anything but your Grandfather's life. Dr. Jones
+said you were not to see him at present." The truth must be told, for
+in another moment the boy would have been off on the wings of the wind.
+
+"And do you think that I will mind in the least what that beastly
+doctor says?" cried Tom, getting redder and redder in the face, his
+rage was so great. "Hoh! no, sir."
+
+"Then your Grandfather's life will be paid as a sacrifice," said Jasper
+calmly. And he stood quite still; and surveyed the boy before him.
+
+Neither spoke. It seemed to Jasper an age that they stood there in
+silence. At last Tom wavered, put out his hand unsteadily, leaned
+against a steamer chair, and turned his face away.
+
+"Let us do a bit of a turn on the deck," said Jasper, suddenly,
+overcoming by a mighty effort his repugnance to the idea.
+
+Tom shook his head, and swallowed hard.
+
+"Oh, yes," said Jasper, summoning all the cheerfulness he could muster
+to his aid. "Come, it's the very thing to do, if you really want to
+help your Grandfather."
+
+Tom raised his head and looked at him. "I never supposed the old man
+was sick," he said brokenly, and down went his head again, this time
+upon his hands, which were grasping the top of the chair.
+
+"I don't believe you did," answered Jasper. "But come, Tom, let's walk
+around the deck; we can talk just as well meanwhile."
+
+Two or three young men, with cigarettes in their mouths, came
+sauntering up. "Tom Selwyn, you're a pretty fellow--"
+
+Tom raised his head and looked at them defiantly.
+
+"To give us the slip like this," cried one, with a sneer, in which the
+others joined, with a curious look at Jasper.
+
+"Well, come on now," said one. "Yes--yes--come along," said another;
+"we've waited long enough for you to get back."
+
+"I'm not coming," declared Tom, shortly.
+
+"Not coming back? Well--" One of the young men said something under his
+breath, and the first speaker turned on his heel, tossing his cigarette
+over the railing.
+
+"No," said Tom, "I'm not coming. Did you hear me?"
+
+"I believe I had that pleasure," said the last named, "as I am not
+deaf. Come on, fellows; our little boy has got to wait on his
+Grandpappy. Good-by, kid!" He snapped his fingers; the other two
+laughed derisively, and sauntered off down the deck as they came.
+
+Tom shook with passion. "I'd like to walk," he said, drawing a long
+breath, and setting off unsteadily.
+
+"All right," said Jasper, falling into step beside him.
+
+Meantime the old gentleman, in his large handsome state-room, showed no
+sign of returning to the consciousness that had come back for a brief
+moment. And he held to Polly's hand so tightly, as she sat at the head
+of the berth, that there was no chance of withdrawing her fingers had
+she so desired. And Father Fisher with whom Dr. Jones had of course
+made acquaintance, before the steamer fairly sailed, sat there keeping
+watch too, in a professional way, the ship's doctor having called him
+in consultation over the case. And Phronsie, who had been in deep
+penitence because she had wandered off from the library with another
+little girl, to gaze over the railing upon the steerage children below,
+thereby missing Polly, was in such woe over it all that she was allowed
+to cuddle up against Polly's side and hold her other hand. And there
+she sat as still as a mouse, hardly daring to breathe. And Mr. King,
+feeling as if, after all, the case was pretty much under his
+supervision, came softly in at intervals to see that all was well, and
+that the dreadful boy was kept out.
+
+And the passengers all drifted back to their steamer chairs, glad of
+some new topic to discuss, for the gossip they had brought on board was
+threadbare now, as they were two days at sea. And the steamer sailed
+over the blue water that softly lapped the stout vessel's side,
+careless of the battle that had been waged for a life, even then
+holding by slender threads. And Fanny Vanderburgh, whose grandfather
+was a contemporary in the old business days in New York with Mr. King,
+and who sat with her mother at the next table to the King party, spent
+most of her time running to Mrs. Pepper's state-room, or interviewing
+any one who would be able to give her the slightest encouragement as to
+when she could claim Polly Pepper.
+
+"O dear me!" Fanny cried, on one such occasion, when she happened to
+run across Jasper. "I've been down to No. 45 four times this morning,
+and there's nobody there but that stupid Matilda, and she doesn't know
+or won't tell when Polly will get through reading to that tiresome old
+man. And they won't let me go to his state-room. Mrs. Fisher and your
+father are there, too, or I'd get them to make Polly come out on deck.
+We all want her for a game of shuffle-board."
+
+Jasper sighed. So did he long for a game of shuffle-board. Then he
+brought himself up, and said as brightly as he could: "Mr. Selwyn begs
+Polly to stay, and won't have any one else read to him, Miss
+Vanderburgh, so I don't see as it can be helped. He's been very sick,
+you know."
+
+Fanny Vanderburgh beat the toe of her boot on the deck floor. "It's a
+perfect shame. And that horrible old man, he's so seedy and common
+--just think of it--and spoiling all our fun!"
+
+Jasper looked off over the sea, and said nothing.
+
+"As for that dreadful boy, his grandson, I think he's a boor. Goodness
+me--I hope nobody will introduce him. I'm sure I never'll recognise him
+afterward."
+
+Jasper turned uneasily. "Please, Mr. King, do make Polly listen to
+reason," begged Fanny. "There isn't another girl on board I care to go
+with--at least not in the way I would with her. The Griswolds are well
+enough to play games with, and all that; but you know what I mean. Do
+make her come out with us this morning, and listen to reason," she
+repeated, winding up helplessly.
+
+"But I think she is just right," said Jasper, stoutly.
+
+"Right!" cried Fanny, explosively; "oh, how can you say so, Mr. Jasper!
+Why, she is losing just every bit of the fun."
+
+"I know it," said Jasper, with a twinge at the thought. "Well, there is
+nothing more to be said or done, Miss Vanderburgh, since Polly has
+decided the matter. Only I want you to remember that I think she is
+just right about it."
+
+Fanny Vanderburgh pouted her pretty lips in vexation. "At least, don't
+try to get that dreadful boy into our own set to play games," she cried
+venomously, "for I won't speak to him. He's a perfect boor. 'Twas only
+yesterday he brushed by me like a clumsy elephant, and knocked my book
+out of my hand, and never even picked it up. Think of that, Mr. King!"
+
+"I know--that was dreadful," assented Jasper, in dismay at the obstacle
+to the plan he had formed in his own mind, to do that very thing he was
+now being warned against. "But you see, Miss Vanderburgh, he's all
+upset by his Grandfather's sickness."
+
+"And I should think he would be," cried Fanny Vanderburgh, with spirit.
+"Mrs. Griswold says she's heard him domineering over the old man, and
+then his Grandfather would snarl and scold like everything. She has the
+next state-room, you know. I don't see how those Selwyns can afford
+such a nice cabin," continued Fanny, her aristocratic nose in the air,
+"they look so poor. Anyway that boy is a perfect beast, Mr. King."
+
+"He's very different now," said Jasper, quickly. "He had no idea his
+Grandfather was so poorly. Now I'll tell you, Miss Vanderburgh," Jasper
+turned sharply around on his heel so that he faced her. It was
+necessary with a girl like her to state plainly what he had to say, and
+to keep to it. "I am going to ask Tom Selwyn to play games with all us
+young people. If it distresses you, or any one else, so that you cannot
+join, of course I will withdraw, and I know Polly will, and we will get
+up another circle that will play with him."
+
+It was almost impossible to keep from laughing at Fanny's face, but
+Jasper was very grave as he waited for an answer. "O dear me, Mr.
+Jasper," she cried, "haven't I told you I don't really care for any one
+on board but Polly Pepper, and Mamma doesn't want me to mix up much
+with those Griswolds?" She lowered her voice and glanced over her
+shoulder. "It would make it so awkward if they should be much in New
+York, and we should meet. So of course I've got to do as Polly and you
+do. Don't you see?--it's awfully hard on me, though," and she clasped
+her hands in vexation.
+
+"Very well, then," said Jasper; "now that's decided. And seeing it is,
+why the next thing to do, is to bring Tom down, and we'll get up a game
+of shuffle-board at once. He's not needed by his Grandfather now." He
+didn't think it necessary to add, "for the old gentleman won't see him,
+and Tom is forbidden the room by the doctor."
+
+Fanny's aristocratic nose went up in alarm, and her whole face was
+overspread with dismay. It was one thing to anticipate evil, and quite
+another to find it precipitated upon one. "I--I don't--believe I can
+play this morning, Mr. Jasper," she began hurriedly, for the first time
+in her young life finding herself actually embarrassed. She was even
+twisting her fingers.
+
+"Very well," said Jasper, coolly, "then I understand that you will not
+play with us at any time, for, as we begin to-day, we shall keep on. I
+will set about getting up another party at once." He touched his yacht
+cap lightly, and turned off.
+
+"I'll go right down on the lower deck with you now." Fanny ran after
+him, her little boot heels clicking excitedly on the hard floor. "The
+steward has marked it all for us. I got him to, while I ran to find
+Polly so as to engage the place," she added breathlessly.
+
+"That's fine," said Jasper, a smile breaking over the gloom on his
+face; "now we'll have a prime game, Miss Vanderburgh."
+
+Fanny swallowed hard the lump in her throat, and tried to look
+pleasant. "Do you go and collect the Griswolds," cried Jasper,
+radiantly, "and I'll be back with Tom," and he plunged off. It was all
+done in a minute. And the thing that had been worrying him--how to get
+Tom into good shape, and to keep him there--seemed fixed in the best
+way possible. But Tom wouldn't go. Nothing that Jasper could do or say
+would move him out of the gloom into which he was cast, and at last
+Jasper ran down for a hurried game with the party awaiting him, to whom
+he explained matters in the best way he could.
+
+At last, old Mr. Selwyn was able to emerge from his state-room. Mr.
+King and he were the best of friends by this time, the former always,
+when Polly read aloud, being one of the listeners. At all such hours,
+indeed, and whenever Polly went to sit by the invalid, Phronsie would
+curl up at Polly's side, and fondle the doll that Grandpapa gave her
+last, which had the honour to take the European trip with the family.
+Phronsie would smooth the little dress down carefully, and then with
+her hand in Polly's, she would sit motionless till the reading was
+over. Mamsie, whose fingers could not be idle, although the big mending
+basket was left at home, would be over on the sofa, sewing busily; and
+little Dr. Fisher would run in and out, and beaming at them all through
+his spectacles, would cry cheerily, "Well, I declare, you have the most
+comfortable place on the whole boat, Mr. Selwyn." Or Dr. Jones, whom
+Polly thought, next to Papa Fisher, was the very nicest doctor in all
+the world, would appear suddenly around the curtain, and smile approval
+through his white teeth. At last on the fifth day out, the old man was
+helped up to sun himself in his steamer chair on deck. And then he had
+a perfect coterie around him, oh-ing and ah-ing over his illness, and
+expressing sympathy in every shape, for since Mr. King and his party
+took him up, it was quite the thing for all the other passengers to
+follow suit.
+
+When a few hours of this sort of thing had been going on, the old man
+called abruptly to Polly Pepper, who had left him, seeing he had such
+good company about him, and had now skipped up with Jasper to toss him
+a merry word, or to see if his steamer rug was all tucked in snugly
+around him.
+
+"See here, Polly Pepper, do you play chess?"
+
+"What, sir?" Polly thought she had not heard correctly.
+
+"Do you play chess, I say?" demanded old Mr. Selwyn, bringing his sharp
+little eyes to bear on her.
+
+"No, sir, that is--only a little," stammered Polly.
+
+"Well, that will do for a start," the old gentleman nodded in
+satisfaction. "And I'll give you some points later on about the game.
+Well, and you play backgammon, of course." He didn't wait for her to
+answer, but finished, "These people here drive me almost crazy, asking
+me how I feel, and what was the matter with me, and all that rubbish.
+Now, I'm going into the library, and you shall go too, and we'll have a
+game of backgammon."
+
+He flung back his steamer rug with a determined hand.
+
+Jasper began, "Oh, Polly!" in dismay, but she broke in, "Yes, indeed, I
+do play backgammon, Mr. Selwyn, and it will be fine to have a game."
+And together they helped him up and into a cosey corner of the library.
+
+"There, now," said Polly, with a final little pat on the sofa pillows
+tucked up at his back. "I believe you are as comfortable as you can be,
+Mr. Selwyn."
+
+"Indeed I am," he declared.
+
+"And now, Jasper, do get the backgammon board," cried Polly. "There it
+is over there," spying it on a further table.
+
+Old Mr. Selwyn cast a hungry glance on it as it was brought forward,
+and his sharp little eyes sparkled, as Polly threw it open. He even
+chuckled in delight as he set the men.
+
+Tom Selwyn came up to the door, and standing in its shadow, looked in.
+Jasper flung himself down on the sofa by the old gentleman's side to
+watch the game. Suddenly he glanced up, caught sight of Tom, although
+the latter's head was quickly withdrawn, and jumping up, he dashed
+after him.
+
+"Here--see here, Tom!" he called to the big figure before him, making
+good time down the stairs. "I can't go chasing you all over the boat in
+this fashion. Stop, will you?"
+
+"What do you want?" demanded Tom, crossly, feeling it impossible to
+elude such a pursuer, and backing up against a convenient angle.
+
+"I want you to come up into the library and watch the game. Do, it'll
+be the best time,"--he didn't say "to make it all up."
+
+"Can't," said Tom, "he won't see me."
+
+"Oh, yes, he will; I almost know he will," declared Jasper, eagerly
+feeling this minute as if the most unheard-of things were possible.
+
+"And beside, your sister--I mean the Pepper girl--Miss Pepper--" Tom
+corrected himself clumsily. "She can't bear me--I won't come."
+
+"Oh, yes, she can now," said Jasper, just as eagerly, "especially since
+I've told her all you've told me."
+
+"Well, I hate girls anyway," declared Tom, in his most savage fashion;
+"always have hated 'em, and always shall. I won't come!"
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+PHRONSIE GOES VISITING
+
+
+"Grandpapa," said Phronsie, softly, as she clung to his hand, after
+they had made the descent to the lower deck, "I think the littlest one
+can eat some of the fruit, don't you?" she asked anxiously.
+
+"Never you fear," assented old Mr. King, "that child that I saw
+yesterday can compass anything in the shape of food. Why, it had its
+mouth full of teeth, Phronsie; it was impossible not to see them when
+it roared."
+
+"I am so glad its teeth are there," said Phronsie, with a sigh of
+satisfaction, as she regarded her basket of fruit, "because if it
+hadn't any, we couldn't give it these nice pears, Grandpapa."
+
+"Well, here we are," said Mr. King, holding her hand tightly. "Bless
+me--are those your toes, young man?" this to a big chubby-faced boy,
+whose fat legs lay across the space as he sprawled on the deck; "just
+draw them in a bit, will you?--there. Well, now, Phronsie, this way.
+Here's the party, I believe," and he led her over to the other side,
+where a knot of steerage passengers were huddled together. In the midst
+sat a woman, chubby faced, and big and square, holding a baby. She had
+a big red shawl wrapped around her, in the folds of which snuggled the
+baby, who was contentedly chewing one end of it, while his mother had
+her eyes on the rest of her offspring, of which there seemed a good
+many. When the baby saw Phronsie, he stopped chewing the old shawl and
+grinned, showing all the teeth of which Mr. King had spoken. The other
+children, tow headed and also chubby, looked at the basket hanging on
+Phronsie's arm, and also grinned.
+
+"There is the baby!" exclaimed Phronsie, in delight, pulling
+Grandpapa's hand gently. "Oh, Grandpapa, there he is."
+
+"That's very evident," said the old gentleman. "Bless me!" addressing
+the woman, "how many children have you, pray tell?"
+
+"Nine," she said. Then she twitched the jacket of one of them, and the
+pinafore of another, to have them mind their manners, while the baby
+kicked and crowed and gurgled, seeming to be all teeth.
+
+"I have brought you some fruit," said Phronsie, holding out her basket,
+whereat all the tow headed group except the baby crowded each other
+dreadfully to see all there was in it. "I'm sorry the flowers are gone,
+so I couldn't bring any to-day. May the baby have this?" holding out a
+pear by the stem.
+
+The baby settled that question by lunging forward and seizing the pear
+with two fat hands, when he immediately sank into the depths of the old
+shawl again, all his teeth quite busy at work. Phronsie set down her
+basket on the deck, and the rest of the brood emptied it to their own
+satisfaction. Their mother's stolid face lighted up with a broad smile
+that showed all her teeth, and very white and even they were.
+
+"Grandpapa," said Phronsie, turning to him and clasping her hands, "if
+I only might hold that baby just one little bit of a minute," she
+begged, keenly excited.
+
+"Oh, Phronsie, he's too big," expostulated Mr. King, in dismay.
+
+"I can hold him just as easy, Grandpapa dear," said Phronsie, her lips
+drooping mournfully. "See." And she sat down on a big coil of rope near
+by and smoothed out her brown gown. "Please, Grandpapa dear."
+
+"He'll cry," said Mr. King, quickly. "Oh, no, Phronsie, it wouldn't do
+to take him away from his mother. You see it would be dreadful to set
+that child to roaring--very dreadful indeed." Yet he hung over her in
+distress at the drooping little face.
+
+"He won't cry." The mother's stolid face lighted up a moment. "And if
+the little lady wants to hold him, he'll sit there."
+
+"May I, Grandpapa?" cried Phronsie, her red lips curling into a happy
+smile. "Oh, please say I may, Grandpapa dear," clasping her hands.
+
+"The family seems unusually clean," observed Mr. King to himself. "And
+the doctor says there's no sickness on board, and it's a very different
+lot of steerage folks going this way from coming out, all of which I've
+settled before coming down here," he reflected. "Well, Phronsie--yes--I
+see no reason why you may not hold the baby if you want to." And before
+the words were hardly out of his mouth, the chubby-faced woman had set
+the fat baby in the middle of the brown gown smoothed out to receive
+him. He clung to his pear with both hands and ate away with great
+satisfaction, regardless of his new resting-place.
+
+"Just come here!" Mrs. Griswold, in immaculately fitting garments,
+evidently made up freshly for steamer use, beckoned with a hasty hand
+to her husband. "It's worth getting up to see." He flung down his novel
+and tumbled out of his steamer chair. "Look down there!"
+
+"_Whew!_" whistled Mr. Griswold; "that _is_ a sight!"
+
+"And that is the great Horatio King!" exclaimed Mrs. Griswold under her
+breath; "down there in that dirty steerage--and look at that child
+--Reginald, did you ever see such a sight in your life?"
+
+"On my honour, I never have," declared Mr. Griswold, solemnly, and
+wanting to whistle again.
+
+"Sh!--don't speak so loud," warned Mrs. Griswold, who was doing most of
+the talking herself. And plucking his sleeve, she emphasised every word
+with fearful distinctness close to his ear. "She's got a dirty steerage
+baby in her lap, and Mr. King is laughing. Well, I never! O dear me,
+here come the young people!"
+
+Polly and Jasper came on a brisk trot up the deck length. "Fifteen
+times around make a mile, don't they, Jasper?" she cried.
+
+"I believe they do," said Jasper, "but it isn't like home miles, is it,
+Polly?"--laughing gaily--"or dear old Badgertown?"
+
+"I should think not," replied Polly, with a little pang at her heart
+whenever Badgertown was mentioned. "We used to run around the little
+brown house, and see how many times we could do it without stopping."
+
+"And how many did you, Polly?" asked Jasper,--"the largest number, I
+mean."
+
+"Oh, I don't know," said Polly, with a little laugh; "Joel beat us
+always, I remember that."
+
+"Yes, Joe would get over the ground, you may be sure," said Jasper, "if
+anybody could."
+
+Polly's laugh suddenly died away and her face fell. "Jasper, you don't
+know," she said, "how I do want to see those boys."
+
+"I know," said Jasper, sympathisingly, "but you'll get a letter, you
+know, most as soon as we reach port, for they were going to mail it
+before we left."
+
+"And I have one every day in my mail-bag," said Polly, "but I want to
+_see_ them so, Jasper, I don't know what to do." She went up to
+the rail at a remove from the Griswolds and leaned over it.
+
+"Polly," said Jasper, taking her hand, "you know your mother will feel
+dreadfully if she knows you are worrying about it."
+
+"I know it," said Polly, bravely, raising her head; "and I won't--why
+Jasper Elyot King!" for then she saw Grandpapa and Phronsie and the
+steerage baby.
+
+Jasper gave a halloo, and waved his hand, and Polly danced up and down
+and called, and waved her hands too. And Phronsie gave a little crow of
+delight. "See, Grandpapa, there they are; I want Polly--and Jasper,
+too." And old Mr. King whirled around. "O dear me! Come down, both of
+you," which command it did not take them long to obey.
+
+"Well, I never did in all my life," ejaculated Mrs. Griswold, "see
+anything like that. Now if some people"--she didn't say "we"--"should
+do anything like that, 'twould be dreadfully erratic and queer. But
+those Kings can do anything," she added, with venom.
+
+"It's pretty much so," assented Mr. Griswold, giving a lazy shake.
+"Well, I'm going back to my chair if you've got through with me,
+Louisa." And he sauntered off.
+
+"Don't go, Reginald," begged his wife; "I haven't got a soul to talk
+to."
+
+"Oh, well, you can talk to yourself," said her husband, "any woman
+can." But he paused a moment.
+
+"Haven't those Pepper children got a good berth?" exclaimed Mrs.
+Griswold, unable to keep her eyes off from the small group below. "And
+their Mother Pepper, or Fisher, or whatever her name is--I declare it's
+just like a novel, the way I heard the story from Mrs. Vanderburgh
+about it all."
+
+"And I wish you'd let me get back to my book, Louisa," exclaimed Mr.
+Griswold, tartly, at the mention of the word "novel," beginning to look
+longingly at his deserted steamer chair, "for it's precious little time
+I get to read on shore. Seems as if I might have a little peace at
+sea."
+
+"Do go back and read, then," said his wife, impatiently; "that's just
+like a man,--he can't talk of anything but business, or he must have
+his nose in a book."
+
+"We men want to talk sense," growled her husband, turning off. But Mrs.
+Griswold was engrossed in her survey of Mr. King and the doings of his
+party, and either didn't hear or didn't care what was remarked outside
+of that interest.
+
+Tom Selwyn just then ran up against some one as clumsily as ever. It
+proved to be the ship's doctor, who surveyed him coldly and passed on.
+Tom gave a start and swallowed hard, then plunged after him. "Oh, I
+say."
+
+"What is it?" asked Dr. Jones, pausing.
+
+"Can I--I'd like--to see my Grandfather, don't you know?"
+
+Dr. Jones scanned him coolly from top to toe. Tom took it without
+wincing, but inwardly he felt as if he must shake to pieces.
+
+"If you can so conduct yourself that your Grandfather will not be
+excited," at last said the doctor,--what an age it seemed to Tom,--"I
+see no reason why you shouldn't see your Grandfather, and go back to
+your state-room. But let me tell you, young man, it was a pretty close
+shave for him the other day. Had he slipped away, you'd have had that
+on your conscience that would have lasted you for many a day." With
+this, and a parting keen glance, he turned on his heel and strode off.
+
+Tom gave a great gasp, clenched his big hands tightly together, took a
+long look at the wide expanse of water, then disappeared within.
+
+In about half an hour, the steerage baby having gone to sleep in
+Phronsie's arms, the brothers and sisters, finding, after the closest
+inspection, nothing more to eat in the basket, gathered around the
+centre of attraction in a small bunch.
+
+"I hope they won't wake up the baby," said Phronsie, in gentle alarm.
+
+"Never you fear," said old Mr. King, quite comfortable now in the
+camp-chair one of the sailors had brought in response to a request from
+Jasper; "that child knows very well by this time, I should imagine,
+what noise is."
+
+But after a little, the edge of their curiosity having been worn off,
+the small group began to get restive, and to clamour and pull at their
+mother for want of something better to do.
+
+"O dear me!" said Phronsie, in distress.
+
+"Dear, dear!" echoed Polly, vainly trying to induce the child next to
+the baby to get into her lap; "something must be done. Oh, don't you
+want to hear about a funny cat, children? I'm going to tell them about
+Grandma Bascom's, Jasper," she said, seeing the piteous look in
+Phronsie's eyes.
+
+"Yes, we do," said one of the boys, as spokesman, and he solemnly
+bobbed his tow head, whereat all the children then bobbed theirs.
+
+"Sit down, then," said Polly, socially making way for them, "all of you
+in a circle, and I'll tell you of that very funny cat." So the whole
+bunch of tow-headed children sat down in a ring, and solemnly folded
+their hands in their laps. Jasper threw himself down where he could
+edge himself in. Old Mr. King leaned back and surveyed them with great
+satisfaction. So Polly launched out in her gayest mood, and the big
+blue eyes in the round faces before her widened, and the mouths flew
+open, showing the white teeth; and the stolid mother leaned forward,
+and her eyes and mouth looked just like those of her children, only
+they were bigger; and at last Polly drew a long breath and wound up
+with a flourish, "And that's all"
+
+"Tell another," said one of the round-eyed, open-mouthed children,
+without moving a muscle. All the rest sat perfectly still.
+
+"O dear me," said Polly, with a little laugh, "that was such a good
+long one, you can't want another."
+
+"I think you've gotten yourself into business, Polly," said Jasper,
+with a laugh. "Hadn't we better go?"
+
+Polly gave a quick glance at Phronsie. "Phronsie dear," she said, "let
+us go up to our deck now, dear. Shall we?"
+
+"Oh, no, Polly, please don't go yet," begged Phronsie, in alarm, and
+patting the baby softly with a gentle little hand. Polly looked off at
+Grandpapa. He was placidly surveying the water, his eyes occasionally
+roving over the novel and interesting sights around. On the other side
+of the deck a returning immigrant was bringing out a jew's-harp, and
+two or three of his fellow-passengers were preparing to pitch quoits.
+Old Mr. King was actually smiling at it all. Polly hadn't seen him so
+contented since they sailed.
+
+"I guess I'll tell another one, Jasper," she said. "Oh, about a dog,
+you wanted, did you?" nodding at the biggest boy.
+
+"Yes," said the boy, bobbing his tow head, "I did;" and he unfolded and
+folded his hands back again, then waited patiently.
+
+So Polly flew off on a gay little story about a dog that bade fair to
+rival Grandma Bascom's cat for cleverness. He belonged to Mr. Atkins
+who kept store in Badgertown, and the Pepper children used to see a
+good deal of him, when they took home the sacks and coats that Mamsie
+sewed for the storekeeper. And in the midst of the story, when the
+stolid steerage children were actually laughing over the antics of that
+remarkable dog, Jasper glanced up toward the promenade deck, took a
+long look, and started to his feet. "Why, Polly Pepper, see!" He
+pointed upward. There, on the curve, were old Mr. Selwyn and Tom
+walking arm in arm.
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+STEAMER LIFE
+
+
+And after that, it was "My grandson, Thomas," on all occasions, the old
+gentleman introducing the boy to the right and to the left, as he
+paraded the deck, his old arm within the younger one. And the little,
+sharp black eyes snapped proudly and the white head was held up, as he
+laughed and chattered away sociably to the passengers and the ship's
+crew, at every good opportunity.
+
+"Yes, my grandson, Thomas, is going back to school. We've been running
+about in your country a bit, and the boy's mother went home first with
+the other children--" Polly heard him say as the two paused in front of
+her steamer chair.
+
+"Indeed!" ejaculated Mrs. Vanderburgh, as he addressed her, and raising
+her eyebrows with a supercilious glance for his plain, unprepossessing
+appearance. "Yes, Madam, and glad shall I be to set my foot on Old
+England again Hey, Tom, my boy, don't you say so?"
+
+Tom looked off over the sea, but did not speak.
+
+Neither did Mrs. Vanderburgh answer, but turned her face away in
+disdain that was very plainly marked.
+
+"Home is the best place, Madam," declared old Mr. Selwyn emphatically.
+"Well, Old England is our home, and nothing will induce me to leave it
+again, I can assure you."
+
+Again Mrs. Vanderburgh did not reply, but looked him up and down in
+cold silence. Old Mr. Selwyn, not appearing to notice, chattered on. At
+last she deliberately turned her back on him.
+
+"Isn't he common and horrid?" whispered Fanny Vanderburgh, in the
+steamer chair next to Polly, thrusting her face in between her and her
+book. And she gave a little giggle.
+
+"Hush!" said Polly, warningly, "he will hear you."
+
+"Nonsense--it's impossible; he is rattling on so; and do look at
+Mamma's face!"
+
+He didn't hear, but Tom did; and he flashed a glance--dark and
+wrathful--over at the two girls, and started forward, abruptly pulling
+his Grandfather along.
+
+"O dear me!" exclaimed Polly, in distress, dropping her book in her
+lap; "now he _has_ heard."
+
+"Oh, that dreadful boy," said Fanny, carelessly, stretching out in her
+steamer chair comfortably; "well, who cares? he's worse than his
+Grandfather."
+
+"Yes, he has heard," repeated Polly, sorrowfully looking after the two,
+Tom still propelling the old gentleman along the deck at a lively rate;
+"now, what shall we do?"
+
+"It isn't of the least consequence if he has heard," reiterated Fanny,
+"and Mamma has been frightfully bored, I know. Do tell us, Mamma," she
+called.
+
+Mrs. Vanderburgh turned away from the rail, where she had paused in her
+constitutional when addressed by the old gentleman, and came up to the
+girls.
+
+"Do sit down, Mamma, in your steamer chair," begged Fanny; "I'll tuck
+you up in your rug." And she jumped lightly out of her own chair.
+"There, that's nice," as Mrs. Vanderburgh sank gracefully down, and
+Fanny patted and pulled the rug into shape. "Now tell us, wasn't he the
+most horrible old bore?"
+
+As she cuddled back into her own nest, Mrs. Vanderburgh laughed in a
+very high-bred manner. "He was very amusing," she said.
+
+"Amusing! I should say so!" cried Fanny. "I suppose he would have told
+you all his family history if he had stayed. O dear me, he is such a
+common, odious old person."
+
+Polly twisted uneasily under her rug.
+
+Mrs. Vanderburgh glanced into the steamer chair on the other side. It
+had several books on top of the rug. "I don't believe he can take that
+seat," she said; "still, Fanny, I think it would be well for you to
+change into it, for that old man may take it into his head, when he
+makes the turn of the deck, to drop into it and give us the whole of
+his family history."
+
+"Horrors!" ejaculated Fanny, hopping out of her chair again. "I'll make
+sure that he doesn't. And yet I did so want to sit next to Polly
+Pepper," she mourned, ensconcing herself under the neighbouring rug,
+and putting the books on the floor by her side.
+
+"Don't do that; give them to me," said her mother; "I'll put them in
+your chair unless Miss Polly will take that place, only I don't like to
+disturb you, dear," she said with a sweet smile at Polly.
+
+"Why, that would make matters' worse, Mamma," said Fanny. "Don't you
+see, then, that old bore would put himself into Polly's chair, for he
+likes her, anyway. Do leave it as it is."
+
+So Mrs. Vanderburgh smiled again. "I don't know but that you are
+right," she said, and leaned back her head restfully. "Dear me, yes, he
+_is_ amusing."
+
+"They are terribly common people," said Fanny, her aristocratic nose
+well in the air, "aren't they, Mamma? And did you ever see such a
+clumsy thing as that dreadful boy, and such big hands and feet?" She
+held up her own hands as she spoke, and played with her rings, and let
+the jingling bracelets run up and down her wrists.
+
+"Fanny, how often must I tell you to wear gloves on shipboard?" said
+her mother, in a tone of reproof. "Nothing spoils the hands so much as
+a trip at sea. They won't get over it all summer; they're coarsened
+already," and she cast an alarmed glance at the long, slender fingers.
+
+"I'm so tired of gloves, Mamma." Fanny gave a restful yawn. "Polly
+Pepper doesn't wear them," she cried triumphantly, peering past her
+mother to point to Polly's hands.
+
+Mrs. Vanderburgh hesitated. It wouldn't do to say anything that would
+reflect against the Peppers--manners, or customs, or bringing up
+generally. So she leaned over and touched Polly's fingers with her own
+gloved ones.
+
+"You don't wear gloves, do you, my dear?" she said, in gentle surprise,
+quite as if the idea had just struck her for the first time.
+
+"No, Mrs. Vanderburgh, I don't," said Polly, "at least not on
+shipboard, unless it is cold."
+
+"There, now, Mamma," laughed Fanny, in a pleased way; "you'll stop
+teasing me about wearing them, I'm sure."
+
+Mrs. Vanderburgh turned and surveyed her daughter; but she didn't
+smile, and Fanny thought it as well to begin again on the old topic.
+
+"They're awfully common people, aren't they, Mamma,--those Selwyns?"
+
+"They are, indeed," replied Mrs. Vanderburgh, "quite commonplace, and
+exceedingly tiresome; be sure and not speak to them, Fanny."
+
+"Trust me for that," said Fanny, with a wise little nod. "The old man
+stopped me and asked me something this morning, as I was coming out of
+the dining room, after breakfast, but I pretended I didn't hear, and I
+skipped upstairs and almost fell on my nose."
+
+"You were fortunate to escape," said her mother, with a little laugh.
+"Well, let us drop the subject and talk of something else much more
+important. Polly, my dear." She turned again and surveyed the young
+girl at her side. "You are coming home this autumn, aren't you?"
+
+"Oh, no," said Polly, "Grandpapa expects to stay over in Europe a
+year."
+
+"Is that so?" said Mrs. Vanderburgh, and her face fell; "I regret it
+exceedingly, for I should be glad if you would visit Fanny this winter
+in New York."
+
+"Thank you; but I couldn't anyway," said Polly. Then the colour flew up
+to her cheek. "I mean I am in school, you know, Mrs. Vanderburgh, but I
+thank you, and it is so good of you to want me," she added, hurriedly,
+feeling that she hadn't said the right thing at all.
+
+"I do want you very much, my dear child," said Mrs. Vanderburgh, "and I
+am very sorry you are to remain abroad over the winter, for your
+Grandfather would be persuaded, I feel quite sure, to have you leave
+school for a while, and come to us for a visit."
+
+"Oh, no, he wouldn't," cried Polly, quickly. "I beg pardon, Mrs.
+Vanderburgh, but I never leave school for anything unless I am sick,
+and I am almost never sick."
+
+"Well, then, you could come for the Christmas holidays," said Mrs.
+Vanderburgh, with ladylike obstinacy like one accustomed to carrying
+her point.
+
+"The Christmas holidays!" exclaimed Polly, starting forward in her
+chair. "Oh, I wouldn't leave home for anything, then, Mrs. Vanderburgh.
+Why, we have the most beautiful times, and we are all together--the
+boys come home from school--and it's just too lovely for anything!" She
+clasped her hands and sighed--oh, if she could but see Ben and Joel and
+David but once!
+
+Mrs. Vanderburgh was a very tall woman, and she gazed down into the
+radiant face, without speaking; Polly was looking off over the sea, and
+the colour came and went on her cheek.
+
+"We would soon get her out of all such notions, if we once had her with
+us, wouldn't we, Mamma?" said Fanny, in a low tone close to her
+mother's ear.
+
+Mrs. Vanderburgh gave her a warning pinch, but Polly's brown eyes were
+fastened on the distant horizon, and she hadn't heard a word.
+
+"Well, we'll arrange it sometime," said Fanny's mother, breaking the
+silence; "so you must remember, Polly dear, that you are engaged to us
+for a good long visit when you do come home."
+
+"I will tell Grandpapa that you asked me," said Polly, bringing her
+eyes back with a sigh to look into Mrs. Vanderburgh's face.
+
+"Oh, he will fall into the plan quite readily, I think," said Mrs.
+Vanderburgh, lightly. "You know we are all very old friends--that is,
+the families are--Mr. Vanderburgh's father and Mr. King were very
+intimate. Perhaps you don't know, Polly,"--and Fanny's mamma drew
+herself up to her extreme height; it was impossible for her to loll
+back in her chair when talking of her family,--"that we are related to
+the Earl of Cavendish who owns the old estate in England, and we go
+back to William the Conqueror; that is, Fanny does on her father's
+side."
+
+Fanny thereupon came up out of her chair depths to sit quite straight
+and gaze with importance at Polly's face. But Polly was still thinking
+of the boys, and she said nothing.
+
+"And my family is just as important," said Mrs. Vanderburgh, and she
+smiled in great satisfaction. "Really, we could make things very
+pleasant for you, my child; our set is so exclusive, you could not
+possibly meet any one but the very best people. Oh, here is your
+mother." She smiled enchantingly up at Mrs. Fisher, and held out her
+hand. "Do come and sit here with us, my dear Mrs. Fisher," she begged,
+"then we shall be a delightful group, we two mothers and our
+daughters."
+
+"Thank you, Mrs. Vanderburgh." Mrs. Fisher smiled, but she didn't offer
+to take the steamer chair. "I have come after Polly."
+
+"Mamsie, what is it? I'll come," said Polly, tumbling out of her
+steamer chair in a twinkling.
+
+"O dear me!" exclaimed Mrs. Vanderburgh, in regret, "don't take Polly
+away, I do implore you, my dear Mrs. Fisher--I am _so_ fond of
+her."
+
+"I must," said Mother Fisher, smiling again, her hand now in Polly's,
+and before any more remonstrances were made, they were off.
+
+"Oh, Mamsie!" breathed Polly, hanging to the dear hand, "I am so glad
+you came, and took me away."
+
+"Polly," said Mother Fisher, suddenly, "Grandpapa asked me to find you;
+he thinks you could cheer old Mr. Selwyn up a bit, perhaps, with
+backgammon. I'm afraid Tom has been behaving badly again."
+
+"Oh, Mamsie!" exclaimed Polly, in dismay. And then the story came out.
+
+"Grandpapa," said Phronsie, pulling at his hand gently, as they walked
+slowly up and down the deck, "does your head ache?" And she peered
+anxiously up into his face.
+
+"No, child--that is, not much," said old Mr. King, trying to smooth his
+brows out. He was thinking--for it kept obtruding at all times and
+seasons--of that dreadful scrap of paper that Cousin Eunice had imposed
+upon him at the last minute before they sailed, announcing that she had
+had her way, and would at last compel acceptance of such a gift as she
+chose to make to Phronsie Pepper.
+
+"If it aches at all," said Phronsie, decidedly, "I wish you would let
+me rub it for you, Grandpapa. I do, truly."
+
+"Well, it doesn't," said Grandpapa; "that is it won't, now that I have
+you with me. I was thinking of something unpleasant, Phronsie, and
+then, to tell you the truth, that old Mr. Selwyn tires me to death. I
+can't talk to him, and his grandson is a cad."
+
+"What is a cad?" asked Phronsie, wonderingly.
+
+"Oh, well, a boy who isn't nice," said Mr. King, carelessly.
+
+"Grandpapa, why isn't that boy nice to that poor old man?" asked
+Phronsie, a grieved look coming into her blue eyes.
+
+"Goodness me, child, you ask me too much," said Mr. King, quickly; "oh,
+a variety of reasons. Well, we must take things as we find them, and do
+what we can to help matters along; but it seems a hopeless case,--things
+were in better shape; and now they seem all tangled up again,
+thanks to that boy."
+
+"Grandpapa," said Phronsie, earnestly, "I don't believe that boy means
+to be bad to that poor old man, I don't really and truly, Grandpapa,"
+she added, shaking her head.
+
+"Well, he takes a queer way to show it, if he means to be good," said
+old Mr. King, grimly.
+
+"Oh, is that you, Master Tom?" as they turned a corner to find
+themselves face to face with Tom Selwyn.
+
+"Mr. King," Tom began very rapidly so that the words ran all over each
+other, "I'm no end sorry--don't think hard things of me--it's not my
+fault this time; Grandfather heard it as well as I--at least, I caught
+a little and he asked me what it was, and I had to tell him, and it
+upset him."
+
+Old Mr. King stood gazing into the big boy's face in utter
+bewilderment. "As I don't know in the least what you are trying to tell
+me, my boy," at last he said, "I shall have to ask you to repeat it,
+and go slowly."
+
+So Tom tried again to tell his story, and by the time that it was all
+out, Mr. King was fuming in righteous indignation.
+
+"Well, well, it's not worth thinking of," at last he said at sight of
+the flashing eyes before him and the angry light on the young face.
+"You take my arm, or I'll take yours, Master Tom,--there, that's
+better,--and we'll do a bit of a turn on the deck. Your grandfather'll
+come out of it, for he's busy over the backgammon board. But it was an
+ugly thing to do just the same."
+
+Just then Mrs. Vanderburgh and Fanny passed them, all sweet smiles for
+him and for Phronsie, but with no eyes for the boy.
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+A FISH STORY AND OTHER THINGS
+
+
+"Oh, Polly! Polly!" Phronsie came running along the deck, and up to the
+little group playing shuffle-board; "there's such a very big whale."
+And she clasped her hands in great excitement. "There truly is. Do come
+and see him."
+
+"Is there, Pet?" cried Polly, throwing down her shovel, "then we must
+all go and see him. Come, Jasper, and all of you," and she seized
+Phronsie's hand.
+
+"He is very dreadful big," said Phronsie, as they sped on, Jasper and
+the other players close behind. "And he puffed, Polly, and the water
+went up, oh, so high!"
+
+"That's because he came up to breathe," said Polly, as they raced
+along. "Dear me, I hope he won't be gone when we get there."
+
+"Can't he breathe under the water?" asked Phronsie, finding it rather
+hard work to perform that exercise herself in such a race. "What does
+he stay down there for, then, say, Polly?"
+
+"Oh, because he likes it," answered Polly, carelessly. "Take care,
+Phronsie, you're running into all those steamer chairs."
+
+"I'm sorry he can't breathe," said Phronsie, anxiously trying to steer
+clear of the bunch of steamer chairs whose occupants had suddenly left
+them, too, to see the whale. "Poor whale--I'm sorry for him, Polly."
+
+"Oh, he's happy," said Polly, "he likes it just as it is. He comes up
+for a little while to blow and--"
+
+"I thought you said he came up to breathe, Polly," said Phronsie,
+tugging at Polly's hand, and guilty of interrupting.
+
+"Well, and so he does, and to blow, too,--it's just the same thing,"
+said Polly, quickly.
+
+"Is it just exactly the same?" asked Phronsie.
+
+"Yes, indeed; that is, in the whale's case," answered Polly, as they
+ran up to Grandpapa and the rest of their party, and the knots of other
+passengers, all staring hard at a certain point on the sparkling waste
+of water.
+
+"I thought you were never coming," said old Mr. King, moving away from
+the rail to tuck Polly and Phronsie in where they could get a good
+view. "Oh, there he is--there he is--Jasper, look!" cried Polly.
+
+"There he is!" crowed Phronsie, now much excited. "Oh, isn't he big,
+Grandpapa?"
+
+"I should say he was," declared Mr. King. "I think I never saw a finer
+whale in my life, Phronsie."
+
+"He comes up to blow," said Phronsie, softly to herself, her face
+pressed close to the rail, and her yellow hair floating off in the
+breeze; "and Polly says it doesn't hurt him, and he likes it."
+
+"What is it, Phronsie child?" asked old Mr. King, hearing her voice.
+
+"Grandpapa, has he got any little whales?" asked Phronsie, suddenly
+raising her face.
+
+"Oh, yes, I imagine so," said old Mr. King; "that is, he ought to have,
+I'm sure. Porpoises go in schools,--why shouldn't whales, pray tell?"
+
+"What's a porpoise?" asked Phronsie, with wide eyes.
+
+"Oh, he's a dolphin or a grampus."
+
+"Oh," said Phronsie, much mystified, "and does he go to school?"
+
+"Well, they go ever so many of them together, and they call it a
+school. Goodness me--that _is_ a blow!" as the whale spouted
+valiantly, and looked as if he were making directly for the steamer.
+
+"Oh, Grandpapa, he's coming right here!" screamed Phronsie, clapping
+her hands in delight, and hopping up and down,--Polly and Jasper were
+almost as much excited,--while the passengers ran hither and thither to
+get a good view, and levelled their big glasses, and oh-ed and ah-ed.
+And some of them ran to get their cameras. And Mr. Whale seemed to like
+it, for he spouted and flirted his long tail and dashed into the water
+and out again to blow, till they were all quite worn out looking at
+him. At last, with a final plunge, he bade them all good-by and
+disappeared.
+
+Phronsie, after her first scream of delight, had pressed her face close
+to the rail and held her breath. She did not say a word, but gazed in
+speechless enjoyment at the antics of the big fish. And Grandpapa had
+to speak two or three times when the show was all over before she heard
+him.
+
+"Did you like it, Phronsie?" he asked, gathering her hand up closely in
+his, as he leaned over to see her face.
+
+Phronsie turned away with a sigh. "Oh, Grandpapa, he was so beautiful!"
+She drew a long breath, then turned back longingly. "Won't he ever come
+back?" she asked.
+
+"Maybe not this one," said old Mr. King; "but we'll see plenty more, I
+imagine, Phronsie. At least, if not on this voyage,--why, some other
+time."
+
+"Oh, wasn't it splendid!" exclaimed Polly, tossing back the little
+rings of brown hair from her brow. "Well, he's gone; now we must run
+back, Jasper, and finish our game." And they were off, the other
+players following.
+
+"I'd like to see this very whale again," said Phronsie, with a small
+sigh; "Grandpapa, I would, really; he was a nice whale."
+
+"Yes, he was a fine one," said old Mr. King. "I don't know as I ever
+put eyes on a better specimen, and I've seen a great many in my life."
+
+"Tell me about them, do, Grandpapa," begged Phronsie, drawing nearer to
+him.
+
+"Well, I'll get into my steamer chair, and you shall sit in my lap, and
+then I'll tell you about some of them," said Mr. King, much gratified.
+As they moved off, Phronsie clinging to his hand, she looked back and
+saw two children gazing wistfully after them. "Grandpapa," she
+whispered, pulling his hand gently to attract attention, "may that
+little boy and girl come, too, and hear about your whales?"
+
+"Yes, to be sure," cried Mr. King. So Phronsie called them, and in a
+few minutes there was quite a big group around Grandpapa's steamer
+chair; for when the other children saw what was going on, they stopped,
+too, and before he knew, there he was perfectly surrounded.
+
+"I should very much like to hear what it is all about." Mrs.
+Vanderburgh's soft voice broke into a pause, when old Mr. King stopped
+to rest a bit. "You must be very fascinating, dear Mr. King; you have
+no idea how pretty your group is." She pulled Fanny forward gently into
+the outer fringe of the circle. "Pray, what is the subject?"
+
+"Nothing in the world but a fish story, Madam," said the old gentleman.
+
+"Oh, _may_ we stay and hear it?" cried Mrs. Vanderburgh,
+enthusiastically, clasping her gloved hands. "Fanny adores such things,
+don't you, dear?" turning to her.
+
+"Yes, indeed, Mamma," answered Fanny, trying to look very much pleased.
+
+"Take my word for it, you will find little to interest either of you,"
+said Mr. King.
+
+"Oh, I should be charmed," cried Mrs. Vanderburgh. "Fanny dear, draw up
+that steamer chair to the other side." But a stout, comfortable-looking
+woman coming down the deck stopped directly in front of that same
+chair, and before Fanny could move it, sat down, saying, "This is my
+chair, young lady."
+
+"That vulgar old woman has got it," said Fanny, coming back quite
+crestfallen.
+
+"Ugh!" Mrs. Vanderburgh shrugged her shoulders as she looked at the
+occupant of the chair, who surveyed her calmly, then fell to reading
+her book. "Well, you must just bear it, dear; it's one of the
+annoyances to be endured on shipboard."
+
+"I suppose the lady wanted her own chair," observed Mr. King, dryly.
+
+"Lady? Oh, my dear Mr. King!" Mrs. Vanderburgh gave a soft little
+laugh. "It's very good of you to put it that way, I'm sure. Well, now
+do let us hear that delightful story. Fanny dear, you can sit on part
+of my chair," she added, regardless of the black looks of a gentleman
+hovering near, who had a sharp glance on the green card hanging to the
+back of the chair she had appropriated and that bore his name.
+
+So Fanny perched on the end of the steamer chair, and Mr. King, not
+seeing any way out of it, went on in his recital of the whale story,
+winding up with an account of some wonderful porpoises he had seen, and
+a variety of other things, until suddenly he turned his head and keenly
+regarded Fanny's mother.
+
+"How intensely interesting!" she exclaimed, opening her eyes, and
+trying not to yawn. "Do go on, and finish about that whale," feeling
+that she must say something.
+
+"Mamma!" exclaimed Fanny, trying to stop her.
+
+"I ended up that whale some five minutes ago, Madam," said Mr. King. "I
+think you must have been asleep."
+
+"Oh, no, indeed, I have been charmed every moment," protested Mrs.
+Vanderburgh sitting quite erect. "You surely have the gift of a
+_raconteur_, Mr. King," she said, gracefully recovering herself.
+"O dear me, here is that odious boy and that tiresome old man!" as Tom
+Selwyn came up slowly, his Grandfather on his arm.
+
+Mr. King put Phronsie gently off from his lap, still keeping her hand
+in his. "Now, children, the story-telling is all done, the whales and
+porpoises are all finished up--so run away." He touched his sea-cap to
+Mrs. Vanderburgh and her daughter, then marched up to the old man and
+Tom.
+
+"I am tired of sitting still," he said. "May my little granddaughter
+and I join you in a walk?"
+
+Tom shot him a grateful look. Old Mr. Selwyn, who cared most of all for
+Polly, mumbled out something, but did not seem especially happy. But
+Mr. King did not appear to notice anything awry, but fell into step,
+still keeping Phronsie's hand, and they paced off.
+
+"If you know which side your bread is buttered, Mamma," said Fanny
+Vanderburgh, shrewdly, looking after them as they disappeared, "you'll
+make up to those dreadful Selwyn people."
+
+"Never!" declared her mother, firmly. "Fanny, are you wild? Why, you
+are a Vanderburgh and are related to the English nobility, and I am an
+Ashleigh. What would your father say to such a notion?"
+
+"Well, Papa isn't here," said Fanny, "and if he were, he'd do something
+to keep in with Mr. King. I hate and detest those dreadful Selwyns as
+much as you do, Mamma, but I'm going to cultivate them. See if I
+don't!"
+
+"And I forbid it," said her mother, forgetting herself and raising her
+voice. "They are low bred and common. And beside that, they are
+eccentric and queer. Don't you speak to them or notice them in the
+slightest."
+
+"Madam," said the gentleman of the black looks, advancing and touching
+his cap politely, "I regret to disturb you, but I believe you have my
+chair."
+
+Mrs. Vanderburgh begged pardon and vacated the chair, when the
+gentleman touched his cap again, and immediately drew the chair up to
+the one where the stout, comfortable-looking woman sat.
+
+"It seems to me there are more ill-bred, low-lived people on board this
+boat than it has been my lot to meet on any voyage," said Mrs.
+Vanderburgh, drawing her sea coat around her slight figure and sailing
+off, her daughter in her wake.
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+A LITTLE SURPRISE
+
+
+"Sir," said little Mr. Selwyn, bringing his sharp black eyes to bear
+upon old Mr. King, "you've been very good to me, and I've not been
+always pleasant. But it's my way, sir; it's my way."
+
+Mr. King nodded pleasantly, although deep in his heart he agreed with
+the choleric old gentleman. "But as for Polly, why, she's good--good as
+gold, sir." There was no mistaking Mr. Selwyn's sentiments there, and
+his old cheek glowed while giving what to him meant the most wonderful
+praise to be paid to a person.
+
+Old Mr. King straightened up. "You've said the right thing now," he
+declared.
+
+"And I wish I could see that girl when she's grown up," added the
+little old gentleman. "I want really to know what sort of a woman
+she'll make. I do, indeed, sir."
+
+"It isn't necessary to speculate much on it," answered Mr. King,
+confidently, "when you look at her mother and remember the bringing up
+that Polly Pepper has had."
+
+The little old gentleman squinted hard at the clouds scudding across
+the blue sky. "That's so," he said at last. "Well, I'm sorry we are to
+part," he added. "And, sir, I really wish you would come down to my
+place with your party and give me a fortnight during your stay in
+England. I really do, sir, upon me word." There was no mistaking his
+earnestness as he thrust out one thin, long-fingered hand. With the
+other, he set a card within Mr. King's fingers.
+
+"Arthur Selwyn, The Earl of Cavendish," met Mr. King's eyes.
+
+"I had a fancy to do this thing," said the little old gentleman, "to
+run across from America in simple fashion, and it pleased the boy, who
+hates a fuss. And we've gotten rid of all sorts of nuisances by it;
+interviews, and tiresome people. And I've enjoyed it mightily." He
+chuckled away till it seemed as if he were never going to stop. Old Mr.
+King burst out laughing, too; and the pair were so very jolly that the
+passengers, grouped together waiting for the Liverpool landing, turned
+to stare at them.
+
+"Just see how intimate Mr. King is with that tiresome, common, old Mr.
+Selwyn!" exclaimed Mrs. Vanderburgh to her daughter. "I never was so
+surprised at anything in all my life, to see that he keeps it up now,
+for I thought that aristocratic Horatio King was the most fastidious
+being alive."
+
+"The Kings have awfully nice times," grumbled Fanny, picking her gloves
+discontentedly. "And you keep me mewed up, and won't let me speak to
+anybody whose grandfather wasn't born in our set, and I hate and loathe
+it all."
+
+"You'll be glad when you are a few years older, and I bring you out in
+society, that I always have been so particular," observed Mrs.
+Vanderburgh, complacently, lifting her head in its dainty bonnet,
+higher than ever.
+
+"I want some nice times and a little fun now," whined Fanny, with an
+envious glance over at Polly and Jasper with the dreadful Selwyn boy
+between them, and Phronsie running up to join them, and everybody in
+their party just bubbling over with happiness.
+
+"I wish Mr. King and his party would go to Paris now," said her mother,
+suddenly.
+
+"Oh, don't I just wish it!" cried Fanny, in a burst. "Did you ask him,
+Mamma?"
+
+"Yes, indeed; I talked for fully half an hour yesterday, but it was no
+use. And he doesn't seem to know how long he is going to stay in
+England; 'only a few days,' he said, vaguely, then they go to Holland."
+
+"Oh, why couldn't we go to Holland!" exclaimed Fanny, impulsively, and
+her eyes brightened; "splendid Holland, that would be something like,
+Mamma!"
+
+"You forget the Van Dykes are to be in Paris awaiting us."
+
+"Oh, those stupid Van Dykes!" exploded Fanny. "Mamma, don't go there
+now. Do change, and let us go to Holland with the Kings. Do, Mamma,"
+she implored.
+
+"Why, Fanny Vanderburgh!" exclaimed her mother, sharply, "what is the
+matter with you? You know it was settled long ago, that we should meet
+Mrs. Van Dyke and Eleanor in Paris at just this very time. It would
+never do to offend them, particularly when Eleanor is going to marry
+into the Howard set."
+
+"And I'll have the most stupid time imaginable," cried Fanny,
+passionately, "dragging around while you and the Van Dykes are buying
+that trousseau."
+
+"Yes, that's one thing that I wanted the Kings to go to Paris for,"
+said Mrs. Vanderburgh; "you could be with them. And really they are
+much more important than any one to get in with. And I'd keep up the
+friendship with the Van Dykes. But that Mr. King is so obstinate, you
+can't do anything with him." A frown settled all across her pretty
+face, and she beat her foot impatiently on the deck.
+
+"You spoil everything, Mamma, with your sets and your stupid people,"
+declared Fanny, her passion by no means cooled. "When I come out in
+society I'm going to choose my own friends," she muttered to herself,
+and set her lips tightly together.
+
+Mr. King was saying, "Thank you, so much, Mr. Selwyn, for I really
+think I'd prefer to call you so, as I knew you so first."
+
+"So you shall," cried the little Earl, glancing around on the groups,
+"and it's better just here, at all events," and he chuckled again.
+"Then you really will come?" and he actually seized Mr. King's hand and
+wrung it heartily.
+
+"No, I was about to say it is quite impossible."
+
+The Earl of Cavendish stared blankly up out of his sharp little black
+eyes in utter amazement into the other's face. "My stay in London is
+short, only a few days," Mr. King was saying, "and then we go directly
+to Holland. I thank you all the same--believe me, I appreciate it. It
+is good of you to ask us," he cordially added.
+
+The little Earl of Cavendish broke away from him, and took a few hasty
+steps down the deck to get this new idea fairly into his brain that his
+invitation had not been accepted. Then he hurried back. "My dear sir,"
+he said, laying his hand on Mr. King's arm, "will you do me the favour
+to try to come at some future time--to consider your plans before you
+return to America, and see if you can't manage to give me this great
+pleasure of welcoming you to my home? Think of it, I beg, and drop me a
+line; if at home, I shall always be most glad to have you with me. I
+should esteem it a privilege." The Earl of Cavendish was astonished to
+find himself beseeching the American gentleman without a title. And
+then they awaked to the fact that the groups of passengers were merging
+into a solid mass, and a slow procession was beginning to form for the
+stairway, and the landing episode was well under way.
+
+Mrs. Vanderburgh, determined not to bid good-by on the steamer but to
+be with the Kings till the last moment, rushed up to them on the wharf,
+followed by Fanny.
+
+"Oh, we are _so_ sorry you are not going to Paris with us," cried
+Mrs. Vanderburgh, while Fanny flew at Polly Pepper and engrossed her
+hungrily. "Can't you reconsider it now?" she asked, with a pretty
+earnestness.
+
+"No, it is impossible," answered Mr. King, for about the fiftieth time.
+"Our plans will not allow it. I hope you and your daughter will have
+the best of times," he remarked politely.
+
+"Yes, we shall; we meet old friends there, and Paris is always
+delightful." Mrs. Vanderburgh bit her lip in her vexation. "I was going
+to see you and beg you even now to change your plans, while we were on
+the steamer waiting to land," she went on hurriedly, "but you were
+bored--I quite pitied you--by that tiresome, common, old Mr. Selwyn."
+
+"Yes, I was talking with him," said Mr. King, "but excuse me, I was not
+bored. He is peculiar, but not at all common, and he has many good
+qualities as a man; and I like the boy immensely."
+
+"How can you?" Mrs. Vanderburgh gave a little high-bred laugh. "They
+are so insufferably common, Mr. King, those Selwyns are."
+
+"Excuse me," said Mr. King, "that was the Earl of Cavendish; it will do
+no harm to mention it now, as they have gone."
+
+"Who--who?" demanded Mrs. Vanderburgh in a bewildered way.
+
+"I did not know it till this morning," Mr. King was explaining, "but
+our fellow-passenger, Mr. Selwyn, chose to cross over keeping his real
+identity unknown, and I must say I admire his taste in the matter; and
+anyway it was his affair and not mine." It was a long speech, and at
+its conclusion Mrs. Vanderburgh was still demanding, "Who--who?" in as
+much of a puzzle as ever.
+
+"The Earl of Cavendish," repeated Mr. King; "Mr. Selwyn is the Earl of
+Cavendish. As I say, he did not wish it known, and--"
+
+"Fanny--Fanny!" called her mother, sitting helplessly on the first
+thing that presented itself, a box of merchandise by no means clean.
+"Fan-ny! the--the Earl of Cavendish!" She could get no further.
+
+Little Dr. Fisher, who administered restoratives and waited on Mrs.
+Vanderburgh and her daughter to their London train, came skipping back
+to the Liverpool hotel.
+
+"I hope, wife, I sha'n't grow uncharitable,"--he actually glared
+through his big spectacles,--"but Heaven defend us on our travels from
+any further specimens like that woman."
+
+"We shall meet all sorts, probably, Adoniram," said his wife, calmly;
+"it really doesn't matter with our party of eight; we can take solid
+comfort together."
+
+The little doctor came out of his ill temper, but he said ruefully,
+"That's all very well, wife, for you and the Hendersons; for you
+steered pretty clear, I noticed, of that woman. Well, she's gone." And
+he smiled cheerfully. "Now for dinner, for I suppose Mr. King has
+ordered it."
+
+"Yes, he has," said his wife. "And you have a quarter of an hour. I've
+put your clothes out all ready."
+
+"All right." The little doctor was already plunging here and there,
+tearing off his coat and necktie and boots; and exactly at the time
+set, he joined the party, with a bright and shining face, as if no Mrs.
+Vanderburgh, or any one in the least resembling her, had ever crossed
+his path.
+
+"Jasper," cried Polly, as they hurried along out of the Harwich train
+to the steamer that was to take them to the Hook of Holland, "can you
+really believe we are almost there?"
+
+      *      *      *      *      *
+
+"No, I can't," said Jasper, "for I've wanted to see Holland for such a
+time."
+
+"Wasn't it good of Grandpapa," cried Polly, "to take us here the first
+thing after London?"
+
+"Father always does seem to plan things rightly," answered Jasper, with
+a good degree of pride. "And then 'it's prime,'" "as Joel used to say,"
+he was going to add, but thought better of it, as any reference to the
+boys always set Polly to longing for them.
+
+"Indeed, he does," exclaimed Polly, in her most earnest fashion; "he's
+ever and always the most splendid Grandpapa. Oh, I wish I could do
+things for him, Jasper," she mourned; "he's so good to us."
+
+"You do things for him all the while, Polly," Jasper made haste to say,
+as they ran along to keep up with the Parson and Mrs. Henderson's
+comfortable figures just before them; "you are all the while doing
+something for him."
+
+"Oh, no, I don't," said Polly, "there isn't anything I can do for him.
+Don't you suppose there ever will be, Jasper?" she asked imploringly.
+
+"Yes, indeed," said Jasper; "there always are things that hop up to be
+done when people keep their eyes open. But don't you worry about your
+not doing anything for him, Polly. Promise me that." Jasper took her
+hand and stopped just a minute to look into her face.
+
+"I'll try not to," promised Polly, "but, oh, Jasper, I do so very much
+wish there might be something that I could do. I do, indeed, Jasper."
+
+"It was only yesterday," said Jasper, as they began to hurry on once
+more, "that father said 'you can't begin to think, Jasper, what a
+comfort Polly Pepper is to me.'"
+
+"Did he, Jasper?" cried Polly, well pleased, the colour flying over her
+cheek, "that was nice of him, because there isn't anything much I can
+really do for him. O dear! there is Grandpapa beckoning to us to
+hurry." So on they sped, having no breath for words. And presently they
+were on the boat, and little Dr. Fisher and Mr. Henderson went forward
+into the saloon, where the rooms reserved beforehand were to be given
+out, and the rest of the party waited and watched the stream of people
+of all ages and sizes and nationalities who desired to reach Holland
+the next morning.
+
+To Polly it was a world of delight, and to Jasper, who watched her
+keenly, it was a revelation to see how nothing escaped her, no matter
+how noisy and dirty or turbulent the crowd, or how annoying the
+detention,--it was all a marvel of happiness from beginning to end. And
+Jasper looking back over the two times he had been before to Europe
+with his father, although he had never seen Holland, remembered only a
+sort of dreary drifting about with many pleasant episodes and
+experiences, it is true, still with the feeling on the whole of the
+most distinct gladness when their faces were turned homeward and the
+journeying was over.
+
+"Mamsie," cried Polly, poking her head out from the upper berth of the
+stuffy little state-room assigned to Mrs. Fisher, Mrs. Henderson,
+Phronsie, and herself; "was anything ever so delicious as this boat?
+--and to think, Mamsie,"--here Polly paused to add as impressively as if
+the idea had never been voiced before,--"that we are really to see
+Holland to-morrow."
+
+"You'd better go to sleep now, then," said Mrs. Fisher, wisely, "if you
+want to be bright and ready really to see much of Holland in the
+morning, Polly."
+
+"That's so," answered Polly, ducking back her head to its pillow, and
+wriggling her toes in satisfaction; "Phronsie is asleep already, isn't
+she, Mamsie?"
+
+"Yes," said Mrs. Fisher, "she dropped off as soon as her head touched
+the pillow. Good night, Polly, you would better do the same."
+
+"Good night, Mamsie," said Polly, with a sleepy little yawn, "and good
+night, dear Mrs. Henderson," she added, already almost in dreamland.
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+OFF FOR HOLLAND
+
+
+It seemed to Polly as if she had only breathed twice, and had not
+turned over once, when there was Mamsie's voice calling her, and there
+was Mamsie's face looking into hers over the edge of the berth. "Wake
+up, Polly, child, you have only about ten minutes to dress in."
+
+"O dear me! what--where?" exclaimed Polly, springing to a sitting
+position, thereby giving her brown head a smart thump on the ceiling of
+the berth, "where are we, Mamsie? why, it is the middle of the night,
+isn't it?" she cried, not stopping to pity her poor head.
+
+"We are almost at the Hook of Holland," said Mrs. Fisher, busily
+buttoning Phronsie's shoes. Phronsie sat on the lower berth, her sleepy
+little legs dangling over the edge, and her sleepy little head going
+nid-nodding, despite all her efforts to keep herself awake.
+
+"O dear me!" cried Polly, remorsefully, when she saw that. "I ought to
+have dressed Phronsie. Why didn't you wake me up earlier, Mamsie?"
+
+"Because I wanted you to sleep all you could," said Mrs. Fisher, "and
+now if you'll only dress Polly Pepper as quickly as possible, that's
+all I ask."
+
+"I will dress Polly Pepper in a twinkling, Mamsie," declared Polly,
+laughing merrily; "O dear me, where _is_ my other stocking?" She
+stuck out one black foot ready for its boot. "Is it down there,
+Mamsie?" All the while she was shaking the bedclothes violently for any
+chance glimpse of it in the berth.
+
+"Where did you put it last night when you took it off, Polly?" asked
+Mrs. Fisher, buttoning away for dear life on Phronsie's shoes. "There
+now, Pet, those are done; hop out now, and fly into your clothes."
+
+"I thought I put 'em both in the corner here," cried poor Polly,
+twitching everything loose. Thereupon her big hat, hung carefully upon
+a high hook, slipped off and fell to the floor.
+
+"Take care, Polly," warned her mother, "haste only makes matters
+worse."
+
+"But I can't go with only one stocking on," said Polly, quite gone in
+despair now. "Oh, dear Mrs. Henderson, don't you see it on the floor?"
+For that good woman had dropped to her knees, and was busily prowling
+around among the accumulation of bags and clothing.
+
+"That's what I'm hoping to do," she answered, "but I don't see it as
+yet, Polly."
+
+"I'll help Polly to find it," cried Phronsie, now thoroughly awake and
+dropping her small skirts to get down on the floor by Mrs. Henderson's
+side. "Don't feel badly, Polly; I'll find your stocking for you."
+
+"No, Phronsie," said her mother, "you must get into your own clothes.
+And then Mrs. Henderson is nearly all ready, and you can go out with
+her, and that will leave more room, so that Polly and I can search more
+carefully. And the stocking has got to come, for it couldn't walk off
+of itself," she added cheerily as she saw Polly's face. "Why--what?" as
+she happened to look upward. And then Polly looked, too, and there was
+her stocking dangling from the very high hook where the big hat had
+been.
+
+"You tossed it up there, I suppose, when you shook up the bedclothes so
+quickly," said Mrs. Fisher. "Well, now," as Polly pounced on the
+stocking, "see how fast you can hop into your clothes, daughter." Then
+she began to put the things for the bags into their places, and
+Matilda, coming in, finished the work; and Polly flew around, buttoning
+and tying and patting herself into shape, and by the time that little
+Dr. Fisher's voice called at the door, "Well, wife, are you ready?"
+there they all were, trim and tidy as ever for a start.
+
+"Where is it, Grandpapa?" asked Phronsie, peering around on either
+side,--Dr. Fisher and Jasper had gone off to attend to the examination
+of the luggage by the customs inspectors,--and then coming up gently to
+pull his arm. "I don't see it anywhere."
+
+"What, child?" answered Grandpapa, looking down at her. "See here, wait
+a minute," to the others who were ahead, "Phronsie has lost something."
+
+"Oh, no, Grandpapa, I haven't," began Phronsie, in gentle protestation,
+"all my things are in here." She patted her little bag that hung on her
+arm, a gift of old Mr. King's for her to carry her very own things in,
+that yielded her immense satisfaction every time she looked at it,
+which was very often.
+
+"Didn't you say you wanted to find something, dear?" he asked, quite
+puzzled, while the others surrounded them wonderingly.
+
+"No," said Phronsie, "only where is the hook, Grandpapa? I don't see
+it." She lifted her little face and gazed up at him confident that he
+knew everything.
+
+"She has lost her button-hook!" exclaimed Polly, "the cunning little
+silver one Auntie Whitney gave her Christmas. I'll run back and get it;
+it must be in the state-room."
+
+"Stay, Polly," commanded Mr. King. And, "Oh, no, I haven't," piped
+Phronsie, as Polly was flying off. "It's here in my bag," patting
+Grandpapa's gift hanging on her arm. "I couldn't lose that, Polly," she
+cried in horror at the thought, as Polly hurried back.
+
+"Well, what is it, then, you've lost?" demanded Polly, breathlessly.
+
+"I haven't lost anything," reiterated Phronsie, pushing back the yellow
+hair from her face. "Grandpapa, tell them, please, I haven't lost
+anything," she kept repeating, appealing to him.
+
+"She says she hasn't lost anything, so we won't say that again," echoed
+old Mr. King. "Now, Phronsie, child, tell me what it is you mean; what
+hook you want."
+
+"The hook," said Phronsie; "here, Grandpapa," and she looked all around
+in a troubled way, "they said it was here; I don't see it, Grandpapa."
+
+"She means the Hook of Holland," burst out Polly, "don't you, Phronsie
+pet?" And she threw her arms around her while Mr. Henderson exclaimed,
+"Of course, why didn't we think of it, to be sure?"
+
+"Yes, Polly." Phronsie gave a glad little cry, and wriggled in great
+satisfaction in her arms. "Grandpapa, where is it,--the Hook of
+Holland?"
+
+"Oh, bless me, child!" exclaimed Mr. King, "that is the name of the
+place; at least, to be accurate, it is Hoek van Holland. Now, just as
+soon as we get fairly started on our way to Rotterdam, I'll tell you
+all about it, or Polly shall, since she was clever enough to find out
+what you meant."
+
+"Oh, no, Grandpapa," cried Polly, "I'd so much rather you told her
+--please do, dear Grandfather?"
+
+"And so I will," he promised, very much pleased, for Mr. King dearly
+loved to be the one to relate the history and anecdotes about the
+places along which they travelled. And so, when they were steaming off
+toward Rotterdam, as he sat in the centre of the compartment he had
+reserved for their use, Phronsie next to him, and Polly and Jasper
+opposite, he told the whole story. The others tucked themselves in the
+remaining four seats, and did not lose a word. Matilda and Mr. King's
+valet, in a second-class compartment, took charge of the luggage.
+
+"I like it very much," declared Phronsie, when the story was all
+finished, and smoothing down her little brown gown in satisfaction.
+
+"I like it very much, Grandpapa's telling it," said Polly, "but the
+Hook of Holland isn't anything to what we shall see at Rotterdam,
+while, as for The Hague and Amsterdam--oh, Grandpapa!"
+
+That "oh, Grandpapa" just won his heart, and Mr. King beamed at her as
+her glowing face was turned first to one window and then to the other,
+that she might not lose anything as the train rumbled on.
+
+"Just wait till we get to Marken," broke in Jasper, gaily, "then if you
+want to see the Dutch beat the Dutch--well, you may!" he ended with a
+laugh.
+
+"Oh, Jasper, do they really beat each other?" cried Phronsie, quite
+horrified, and slipping away from Grandpapa to regard him closely.
+
+"Oh, no! I mean--they go ahead of everything that is most Dutch,"
+Jasper hastened to say; "I haven't explained it very well."
+
+"No, I should think not," laughed his father, in high good humour.
+"Well, Phronsie, I think you will like the folks on the Island of
+Marken, for they dress in funny quaint costumes, just as their
+ancestors did, years upon years ago."
+
+"Are there any little children there?" asked Phronsie, slipping back
+into her place again, and nestling close to his side.
+
+"Hundreds of them, I suppose," replied Mr. King, with his arm around
+her and drawing her up to him, "and they wear wooden shoes or sabots,
+or klompen as they call them, and--"
+
+"Wooden shoes!" cried Phronsie; "oh, Grandpapa," clasping her hands,
+"how do they stay on?"
+
+"Well, that's what I've always wondered myself when I've been in
+Holland. A good many have left off the sabots, I believe, and wear
+leather shoes made just like other people's."
+
+"Oh, Grandpapa," cried Phronsie, leaning forward to peer into his face,
+"don't let them leave off the wooden shoes, please."
+
+"I can't make them wear anything but what they want to," said old Mr.
+King, with a laugh; "but don't be troubled, child, you'll see all the
+wooden shoes you desire, in Rotterdam, and The Hague, too, for that
+matter."
+
+"Shall I?" cried Phronsie, nestling back again quite pleased.
+"Grandpapa, I wish I could wear wooden shoes," she whispered presently
+in a burst of confidence, sticking out her toes to look at them.
+
+"Bless me! you couldn't keep them on," said Mr. King.
+
+"Don't the little Dutch children keep them on?" asked Phronsie. "Oh,
+Grandpapa, I think I could; I really think I could," she added
+earnestly.
+
+"Yes, they do, because they are born and brought up to it, although,
+for the life of me, I don't see how they do it; but you couldn't,
+child, you'd fall the first minute and break your nose, most likely."
+
+Phronsie gave a sigh. "Should I, Grandpapa?"
+
+"Yes, quite likely; but I'll tell you what I will do. I will buy you a
+pair, and we will take them home. That will be fine, won't it, dear?"
+
+"Yes," said Phronsie, wriggling in delight. Then she sat quite still.
+
+"Grandpapa," she said, reaching up to whisper again, "I'm afraid it
+will make Araminta feel badly to see me with my beautiful wooden shoes
+on, when she can't have any. Do you suppose there are little teenty
+ones, Grandpapa dear, and I might get her a pair?"
+
+"Yes, indeed," cried Grandpapa, nodding his white head in delight,
+"there are shoals of them, Phronsie, of all sizes."
+
+"What are shoals?" queried Phronsie.
+
+"Oh, numbers and numbers--so many we can't count them," answered Mr.
+King, recklessly.
+
+Phronsie slid down into her place again, and sat quite still lost in
+thought. So many wooden shoes she couldn't count them was quite beyond
+her. But Grandpapa's voice roused her. "And I'll buy a bushel of them,
+Phronsie, and send them home, so that all your dolls at home can each
+have a pair. Would that suit you, Pet?"
+
+Phronsie screamed with delight and clapped her hands. Polly and Jasper
+who had changed places, as Dr. Fisher and Mr. Henderson had made them
+take theirs by one window, now whirled around. "What is it?" cried
+Polly of Phronsie. "What is it?"
+
+"I'm going to have wooden shoes," announced Phronsie, in a burst of
+confidence that included everybody in the compartment, "for my very own
+self, and Araminta is going to have a pair, and every single one of my
+children at home, too. Grandpapa said so."
+
+"Whew!" whistled Jasper. "Oh, what fun," sighed Polly.
+
+"And you shall have a pair, too, if you want them, Polly," Grandpapa
+telegraphed over to her in the corner.
+
+"And Jasper can, too, can't he, Grandpapa? And, oh, thank you _so
+much,_" cried Polly, all in one breath.
+
+"I guess it's as well I shall be on hand to set the broken bones," said
+little Dr. Fisher, "with all you children capering around in those
+wooden abominations."
+
+"Oh, Dr. Fisher, we are not going to fall!" exclaimed Jasper, in
+disdain, at the very thought. And "No, indeed," came merrily from
+Polly. And then they all fell to work admiring the numberless windmills
+past which their train was speeding toward Rotterdam.
+
+"To think it is only six o'clock!" exclaimed Polly, looking at her
+little travelling watch that Grandpapa had given her. "Now, what a fine
+long day we are going to have, Jasper, for sightseeing in Rotterdam."
+
+As the train came to a standstill, the guards threw open compartment
+doors, and all the people poured out calling for porters to see to
+their luggage, and everything was in confusion at once on the
+platforms.
+
+"Indeed, you won't, Miss Polly," declared Mr. King, overhearing it, as
+they waited till all was ready for them to get into the hotel coach,
+--"we are all going to spend this day at the hotel--first, in getting a
+good breakfast, and then, dear me, I shall sleep pretty much all of the
+morning, and I'd advise the rest of you to jump into your beds and get
+good naps after the experience on that atrocious steamboat last night."
+
+"Oh, Grandpapa, must we really go to bed?" cried Polly, in horror at
+the mere thought.
+
+"Well, not exactly into your beds," laughed Mr. King, as Jasper,
+announcing that all was ready, piloted them into the coach, "but you've
+got to rest like sensible beings. Make up your mind to that. As for
+Phronsie," and he gallantly lifted her up to the step, "she's half
+asleep already. She's got to have a splendid nap, and no mistake."
+
+"I'm not sleepy," declared Phronsie, stumbling into the high coach to
+sit down next to Mother Fisher. "No, Grandpapa dear, not a bit." And
+before anybody knew it, and as soon as the coach wheels spun round, she
+rolled over into Mamsie's lap. There she was as fast asleep as could
+be!
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+"WE WILL COME AGAIN AND STAY A WEEK"
+
+
+They had been several days at The Hague, running about in a restful way
+in the morning, and driving all the long golden afternoons. "Don't you
+dare to go into a picture-gallery or a museum until I give the word,"
+Grandpapa had laid down the law. "I'm not going to begin by being all
+tired out." So Polly and Jasper had gone sometimes with Mr. King and
+Phronsie, who had a habit of wandering off by themselves; or, as the
+case might be, Mr. Henderson would pilot them about till they learnt
+the ways of the old town. And Mrs. Fisher and Mrs. Henderson would
+confess now and then that they would much rather take a few stitches
+and overlook the travelling clothes than do any more sight-seeing. And
+then again, they would all come together and go about in a big party.
+All but Dr. Fisher--he was for hospitals every time.
+
+"That's what I've come for, wife," he would reply to all remonstrance,
+"and don't ask me to put my head into a cathedral or a museum." To Mr.
+King, "Land alive, man, I've got to find out how to take care of living
+bodies before I stare at bones and relics," and Mr. King would laugh
+and let him alone. "He's incorrigible, that husband of yours, Mrs.
+Fisher," he would add, "and we must just let him have his way." And
+Mamsie would smile, and every night the little doctor would tome from
+his tramps and medical study, tired but radiant.
+
+At last one morning Grandpapa said, "Now for Scheveningen to-day!"
+
+"Oh, goody!" cried Polly, clapping her hands; then blushed as red as a
+rose. They were at breakfast, and everybody in the vicinity turned and
+stared at their table.
+
+"Don't mind it, Polly," said Jasper, her next neighbour, "I want to do
+the same thing. And it will do some of those starched and prim people
+good to hear a little enthusiasm." Polly knew whom he meant,--some
+young Englishmen. One of them immediately put up his monocle and
+regarded her as if she had been a new kind of creature displayed for
+his benefit. Jasper glared back at him.
+
+"Yes, we'll go to Scheveningen this morning," repeated Mr. King,
+smiling approvingly at poor Polly, which caused her to lift her head;
+"the carriages are ordered, so as soon as we are through breakfast we
+will be off."
+
+"Oh, father," exclaimed Jasper, in dismay, "must we go in carriages?"
+
+"How else would you go, Jasper?" asked his father.
+
+"Oh, by the tramway; oh, by all means," cried Jasper, perfectly
+delighted that he could get his father even to listen to any other
+plan.
+
+"The dirty tram-cars," ejaculated Mr. King, in disgust. "How can you
+ask it, Jasper? No, indeed, we must go in carriages, or not at all."
+
+"But, father," and Jasper's face fell, "don't you see the upper deck of
+the tram-car is so high and there are fine seats there, and we can see
+so much better than driving in a stupid carriage?"
+
+Polly's face had drooped, too. Mr. King, in looking from one to the
+other, was dismayed and a good bit annoyed to find that his plan wasn't
+productive of much happiness after all. He had just opened his mouth to
+say authoritatively, "No use, Jasper, either you will go in the way I
+have provided, or stay at home," when Phronsie slipped out of her chair
+where she happened this morning to be sitting next to Mother Fisher,
+and running around to his chair, piped out, "Oh, Grandpapa, if you
+please, do let us sit up top."
+
+"We'll do it now, Polly," whispered Jasper, in a transport, "when
+Phronsie looks like that. See her face!"
+
+"Do you really want to go in a dirty old tram-car, Phronsie, instead of
+in a carriage?" Old Mr. King pushed back his chair and looked steadily
+at her.
+
+"Oh, yes, yes, Grandpapa, please"--Phronsie beat her hands softly
+together--"to ride on top; may we, _dear_ Grandpapa?" That "dear
+Grandpapa" settled it. Jasper never heard such a welcome command as
+that Mr. King was just issuing. "Go to the office and countermand the
+order for the carriages, my son; tell them to put the amount on my
+bill, the same as if I'd used them, unless they get a chance to let
+them to some one else. They needn't be the losers. Now then," as Jasper
+bounded off to execute the command, "get on your bonnets and hats, all
+of you, and we'll try this wonderful tram-car. I suppose you won't come
+with us, but will stay behind for the pleasures of some hospital here,"
+he added to Dr. Fisher.
+
+"On the contrary," said the little doctor, throwing down his napkin and
+getting out of his chair. "I am going, for there is a marine hospital
+for children there, that I wouldn't miss for the world."
+
+"I warrant you would find one on a desert island," retorted old Mr.
+King. "Well, hurry now, all of you--and we will be off."
+
+"Now, then, all scramble up here. Phronsie, you go with me," cried old
+Mr. King, as they stood in _plein_, and the tram-car halted before
+them. He was surprised to find that he liked this sort of thing, mixing
+with a crowd and hurrying for seats just like common ordinary
+individuals. And as he toiled up the winding stairs, Phronsie in front
+of him, he had an exhilaration already that made him feel almost as
+young as Polly and Jasper, scampering up the circular stairway at the
+other end. "Well, bless me, we are up, aren't we?" he exclaimed,
+sitting down and casting a glance around.
+
+"Did you ever see anything so fascinating?" cried Polly Pepper,
+clasping her hands in delight, and not stopping to sit down, but
+looking all around.
+
+"You had better sit down," advised Mother Fisher, "else when the car
+starts you may go over the railing."
+
+"Oh, I can't fall, Mamsie," said Polly, carelessly, yet she sat down,
+while Jasper got out of his seat and ran up to old Mr. King.
+
+"Now, father, don't you like it?" he cried. "And isn't it better than a
+stuffy old carriage?"
+
+"Yes, I do, my boy," answered his father, frankly. "Now run off with
+you, you've planned it well." So Jasper, made happy for the day, rushed
+back to his seat. A hand not over clean was laid on it, and a tall
+individual, who was pouring out very bad provincial French at a fearful
+rate, was just about to worm himself into it. Polly, who sat next, had
+turned around to view the scenery from the other side, and hadn't seen
+his advance.
+
+"Excuse me," said Jasper, in another torrent of the same language, only
+of a better quality, "this is my seat--I only left it to speak to my
+father."
+
+But the Frenchman being there, thought that he could get still further
+into the seat. So he twisted and edged, but Jasper slipped neatly in,
+and looked calmly up at him. The Frenchman, unable to get his balance,
+sat down in Jasper's lap. But he bounded up again, blue with rage.
+
+"What's all this?" demanded Mr. King, who never could speak French in a
+hurry, being very elegant at it, and exceedingly careful as to his
+accent. Phronsie turned pale and clung to his hand.
+
+"Nothing," said Jasper, in English, "only this person chose to try to
+take my seat, and I chose to have it myself."
+
+"You take yourself off," commanded Mr. King, in an irate voice to the
+French individual, "or I'll see that some one attends to your case."
+
+Not understanding the language, all might have gone well, but the
+French person could interpret the expression of the face under the
+white hair, and he accordingly left a position in front of Jasper to
+sidle up toward Mr. King's seat in a threatening attitude. At that
+Jasper got out of his seat again and went to his father's side. Little
+Dr. Fisher also skipped up.
+
+"See here you, Frenchy, stop your parley vousing, and march down those
+stairs double quick," cried the little doctor, standing on his tiptoes
+and bristling with indignation. His big spectacles had slipped to the
+end of his nose, his sharp little eyes blazing above them.
+
+"Frenchy" stared at him in amazement, unable to find his tongue. And
+then he saw another gentleman in the person of the parson, who was just
+as big as the doctor was small. With one look he glanced around to see
+if there were any more such specimens. At any rate, it was time to be
+going, so he took a bee-line for the nearest stairway and plunged down.
+But he gave the little doctor the compliment of his parting regard.
+
+"Well," ejaculated Mr. King, when his party had regained their seats
+and the car started off, "if this is to be the style of our companions,
+I think my plan of carriages might be best after all. Eh, my boy?" with
+a sly look at Jasper.
+
+"But anything like this might not happen again in a hundred times,
+father," said Jasper.
+
+"I suppose I must say 'yes, I know it' to that," said his father. And
+as everybody had regained composure, he was beginning to feel very
+happy himself as the car rumbled off.
+
+"This is fine," he kept saying to himself, "the boy knew what was
+best," and he smiled more than once over at Jasper, who was pointing
+out this and that to Polly. Jasper nodded back again.
+
+"Don't let him bother you to see everything, Polly," called Grandpapa.
+"Take my advice--it's a nuisance to try to compass the whole place on
+the first visit." But Polly laughed back, and the advice went over her
+head, as he very well knew it would.
+
+"Was anything ever more beautiful?" exclaimed Mother Fisher, drawing in
+long breaths of delight. The little doctor leaned back in his seat, and
+beamed at her over his big glasses. She began to look rested and young
+already. "This journey is the very thing," he declared to himself, and
+his hard-worked hand slipped itself over her toil-worn one as it lay on
+her lap. She turned to him with a smile.
+
+"Adoniram, I never imagined anything like this," she said simply.
+
+"No more did I," he answered. "That's the good of our coming, wife."
+
+"Just see those beautiful green trees, so soft and trembling," she
+exclaimed, as enthusiastically as Polly herself. "And what a perfect
+arch!" And she bent forward to glance down the shaded avenue. "Oh,
+Adoniram!"
+
+"What makes the trunks look so green?" Polly was crying as they rumbled
+along. "See, Jasper, there isn't a brown branch, even. Everything is
+green."
+
+"That's what makes it so pretty," said Jasper. "I don't wonder these
+oaks in the _Scheveningsche Boschjes_--O dear me, I don't know how
+to pronounce it in the least--are so celebrated."
+
+"Don't try," said Polly, "to pronounce it, Jasper. I just mark things
+in my Baedeker and let it go."
+
+"Our Baedekers will be a sight when we get home, won't they, Polly?"
+remarked Jasper, in a pause, when eyes had been busy to their utmost
+capacity.
+
+"I rather think they will," laughed Polly. "Mine is a sight now,
+Jasper, for I mark all round the edges--and just everywhere."
+
+"But you are always copying off the things into your journal," said
+Jasper, "afterward. So do I mark my Baedeker; it's the only way to jot
+things down in any sort of order. One can't be whipping out a note-book
+every minute. Halloo, here we are at the château of the Grand Duke of
+Saxe-Weimar. Look, Polly! look!"
+
+As they looked back in the distance to the receding ducal estate, Polly
+said: "It isn't one-half as beautiful as this delicious old wood is,
+Jasper. Just see that perfectly beautiful walk down there and that
+cunning little trail. Oh, I do so wish we could stay here."
+
+"Some day, let us ask Dr. Fisher to come out with us, and we will tramp
+it. Oh, I forgot; he won't leave the hospitals."
+
+"Mr. Henderson might like to," said Polly, in a glow, "let's ask him
+sometime, anyway, Jasper. And then, just think, we can go all in and
+out this lovely wood. How fine!"
+
+"Father will come over to Scheveningen again and stay a few days,
+maybe," said Jasper, "if he takes a fancy to the idea. How would you
+like that, Polly?"
+
+"I don't know," said Polly, "because I haven't seen it yet, Jasper."
+
+"I know--I forgot--'twas silly in me to ask such a question," said
+Jasper, with a laugh. "Well, anyway, I think it more than likely that
+he will."
+
+"I just love The Hague," declared Polly, with a backward glance down
+the green avenue. "I hope we are going to stay there ever so long,
+Jasper."
+
+"Then we sha'n't get on to all the other places," said Jasper. "We
+shall feel just as badly to leave every other one, I suppose, Polly."
+
+"I suppose so," said Polly, with a sigh.
+
+When they left the tram-car at the beginning of the village of
+Scheveningen they set off on a walk down to the _Curhaus_ and the
+beach. Old Mr. King, as young as any one, started out on the promenade
+on the undulating terrace at the top of the Dunes, followed by the rest
+of his party.
+
+Down below ran a level road. "There is the Boulevard," said Grandpapa.
+"See, child," pointing to it; but Phronsie had no eyes for anything but
+the hundreds and hundreds of Bath chairs dotting the sands.
+
+"Oh, Grandpapa, what are they?" she cried, pulling his hand and
+pointing to them.
+
+"Those are chairs," answered Mr. King, "and by and by we will go down
+and get into some of them."
+
+"They look just like the big sunbonnets that Grandma Bascom always wore
+when she went out to feed her hens, don't they, Jasper?"
+
+"Precisely," he said, bursting into a laugh. "How you always do see
+funny things, Polly."
+
+"And see what queer patches there are all up and down the sides of some
+of them," cried Polly. "Whatever can they be, Jasper?"
+
+"Oh, those are the advertisements," said Jasper. "You'll find that
+everything is plastered up in that way abroad."
+
+"Just as the omnibuses in London are all covered over with posters,"
+said Polly; "weren't they funny, Jasper?"
+
+"Yes, indeed,--'Lipton Teas,'--I got so tired of that. And these,--cocoa
+or chocolate. You know Holland is full of manufactories of it."
+
+"And isn't it good?" cried Polly, smacking her lips, as she had feasted
+on it since their arrival in Holland, Grandpapa considering it
+especially good and pure.
+
+"I should say so," echoed Jasper, smacking his lips, too.
+
+"Dr. Fisher--" The parson turned to address his neighbour, but there
+was no little doctor.
+
+"Oh, he is off long ago," said his wife, "to his beloved hospital. What
+is it, Samuel?"
+
+"I was only going to remark that I don't believe I ever saw so many
+people together before. Just look!" he pointed down to the Boulevard
+and off to the sands along the beach.
+
+"It is a swarm, isn't it?" said his wife. "Well, we must go, for Mr.
+King is going down to the Boulevard."
+
+Polly and Jasper, running in and out of the fascinating shops by the
+Concert terrace, had minds divided by the desire to stay on the sands,
+and to explore further the tempting interiors. "We must get something
+for the boys," she declared, jingling her little silver purse; "just
+let us go in this one now, then we'll run after Grandpapa; he's going
+down on the sands."
+
+"He's going to sit with Phronsie in some of those big sunbonnets of
+yours, Polly," said Jasper. "There they are," pointing to them. "Well,
+we'll go in this shop. I want to get a pair of those wooden shoes for
+Joel." And they hurried in.
+
+"Oh, how fine!" exclaimed Polly. "Well, I saw a carved bear I think
+Davie would like, and--" the rest was lost in the confusing array of
+tempting things spread out for their choice by deft shopkeepers.
+
+When they emerged, Polly had a china windmill, and an inkstand of Delft
+ware, and several other things, and Jasper carried all the big bundles.
+"O dear me," said Polly, "now we must run, or we sha'n't have much time
+to stay on the beach; and besides, Grandpapa will worry over us if
+we're not there."
+
+"We can't run much, loaded down with this," said Jasper, looking at his
+armful and laughing, "or we'd likely drop half of them, and smash them
+to pieces. Wait a bit, Polly, I'm going to buy you some fruit." They
+stopped at the top of the stone stairway leading down to the sands,
+where some comely peasant women, fishermen's wives, held great baskets
+of fruit, and in one hand was a pair of scales. "Now, then, what will
+you have, Polly?"
+
+"Oh, some grapes, please, Jasper," said Polly. "Aren't they most
+beautiful?"
+
+"I should say they were; they are black Hamburgs," declared Jasper.
+"Now, then, my good woman, give us a couple of pounds." He put down the
+coin she asked for, and she weighed them out in her scales, and did
+them up in a piece of a Dutch newspaper.
+
+"We are much worse off now, Jasper," laughed Polly, as they got over
+the stairs somehow with their burdens, "since we've all these grapes to
+carry. O dear me, there goes one!"
+
+"Never mind," said Jasper, looking over his armful of presents, to
+investigate his paper of grapes; "if we don't lose but one, we're
+lucky."
+
+"And there goes another," announced Polly, as they picked their way
+over and through the thick sand.
+
+"Well, I declare," exclaimed old Mr. King, peering out of his Bath
+chair, "if you children aren't loaded down!" He was eating black
+Hamburg grapes. Phronsie sat opposite him almost lost in the depth of
+another Bath chair, similarly occupied. And at a little remove was the
+remainder of the party, and they all were in Bath chairs, and eating
+black Hamburg grapes.
+
+"We've had such fun," sighed Polly, and she and Jasper cast their
+bundles on the soft sand; then she threw herself down next to them, and
+pushed up the little brown rings from her damp brow.
+
+Jasper set his paper of grapes in her lap, then rushed off. "I'll get
+you a Bath chair," he said, beckoning to the attendant.
+
+"Oh, Jasper, I'd so much rather sit on the sand," called Polly.
+
+"So had I," he confessed, running back and throwing himself down beside
+her. "Now, then, do begin on your grapes, Polly."
+
+"We'll begin together," she said, poking open the paper. "Oh, aren't
+they good, though!"
+
+"I should rather say they were," declared Jasper; "dear me, what a
+bunch!"
+
+"It's not as big as mine," said Polly, holding up hers to the light.
+"You made me take that one, Jasper."
+
+"It's no better than mine," said Jasper, eating away.
+
+"I'm going to hop into one of the chairs just a minute before we go,"
+said Polly, nodding at the array along the beach, and eating her grapes
+busily, "to see how they feel."
+
+"Oh, Polly, let me get you a chair now," begged Jasper, setting down
+the remainder of his bunch of grapes, and springing up.
+
+"Oh, I don't want to, I really and truly don't, Jasper," Polly made
+haste to cry. "I like the sand ever and ever so much better. I only
+want to see for a minute what it's like to be in one of those funny old
+things. Then I should want to hop out with all my might, I just know I
+should."
+
+"I'm of your mind," said Jasper, coming back to his seat on the sand
+again. "They must be very stuffy, Polly. Well, now you are here, would
+you like to come back to Scheveningen for a few days, Polly?"
+
+"I think I should," said Polly, slowly, bringing her gaze around over
+the sea, to the Dunes, the beach, with the crowds of people of all
+nationalities, and the peasant folk, "if we could stay just as long,
+for all that, at the dear old Hague."
+
+And just then old Mr. King was saying to Phronsie, "We will come out
+here again, child, and stay a week. Yes," he said to himself, "I will
+engage the rooms before we go back this afternoon."
+
+"Grandpapa," asked Phronsie, laying her hand on his knee, "can I have
+this very same little house next time we come?"
+
+"Well, I don't know," said Mr. King, peering up and down Phronsie's
+Bath chair adorned with the most lively descriptions of the merits of
+cocoa as a food; "they're all alike as two peas, except for the matter
+of the chocolate and cocoa trimmings. But perhaps I can fix it,
+Phronsie, so that you can have this identical one," mentally resolving
+to do that very thing. "Well, come, Phronsie, we must go now and get
+our luncheon."
+
+"I am so glad if I can have the same little house," said Phronsie, with
+a sigh of contentment, as she slowly got out of her Bath chair. "It is
+a nice little house, Grandpapa, and I love it very much."
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+A BOX FOR THE PEPPER BOYS
+
+
+"Mamsie, have we been here a whole week in Amsterdam," cried Polly,
+leaning out of the window to look up and down the canal where the
+many-coloured boats lay, "beside all those days at Scheveningen? I can't
+believe it!"
+
+"It doesn't seem possible," Mother Fisher answered musingly, and her
+hands dropped to her lap, where they lay quietly folded.
+
+"Mamsie,"--Polly suddenly drew in her gaze from the charming old canal
+and its boats, and sprang to Mrs. Fisher's side,--"do you know, I think
+it was just the loveliest thing in all the world for Grandpapa to bring
+dear Mr. and Mrs. Henderson abroad with us? I do, Mamsie."
+
+"Mr. King is always doing good, kind things," said Mrs. Fisher, coming
+out of her revery, as Polly threw herself down on the floor and laid
+her head in her mother's lap, just as she used to do at home. "I
+haven't done this for so long," she said, "and it is so good!"
+
+"That is the only drawback about travel," observed Mother Fisher, her
+hand passing soothingly over Polly's head, "that there never seems to
+be time for the little home ways that are so good. Now we must make the
+time and keep it, Polly."
+
+"Indeed we will," cried Polly, seizing Mamsie's other hand to cuddle it
+under her chin, "and I'm going to begin right now. It makes me think of
+the little brown house, Mamsie, whenever you smooth my hair. What good
+times we used to have there!"
+
+Mrs. Fisher's hand trembled a bit, but the black eyes were as serene as
+ever. "You used to work pretty hard, Polly," she said.
+
+"Oh, but it was fun!" said Polly, merrily, "only I didn't like the old
+stove when it acted badly. But then came my new stove. Mamsie, wasn't
+Papa Fisher splendid? And then he saved my eyes. Just think, Mamsie, I
+never can love him half enough. I wish I could do something for him,"
+she mourned, just as she did in the old days.
+
+"You do, Polly; you are doing something every day of your life," said
+her mother, reassuringly. "Never think that you don't do anything. Why,
+it was only this very morning that your father told me that you were
+his little helper, and that he depended on you to cheer him up."
+
+"Did he say that?" asked Polly, much gratified, poking up her head to
+look at her mother. "Oh, I want to be, but I don't know how to help
+him. Papa Fisher always seems to be doing something for other people,
+and not to need anybody to do things for him."
+
+"Ah, Polly, when you have lived longer," said Mrs. Fisher, "you will
+know that those who are doing things always for other people, are the
+very ones who need cheering up, for they never complain. Your father,
+in going about as he does, day after day, to the hospitals and
+everywhere, where he can learn anything that will make him a better
+doctor, is working very hard indeed, and yet think how cheerful he is
+when he comes home! And he says you help to keep him so, Polly." She
+bent over and set a kiss on Polly's red cheek.
+
+"Mamsie," cried Polly, with a glow where the kiss had dropped, "I'm
+going to try harder than ever to see wherever I can find a time to help
+Papa-Doctor. And I hope that one will come soon."
+
+"And you'll find just such a time will come; it never fails to when you
+watch for it," said Mother Fisher, wisely. Just then the door opened,
+and Phronsie, fresh from the hands of Matilda, who had been changing
+her gown, came in with Araminta in her arms. When she saw Polly on the
+floor with her head in Mamsie's lap, she got down by her side and
+curled up there, too.
+
+"Smooth my hair, do, Mamsie," she begged.
+
+"Mamsie's got her two bothers," said Polly, with a little laugh.
+
+"Mamsie doesn't mind her bothers," said Mrs. Fisher, her other hand
+going softly over Phronsie's yellow hair, at which Phronsie gave a
+small sigh of content, and wriggled her toes as they were stretched out
+straight before her on the carpet, "if only they grow up a little
+better every day than they were the day before."
+
+"We'll try to, Mamsie," said Polly, "won't we, Pet?" leaning over and
+kissing her.
+
+"I'll try to," promised Phronsie, with another wriggle of her small
+toes.
+
+"That's right," said Mother Fisher, smiling approval.
+
+"Mrs. Fisher!" called Grandpapa's voice at the door. Thereupon Polly
+and Phronsie sprang to their feet, and a lively race ensued to see
+which should be there the first to open it. The consequence was that
+both faces met him at once.
+
+"Bless me!" cried old Mr. King, laughing gaily, as the door flew open,
+and they both rushed into his arms; "so you did like to have your old
+Grandfather come to see you," he exclaimed, mightily pleased.
+
+"I should think we did!" cried Polly, as they escorted him in, and led
+him to the seat of honour, a big carved arm-chair, with a faded
+tapestry covering.
+
+"I should very much like to get into your lap, Grandpapa dear," said
+Phronsie, surveying him gravely as he sat down and leaned his head
+against the chair back.
+
+"So you shall," cried Mr. King, lifting her up to his knee, Araminta
+and all. She perched there in quiet content, while he set forth his
+business which he had come to talk over with Mother Fisher.
+
+"Now, you know those three boys of yours are the most splendid boys
+that ever were in all this world, and they are working away at home,
+studying and all that, Joel and David are, and Ben is pegging away at
+business." Old Mr. King thought best to go to the heart of the matter
+at once without any dallying.
+
+Mrs. Fisher's cheek grew a shade paler, but she said not a word as she
+fastened her black eyes on his face.
+
+"Hem--well, we don't talk much about those boys," observed the old
+gentleman, "because it makes us all homesick after them, and it's best
+that they should be there, and that we should be here, so that was
+settled once for all by our coming."
+
+Still Mrs. Fisher said not a word.
+
+"Well, now, the fact of it is," continued old Mr. King, still keeping
+to the main point with wonderful directness, "I think the time has come
+for us to act, which is much better than talking, in my opinion; and I
+want to do something for those boys."
+
+A pin could have been heard to drop. Polly leaned over his chair and
+hung on his words, while Mrs. Fisher never took her eyes from his face.
+
+"In short," continued old Mr. King, well pleased with the attention of
+his audience, "I propose that we send a box of good things of various
+descriptions to Ben and Joel and David."
+
+A small howl of delight from Polly broke the silence. When she heard
+that, Phronsie gave a little crow. "Oh, Grandpapa!" exclaimed Polly,
+"do you really mean it?" and she threw her arms around his neck.
+Phronsie immediately clambered up and did the same thing.
+
+"That's just as your mother shall decide," said Mr. King, immensely
+pleased with the way his news was received. "She hasn't said a word yet
+whether she likes the idea or not."
+
+"It's just because I couldn't speak at first," said Mrs. Fisher, wiping
+her eyes; and her voice trembled. "But it's the very thing; and oh!
+thank you, sir, for thinking of it. The boys won't be so homesick for
+us when they get the box. And it will be the best thing in the world
+for us to keep busy, so we can't worry about them."
+
+"Mamsie _has_ said 'yes'!" exclaimed Polly, flying off to dance
+around and around in the middle of the room. "Oh, I wish Jasper was
+here!" she cried regretfully, breaking short off.
+
+"Go and call him, then,--he's down in the reading room, writing to the
+boys,--and bring him up here," said old Mr. King. "No, no, Phronsie,
+you want to stay and take care of me," as Phronsie showed signs of
+slipping down from his lap to go too.
+
+"I'll stay and take care of you," said Phronsie, obediently; "just let
+me lay Araminta down, Grandpapa, on the sofa, and then I'll come back
+and rub your head."
+
+So she got down and set Araminta up straight against the sofa back, and
+then came and clambered up again into his lap. By this time Polly and
+Jasper, racing along the hall, had reached Mother Fisher's room.
+
+"That's regularly splendid, father." Jasper tossed his dark hair back
+from his forehead, and his eyes sparkled. "Oh, can't we go out right
+away and begin to buy the presents?"
+
+"I shouldn't think that idea was a half-bad one," said old Mr. King.
+"What do you say, Mrs. Fisher? If we are going to send the box, why
+isn't it best to begin the work at once? There's never so good a time
+as now, in my opinion. I'm sure you agree with me."
+
+On Mother Fisher saying "yes," all three of the young people took hold
+of hands, and danced around the room in glee. For old Mr. King set
+Phronsie down, with, "There, go, child, and spin with the others; then
+all hurry and get your hats on, and we'll be off."
+
+And in less time than it takes to write it, old Mr. King and Mother
+Fisher and Jasper and Polly and Phronsie all hurried out of the hotel,
+and began a round of the shops to get the things together for the
+wonderful box to go home to the boys. And though Polly didn't know it,
+several other things, that boys wouldn't be supposed to care for in the
+least, were slyly added to the purchases, when she wasn't looking, to
+be sent home to the hotel in separate parcels to Mr. King. For Polly
+was going to have a birthday before very long; though she had quite
+forgotten it in the excitement over this box for Ben and Joel and
+David.
+
+"It's just like buying things for Christmas, isn't it, Jasper?" said
+Polly, as they hung over the show-cases and peered into windows; "only
+everything is so funny here. Oh, no, Phronsie, that won't do; it's too
+big," as Phronsie protested that nothing was so nice as a huge Delft
+plate hanging on the wall. There was a big windmill and several little
+windmills in the distance along a Dutch canal, and two or three cows in
+the foreground, and a peasant girl with a basket in her hand. Phronsie
+stood and gazed at it all the time they were in this particular shop.
+
+"I like that little girl," she said, "and those cows; and they are like
+Deacon Blodgett's cows at home in Badgertown. And Ben would like it,
+and Joel, and David." And all Polly could do, she would still say, "I
+like it, Polly, and I want Grandpapa to send it."
+
+At last Polly turned in despair to Jasper. "Oh, what can we do?" she
+cried; "she is just as determined as she was when she would send the
+gingerbread boy to Grandpapa."
+
+"Well, I think we would better not try to get her away from the idea,"
+said Jasper, with a look at the rapt little face. Phronsie was now
+kneeling on a Flemish oak chair, and studying the Delft plate with
+absorbed attention.
+
+"No," said Polly, with a sigh, "I suppose it isn't any use to try when
+she looks like that." Just then old Mr. King, who had been busy in a
+farther corner with the proprietor of the shop, picking out some small
+articles that struck his fancy, turned and called Phronsie. She didn't
+hear him, being too absorbed. And so he laid down the little silver
+paper-cutter he was looking at, and came over to see what was the
+matter.
+
+"Well, child," he said, looking over her shoulder. "And so you like
+that, hey?"
+
+Phronsie drew a long breath. "I do, Grandpapa, like it very much
+indeed," she said.
+
+"Well, then, I don't see but what you must have it. And it shall hang
+in your own little room at home, Phronsie."
+
+"But I don't want it for my very own, Grandpapa," said Phronsie; "it
+must go in the box for Ben and Joel and David."
+
+"Dear me! You think they would like it, Phronsie?" he asked doubtfully,
+and just on the point of saying, like Polly, "it's too big, child,"
+when he stopped himself and finished up--"and so it pleases you,
+Phronsie?"
+
+"Yes, it does," said Phronsie, with an emphatic little nod; "I love
+that nice cow, and that little girl. Grandpapa, I think I should like
+to live in a windmill."
+
+"Bless me! I think you wouldn't want to live there very long, child.
+Well, the plate shall go to the boys, and I only hope they will like
+it," he said to himself, dubiously.
+
+"He is going to send it," Jasper and Polly said to each other, peering
+round an angle in the shop at the two. "Well, it's a mercy it's got a
+cow on it instead of a cat," said Jasper. "How Joel would howl if
+Phronsie sent him the picture of a cat!"
+
+"She would if there were a cat to be found," said Polly; "don't you
+believe, Jasper, but what she would?"
+
+
+
+
+X
+
+DANGER
+
+
+Well, the box that went home across the seas to the Pepper boys was a
+marvel, stuffed in every nook and cranny where there was a possibility
+that the tiniest parcel could be tucked, until Phronsie, who kept
+bringing up more bundles, had to be told by Polly and Jasper, who did
+the packing, that no more could go in.
+
+"They are very small," sighed Phronsie, curling up on the floor by the
+side of the big box, almost overflowing with billows of the soft white
+paper on top, and holding up two pudgy little bundles.
+
+"So you've said for the last hour, Phronsie," exclaimed Polly, in
+despair, and sitting quite straight, her hands in her lap. "Jasper,
+what _shall_ we do?" He was over by the window laying out the long
+nails that were to fasten the cover on; for no one must touch this
+precious box, but the loving hands that got it ready.
+
+"Oh, we can't," began Jasper. Then he turned and saw Phronsie's face.
+"Perhaps one might be crowded in," he added, with a look at Polly.
+"Which one would you rather have Polly make a try at, Phronsie?"
+
+"This one," she said, holding up the pudgiest bundle, "because this is
+the china cat, and I want Joel to have that."
+
+Down went Polly's head on the edge of the box. Jasper dropped the long
+nails and hurried over to her.
+
+"I can't help it." Polly's shoulders were shaking, and she added
+gustily, "O dear me--and Joel does so hate cats!"
+
+"Phronsie, I think I can tuck in that parcel," Jasper made haste to
+say. "There, give it to me, child," and he took it out of her hand.
+"For Joel" was written across it in unsteady letters.
+
+"Is Polly sick?" asked Phronsie, wonderingly, as she resigned her cat
+into his hands.
+
+"No, only a bit tired, I think," answered Jasper. "Well, now, Phronsie,
+I think there is just room enough to tuck that parcel in this corner,"
+said Jasper, crowding his fingers down in between the various bundles
+to make a space. "There, in it pops!" suiting the action to the word.
+
+"I am so very glad," said Phronsie, smoothing her brown gown in great
+satisfaction; "for then Joel will know that I sent it all by myself."
+
+"He'll know that nobody else sent it," said Polly to herself. "And I
+know it's a perfectly awful cat, for Phronsie always picks out the very
+ugliest she can find."
+
+Well, the box was off, at last, the Pepper children and Jasper seeing
+it till the very last minute. And old Mr. King was nearly as excited as
+the young folks, and the Parson and Mrs. Henderson said it reminded
+them of Christmas times over again, and Mother Fisher and the little
+doctor were in a great state of happiness.
+
+And that night when Polly was in bed, and Mother Fisher came into her
+room and Phronsie's, which opened into her own, to say "Good night,"
+Polly turned on her pillow. "Mamsie," she said, "I do so very much wish
+that we could send a box to the Henderson boys. They must be so
+homesick for their mother and father."
+
+Mrs. Fisher stopped and thought a bit, "A very good idea, Polly," she
+said, "and I'm glad you thought of it. I'll speak to your father and
+see if he approves, before we say anything to Mr. King."
+
+"You see," said Polly, rolling over to get hold of one of Mother
+Fisher's hands, and speaking very fast, "of course the Henderson boys
+are having a good time at dear Deacon Blodgett's, but then their mother
+and father are away off. Oh, Mamsie!" She reached over and threw both
+arms around her mother and hugged her tightly.
+
+"Yes, I know, Polly," said Mother Fisher, holding her big girl to her
+heart, "and we must look out for other people's boys; that's what you
+mean to say, isn't it?"
+
+"Yes," said Polly, happy that Mamsie always understood, "and now that
+Ben's and Joel's and David's box is off, why, I wish we could, Mamsie,
+send the other one."
+
+"I really think it can be done," said Mrs. Fisher, "but I must ask your
+father first. And now, daughter, go to sleep, like Phronsie." She
+glanced over at the other little bed, where Phronsie's yellow head was
+lost in dreams.
+
+"You know we are going to Marken tomorrow."
+
+"I know," said Polly, with a happy little wriggle under the bedclothes.
+
+"And it never would do for you to be all tired out in the morning. That
+would be very unkind to dear Mr. King, who is trying so hard to make us
+all happy," continued Mrs. Fisher.
+
+"I know," said Polly, again. "Well, good night, Mamsie." She set three
+or four kisses on Mother Fisher's cheek, then turned over, with her
+face to the wall.
+
+"I'll shut the door until you get to sleep, Polly," said Mrs. Fisher,
+"then I will open it again," as she went out.
+
+As Mother Fisher had said, they were going to the Island of Marken
+to-morrow; and Polly tumbled asleep with her head full of all the strange
+things they were to see there, and that Jasper and she had been reading
+about,--how the people wore the same kind of funny costume that their
+great-great-ever-so-many-times great-grandfathers and grandmothers had
+worn; and how the houses were of different colours, and built in
+different layers or mounds of land, with cunning little windows and
+scarcely any stairs; and how they were going in the haying season when
+everybody would be out raking up and gleaning--and--and--Polly was
+completely lost in her happy dreams.
+
+Somebody seemed to be pulling her arm. What! Oh, she remembered they
+were going to Marken, and she must hurry and get her bath and fly into
+her clothes. "Yes, Mamsie!" she cried, flying up to sit straight in the
+bed. "I'll get right up and dress; oh, won't we have fun!"
+
+"Polly," said Mother Fisher. She had on a dressing-gown, and her black
+hair was hanging down her back. She looked pale and worried; Polly
+could see that, although she blinked at the sudden light. "It isn't
+morning, but the middle of the night. You must get up this minute. Pull
+on your shoes; don't stop for stockings, and slip into your wrapper.
+Don't ask questions," as Polly's lips moved.
+
+Polly obeyed with an awful feeling at her heart. She glanced at
+Phronsie's little bed; she was not there! Mrs. Fisher threw the pink
+wrapper over her head; Polly thrust her arms into the sleeves, feeling
+as if she were sinking way down. "Now come." And Mamsie seized her hand
+and hurried her through her own room without another word. It was
+empty. Father Fisher and Phronsie were nowhere to be seen. And now for
+the first time Polly was conscious of a great noise out in the
+corridor. It seemed to spread and fasten itself to a number of other
+noises, and something made Polly feel queerly in her throat as if she
+should choke. She looked up in her mother's eyes, as they sped through
+the room.
+
+"Yes, Polly," said Mother Fisher, "it is fire. The hotel is on fire;
+you will be brave, my child, I know."
+
+"Phronsie!" gasped Polly. They were now in the corridor and hurrying
+along.
+
+"She is safe; her father took her."
+
+"Oh, Mamsie, Jasper and Grandpapa!"
+
+"They know it; your father ran and told them. Obey me, Polly; come!"
+
+Mrs. Fisher's firm hand on her arm really hurt Polly, as they hurried
+on through the dense waves of smoke that now engulfed them.
+
+"Oh, Mamsie, not this way; we must find the stairs." But Mrs. Fisher
+held her with firmer fingers than ever, and they turned into a narrower
+hall, up toward a blinking red light that sent a small bright spark out
+through the thick smoke, and in a minute, or very much less, they were
+out on the fire-escape, and looking down to hear--for they couldn't
+see--Jasper's voice calling from below, "We are all here, Polly," and
+"Be careful, wife, how you come down," from Dr. Fisher.
+
+"Oh," cried Polly, as the little group drew her and Mamsie into their
+arms, "are we all here?"
+
+"Yes, Polly; yes, yes," answered Jasper. And "Oh, yes," cried old Mr.
+King, his arm around Phronsie, "but we shouldn't have been but for this
+doctor of ours."
+
+"And Mr. and Mrs. Henderson?" cried Polly, shivering at Grandpapa's
+words.
+
+"We are here, dear child," said the parson's wife, pressing forward,
+and then the crowd surged up against them this way and that, and more
+people came down the fire-escape, and some were screaming and saying
+they had lost everything, and they must go back for their jewels, and
+one woman brought down a big feather pillow, and set it carefully on
+the grass, she was so crazed with fright.
+
+"O dear, dear, can't we help them?" cried Polly, wringing her hands,
+"Look at that girl!"
+
+She was about as old as Polly, and she rushed by them plunging into the
+thickest of the crowd surging up against the fire-escape. "I'm going
+up," she kept screaming.
+
+Polly remembered her face as she flashed by. She sat at the next table
+to theirs in the dining room, with a slender, gentle, little old lady
+whom she called "Grandmamma." "O dear!" groaned Polly, "we _must_
+help her!"
+
+Jasper dashed after the girl, and Polly ran, too. He laid his hand on
+the arm of the flying figure as she broke through the crowd, but she
+shook him off like a feather. "She's up there," pointing above, "and I
+must get her."
+
+One of the firemen seized her and held her fast. Jasper sprang for the
+fire-escape. "_Jasper!_" called Polly, hoarsely, "it will kill
+Grandpapa if you go--oh!" She turned at a cry from the girl, whose arms
+were around a bent, shaking, little figure, and they had both sunk to
+the ground.
+
+"I brought her down long ago," said another fireman, who could speak
+English, pointing to the white-haired old lady, who, on hearing her
+granddaughter's voice, had pushed her way through the crowd, as Dr.
+Fisher hurried up.
+
+And then Mr. King and his party gathered his group, and they hurried to
+another hotel close by, Jasper and Mr. Henderson and Mother Fisher
+waiting to see to the belongings of the party; for the fire was now
+subdued, although the guests had to go elsewhere for shelter, and the
+little doctor was in his element, taking care of the old lady, and then
+he rushed off to look after a score or more of other fainting women.
+
+But nobody was really hurt--the smoke and the panic had been the worst,
+only the poor thing who had dragged down the feather pillow sat by it
+till the little doctor, discovering her, called two stout men, who took
+her up in their arms--she screaming all the while for her treasure--and
+bore her to a neighbouring house that kindly opened its doors to some
+of the people so suddenly thrown out of shelter. And it wasn't till
+near breakfast time that the little doctor came to the hotel that was
+now their home.
+
+"Brain-fever patient," he said briefly. "Wife, I must get a cold
+plunge, or I'll be having it next." And when breakfast was really set
+before their party, he appeared with the others fresh from his bath,
+and as cheery as if nothing had happened to break his good night's
+rest.
+
+"O dear me! How did you ever get so many things over here, in all this
+world, and why didn't you let me stay with you?" Polly had exclaimed in
+one breath, looking at the array of dresses, sacks, and hats disposed
+around the room. And Mamsie was kneeling before an open trunk to take
+out more.
+
+"It wasn't best, Polly," said her mother, who had longed for Polly as
+no one knew better than did Mother Fisher herself. "You were really
+needed here with Grandpapa and Phronsie. You truly were, my dear."
+
+"I know," said Polly. "Well, do let me take those out, Mamsie; you're
+tired to death, already. Oh, and you've brought my dear little American
+flag!" She seized it and hugged it with delight.
+
+"Did you suppose I could come back without that flag," exclaimed Mother
+Fisher in a reproving tone, "when you've put it up in your room every
+place where we've stopped?--why, Polly!"
+
+"No, Mamsie, I really didn't think you could," answered Polly, quickly,
+and running to her, little silk flag and all, to throw her arms around
+her neck, "only it's so good to see the dear thing again."
+
+"You may take the things from me, and hang them up somewhere," said her
+mother; "that will help me the most," giving her an armful. "I don't
+see how you ever thought of so many things, Mamsie!" exclaimed Polly
+going off with her armful.
+
+"I brought all I thought we needed just at first," said Mother Fisher,
+diving into the trunk depths again.
+
+"How did you ever do it?" cried Polly, for the fiftieth time, as she
+sorted, and hung the various garments in their proper places.
+
+"Oh, Jasper helped me pack them, and then he got the hotel porter to
+bring over the trunks," answered Mother Fisher, her head in the trunk.
+"I've locked up our rooms, and got the keys, so I can get the rest by
+and by."
+
+"But how did you first hear of the fire?" asked Polly, when they were
+all finally seated around the breakfast table, little Mrs. Gray--for so
+the white-haired old lady was called--and her granddaughter Adela being
+invited to join, "do tell me, Mamsie, I don't understand," she added in
+a puzzled way.
+
+"No, you were talking about Marken in your sleep," said Mother Fisher,
+"when I went to call you, and how you would be ready in the morning."
+
+"Marken?" repeated old Mr. King, looking up from the egg he was
+carefully breaking for Phronsie so that she might eat it from the
+shell. "So we were going there this morning. Well, we won't see that
+island now for a good many days; at least, till we get over this
+fright. Beside, we have things to settle here, and to get comfortably
+fixed. But we'll have that excursion all in good time, never fear."
+
+"Well, how did you, Mamsie," Polly begged again, "first hear of the
+fire? Do tell me."
+
+"Somebody made a good deal of noise down in the corridor," said Mother
+Fisher, "and your father went out to see what was the matter, and then
+he came back and told me what to do, and he took Phronsie and went for
+old Mr. King. But he had sent a porter to warn them in 165, and they
+would tell the Hendersons in the next room, before he ran upstairs to
+me." It was a long speech for Mother Fisher.
+
+"Mamsie," asked Polly, suddenly, after she had leaned across her mother
+and beamed at the little doctor, which so delighted him that his big
+spectacles nearly fell off in his plate, "how _did_ you know where
+the fire-escape was?"
+
+"Oh, that was your father's doings, too," said Mother Fisher. She
+couldn't help but show her pride. "He told me all about it the first
+day we got to the hotel. He always does; he says it's better to know
+these things."
+
+"Wife--wife," begged the little doctor, imploringly.
+
+"I'm going to tell, Adoniram," said Mother Fisher, proudly, "the whole
+story; they ought to know."
+
+"Indeed we had; and so you shall," commanded Mr. King, from the head of
+the table.
+
+"I can't help it! I really must!" exclaimed Polly, hopping out of her
+chair,--there were no other people in the breakfast room beside their
+party, so really it wasn't so very dreadful after all,--and she ran
+back of her mother's chair, and threw her arms around the little
+doctor's neck. "Oh, Papa Fisher," she cried, setting ever so many
+kisses on his cheeks under the big spectacles, "you've saved all our
+lives."
+
+"There--there, Polly," cried the little doctor, quite overcome.
+
+"And ours, too," said little Mrs. Gray, in a shaking voice.
+
+
+
+
+XI
+
+THE TWO BIRTHDAYS IN OLD HOLLAND
+
+
+And Polly never knew about a certain shelf in Grandpapa's closet, nor
+how full it was getting, when Jasper ran every now and then to add the
+gifts as fast as the different members of the party picked up pretty
+things in the shops for the coming birthday--now very near. And she
+actually forgot all about the birthday itself; all her mind being set
+on the Henderson box, so soon to sail off over the sea.
+
+And Mother Fisher would look over at her absorbed face, and smile, to
+watch her in the shops, picking out things for the Henderson boys; and
+old Mr. King would send many a keen glance at her, and Jasper had hard
+work not to exclaim, "Oh, Polly, father has got you a--" And then he'd
+pull himself up, and rush off into some great plan to buy Peletiah
+Henderson something that a Badgertown boy ought to have. And Phronsie
+was carefully guarded on all sides these days, lest she should let out
+the great secret, for, of course, she ought to be in the very centre of
+all these preparations to celebrate Polly's birthday in Old Amsterdam,
+so she knew everything just as soon as it was planned. But sometimes,
+with all this care, the whole thing nearly popped out.
+
+"Mr. King!" It was Mother Fisher who called after him, and her voice
+didn't sound like hers, for it had an excited little ring. "Oh, are you
+going out?" for she didn't see that he held his hat in his hand till he
+turned in the corridor.
+
+"I can wait just as well if it's anything you want, Mrs. Fisher," he
+said gladly, controlling his surprise at her unusual manner. "I was
+only about to run down to the Kalver-straat for a little matter I just
+thought of for the birthday. Can I do anything for you?" he begged.
+
+"Yes, it's just that," said Mrs. Fisher, hurriedly; "it's about the
+birthday--I must speak quickly--I've just found out,--" she glanced up
+and down the corridor as if fully expecting to see Polly dash around a
+corner,--"that Adela Gray's birthday is to-morrow--"
+
+"The dickens! You don't say so!" exploded Mr. King. "Well, now, I call
+that very clever on your part to have found it out. Very clever indeed,
+Mrs. Fisher," he repeated, beaming at her. "And just in time, for it
+would have been a dreadful thing, indeed, to have had that poor little
+girl left out, and her birthday too! Dear me!"
+
+"It would, indeed," said Mrs. Fisher, heartily, with a shiver at the
+mere thought.
+
+"And we might as well have had no celebration in such a case, for Polly
+wouldn't have enjoyed a single bit of it--not an atom!" declared old
+Mr. King, bringing his walking stick heavily down on the floor.
+
+"What is it--oh, Grandpapa, what is it?" and Polly came hurrying along
+the corridor, and Jasper after her.
+
+"Here she comes!" exclaimed Grandpapa, in a fright. "Glad you told me--Hush
+--O dear me--I'll take care of the gifts."
+
+"And I'm to do the rest--just the same--Doctor Fisher and I. Remember!"
+It was all Mrs. Fisher had time to utter. Even then, Polly caught the
+last words in the flurry.
+
+"Oh, what is it, Mamsie--Is anything the matter with Papa-Doctor?" And
+her brown eyes filled with alarm at her mother's unusual manner.
+
+"Polly," Mrs. Fisher looked into the brown eyes with a steady glance,
+and all the hurry was gone out of her voice, "your father is all right.
+And now, run away, you and Jasper." She looked over Polly's shoulder at
+him as she spoke. "No, not another word, child." And away Mrs. Fisher
+hurried, while old Mr. King slipped off in the opposite direction.
+
+"How funnily they act," said Polly, looking first after one and then
+another, with a puzzled face. "What can it be, Jasper?"
+
+"Oh, well, I suppose they are in a hurry," said Jasper, as carelessly
+as he could. "Never mind, Polly, everything is all right. Oh, I say,
+let's fix our stamp books."
+
+"But I was going to ask Grandpapa to go out with us, and now he's gone
+by himself," and Polly's face grew more puzzled than ever.
+
+"Polly," said Jasper, desperately, "I really think we ought to fix our
+stamp books. I really do," and he took her hand. "My stamps are all in
+heaps in the envelopes, and in a mess generally. Come, let's begin
+now--do." And he led her back down the corridor.
+
+"I suppose so," said Polly, with a reluctant little sigh, as they went
+off.
+
+And that afternoon, there was another narrow escape, when it seemed as
+if the secret really must pop out. Polly, rushing along to the reading
+room opposite the big dining room, saw Mother Fisher in consultation
+with the head waiter, and he was saying "cake," and then he stopped
+suddenly, and Mrs. Fisher turned and saw her. And Mamsie came across
+the hall, and into the reading room, and sat there a bit, while Polly
+tossed off a letter to Alexia Rhys, that had been worrying her for
+days. And there was a funny little smile tucked away in the corners of
+Mother Fisher's mouth, and Polly thought that things were getting
+queerer than ever.
+
+"I am glad you are writing that letter," said Mrs. Fisher, with an
+approving smile that chased the funny little one all around the
+strongly curved mouth, "for Alexia will feel badly not to hear often
+from you, Polly."
+
+"I know it," said Polly, wrinkling her brows, "and I didn't mean to let
+this wait so long," scribbling away as fast as she could.
+
+"Take care, Polly," warned her mother; "a carelessly written letter is
+no compliment, and it gets you in a bad way. Don't hurry so, child," as
+Polly's pen went scratching across the paper at a fearful rate.
+
+"But there are so many letters to write to all the girls," said Polly,
+stopping a minute to look at her mother, "and I've only just got all
+the letters in my steamer mail-bag answered. I _must_ write to
+Cathie and Philena, and Amy Garrett too, to-day, Mamsie," she added, in
+distress.
+
+"Polly," said Mother Fisher, looking into the flushed face, "I tell
+you what would be the best way for you to do. All the letters in your
+mail-bag are answered, you said?"
+
+"Yes, indeed," declared Polly. "Oh, Mamsie, you didn't think I could
+put those off?" she asked reproachfully.
+
+"No, Polly, I really didn't," Mrs. Fisher made haste to assure her.
+"Well, now, mother will tell you what will be the best way for you to
+do. Write as good a letter as you can to Alexia, and tell her to send
+it around to all the girls, for a kind of a bulletin, and--"
+
+"Oh, Mamsie Fisher," cried Polly, not stopping to hear the rest, but
+deserting the writing table to run and throw her arms around her
+mother's neck, "you're the bestest, dearest mother in all this world
+--oh--oh! Now I sha'n't have but one letter to write! How fine!"
+
+"And you must write that one letter very nicely, Polly, and take ever
+so much pains with it," said Mother Fisher, her black eyes shining at
+the happy solution; "and that is much better than to hurry off a good
+many slovenly ones. Besides, it is not well to take your time and
+strength for too much letter writing, for there are the boys, and Mrs.
+Whitney and--"
+
+"Grandma Bascom and dear Mrs. Beebe," finished Polly. "Oh, I couldn't
+ever forget them, Mamsie, in all this world." She stopped cuddling
+Mother Fisher's neck, to peer into the black eyes.
+
+"No, you mustn't ever forget them," repeated Mrs. Fisher, emphatically,
+"in all this world, Polly. Well, get to work now over your one letter
+that's to be a bulletin!"
+
+"I shall tear this one up," declared Polly, running back to get into
+her chair again. "O dear me, what a horrible old scrawl," she cried,
+with a very red face. "I didn't know it did look so bad" And she tore
+it clear across the page, and then snipped it into very little bits.
+
+"That's the result of hurry," observed Mother Fisher, wisely, "and I
+would begin all over again, Polly."
+
+So Polly took a fresh sheet and set to work; and Mrs. Fisher, seeing
+her so busily occupied, soon stole out. And there was the head waiter
+waiting for her in the dining room, and Polly never heard a word they
+said, although "cake" was mentioned a great many times, and several
+other things too.
+
+But the next morning Polly Pepper woke up to the fact that it was her
+birthday. For there was Mamsie leaning over her pillow, the first thing
+she saw the minute her eyes were opened. And Phronsie was sitting on
+the end of the bed with her hands folded in her lap.
+
+When she saw Polly's eyes open, she gave a little crow and darted
+forward. "Oh, I thought you never would wake up, Polly," she said,
+throwing her arms around Polly's neck.
+
+"Yes, this child has been sitting there a whole hour, Polly." Mother
+Fisher gave a merry little laugh, and then she began to drop kisses on
+Polly's rosy cheek--ever so many of them.
+
+Polly's dewy eyes opened wide.
+
+"It's your birthday, don't you know!" exclaimed Phronsie, trying to
+drop as many kisses and as fast, on Polly's other cheek, and to talk at
+the same time.
+
+"Mamsie Fisher!" cried Polly, springing up straight in the middle of
+the bed, nearly knocking Phronsie over. "Why, so it is. Oh, how could I
+forget--and sleep over. And I'm fifteen!"
+
+"You're fifteen," repeated Mother Fisher, setting the last little kiss
+on Polly's cheek,--"and it's the best thing you could possibly do, to
+sleep over, child. Now, then, Phronsie, let us help her to get
+dressed."
+
+Wasn't there a merry time, though, for the next half-hour, till Polly
+had had her bath, and was arrayed, Mother Fisher and Phronsie here,
+there, and everywhere, helping to tie and to hook Polly's clothes
+--Phronsie bringing her little silver button-hook that Auntie Whitney
+gave her, declaring that she should button Polly's boots.
+
+"Oh, no, child," protested Polly. "I'll button them myself," flying off
+for the boots.
+
+But Phronsie piped out, hurrying after her, "I have them, Polly," and,
+sure enough, there they were, one under each arm; "do let me, Polly--do,
+please!" she begged.
+
+"I would, Polly," advised Mrs. Fisher, "for Phronsie really has set her
+heart on doing it."
+
+So Polly sat down in the low chair, and put out her foot, feeling very
+queer indeed, and as if she ought to be doing up Phronsie's boots
+instead. And Phronsie curled up on the floor, and patiently drew every
+one of the buttons into place, and buttoned them fast. And then on with
+the other boot.
+
+"There, now, I did do them all by myself," she announced, getting up
+from the floor, and smoothing down her gown with much importance. "I
+did truly, Polly."
+
+"So you did, Pet," cried Polly, sticking out both feet to look at them.
+"You buttoned every single one of those buttons up splendidly, Phronsie
+Pepper. Now my toes will be just as happy all day; oh, you can't think
+how happy they'll be." And she seized her, half smothering her with
+kisses.
+
+"Will they?" cried Phronsie, coming out of the embrace to peer up into
+Polly's face, in a transport. "Will your toes really and truly be
+happy, Polly?"
+
+"They'll be so happy," declared Polly, with a little wriggle of each
+foot, "that they'll want to sing, only they can't," and she burst out
+into a little laugh.
+
+"Put on your blue dress, Polly," said Mother Fisher, coming out of the
+closet to hurry operations a bit.
+
+"Oh, Mamsie," begged Phronsie, "mayn't Polly wear her white one? Do,
+Mamsie, please!" She ran up to her mother pleadingly.
+
+"Polly will wear a white gown to-night," said Mother Fisher, her eyes
+shining, and the same funny little smile hiding in the corners of her
+mouth; "but this morning she would better put on her blue gingham."
+
+"Yes, that's best," said Polly, reassuringly, running off to get it out
+of the big bureau drawer. "It's all done up spick and span," drawing it
+out. "Mamsie, don't these Dutch women do up things well, though?"
+
+"They do, indeed," assented Mrs. Fisher, with a critical eye for the
+blue gingham; "but I really suppose the Swiss beat them, Polly."
+
+"Well, they must be just perfect, then," said Polly, putting the blue
+gown carefully over her head. "Mamsie, I just love this dress."
+
+"Yes, it is pretty," said Mother Fisher, with an approving eye for the
+dainty ruffles, "and you keep your clothes cleaner than you used to,
+Polly; you're improving."
+
+"I used to get them all mussed up just as soon as could be," mourned
+Polly, her cheeks rosy at the remembrance. "Mamsie, how much trouble
+I've made you." She stopped dressing, and sprang over to Mrs. Fisher.
+Phronsie, trying to button on the waistband, and clinging to it, went
+stumbling after.
+
+"Take care," warned Mrs. Fisher, "don't muss it; it looks so nice now."
+
+"There, there, Phronsie, I'll do that," said Polly, a trifle
+impatiently, looking over her shoulder.
+
+"Oh, I want to, Polly," said Phronsie, fumbling for the button. "Do let
+me; I want to."
+
+"No, I can do it myself," said Polly, trying to whirl off from the busy
+little fingers.
+
+"Polly," began Mother Fisher, who saw what Polly couldn't, Phronsie's
+little face very red with her exertion, and the brown eyes filling with
+tears.
+
+"Well, I declare," cried Polly, at sound of her mother's tone; "so you
+shall, Phronsie. Now I'll stand just as still as a mouse, and you shall
+make that old button fly into its hole."
+
+"So he shall, old button fly into his hole," laughed Phronsie through
+her tears. And presently she declared it was done. And with a final
+pat, this time from Mother Fisher's fingers, Polly was released, and
+the rest of the dressing was soon done.
+
+And there, waiting at the end of their corridor, was Jasper, in every
+conceivable way trying to get the better of his impatience. When he did
+finally see Polly, he dashed up to her. "Well, are you really here?"
+
+"Yes," cried Polly, scampering on, with Phronsie clinging to her hand,
+"I really believe I am, Jasper. But don't let's go faster than Mamsie,"
+looking back for her.
+
+"You all run on," said Mother Fisher, laughing, "I shall get there
+soon; and really, Mr. King has waited long enough," she added to
+herself.
+
+And, indeed, Mr. King thought so too, and he couldn't control his
+delight when the three danced into the little private parlour, opening
+out from his bedroom, and came up to his side.
+
+"I slept over," said Polly, in a shamefaced little way; "I'm sorry,
+Grandpapa dear."
+
+"You needn't be; not a bit of it," declared Grandpapa, holding her off
+at arm's length to scan her rosy face; "the best thing you could
+possibly do"--Mamsie's very words. So Polly felt relieved at once. "And
+now we will wait for Mrs. Fisher," he added, with a glance at the door.
+
+"Here she is," piped Phronsie, who had been regarding the door
+anxiously.
+
+"Yes, here she is," repeated old Mr. King, in great satisfaction,
+holding Polly fast. "Well, now, Mrs. Fisher, that you have come, we'll
+begin our festivities. Our Polly, here, is fifteen years old to-day--only
+think of that!" Still he held her fast, and bent his courtly white head
+to kiss her brown hair.
+
+Polly clung to his other hand. "It can't be a house celebration, Polly,
+my dear, with a party and all that, but we'll do the best we can. And
+to add to our pleasure, and to be company for you" (not a suggestion of
+the pleasure he was to give), "why, we've another little girl with us
+who has chosen this very day for her birthday, too. Adela, come here."
+
+Adela Gray, who had been standing silently, looking on with a sad heart
+at finding herself with a birthday on her hands, and no one to
+celebrate it with her, though for that matter all her birthdays had
+been rather dismal affairs at the best, in the Paris school, now shrank
+back at Mr. King's sudden summons, and hid behind her grandmother's
+black gown.
+
+"Come, Adela," commanded Mr. King, in a tone that brooked no further
+delay. So she crept out, and stood in front of him.
+
+"Oh, Adela!" exclaimed Polly, in a transport, drawing her up by her
+other hand, for still Grandpapa held her fast. "Is it your birthday
+too? How perfectly elegant! oh, oh!"
+
+And everybody said, "How fine!" And they all were smiling at her. And
+Adela found herself, before she knew it, coming up out of her old
+despair into brightness and warmth and joy. And she never knew when old
+Mr. King proclaimed her fourteen years old, and dropped a kiss--yes, he
+actually did--on her head. And then she found herself on his other
+side, by the big centre table, that was covered with a large cloth. And
+Polly made her put her hand under it first, saying, "Oh, no, Grandpapa,
+please let Adela pull out the first parcel." And lo, and behold--she
+held a neat little white-papered bundle tied with a blue ribbon.
+
+"Open it," cried Jasper, as she stood stupidly staring at it, in her
+hand. "Don't you see it's got your name on it?" But Adela didn't see
+anything, she was so dazed. So Jasper had to open it for her. "We may
+thank our stars the first parcel happened to be for her," he was
+thinking busily all the time he was untying the ribbon. And there was
+just what she had wanted for, oh, so long--Mrs. Jameson's little books
+on Art--her very own, she saw as soon as her trembling fingers opened
+the cover.
+
+After that, the skies might rain down anything in the shape of gifts,
+as it seemed to be doing for Polly and for her; it didn't matter to
+Adela; and she found herself, finally, looking over a heap of white
+papers and tangled ribbons, at Polly Pepper, who was dancing about, and
+thanking everybody to right and to left.
+
+"Why don't--why don't--you--thank him?" old Mrs. Gray mumbled in her
+ear, while the tears were running down her wrinkled cheeks.
+
+"Let her alone," said old Mr. King, hearing her. "She's thanked me
+enough. Now then, to breakfast, all of us! Come, Polly--come, Adela
+--Jasper, you take Mrs. Gray," and the others falling in, away they all
+went down to the big dining room, to their own special table in the
+centre.
+
+"I do so love what Joey sent me, and Ben and Davie," breathed Polly,
+for about the fiftieth time, patting her little money-bag which she had
+hung on her belt. Then she looked at the new ring on her finger very
+lovingly, and the other hand stole up to pinch the pin on her trim
+necktie, and see if it were really there. "Oh, Jasper, if the boys were
+only here!" she whispered, under cover of the chatter and bustle around
+the table.
+
+"Don't let us think of that, Polly," Jasper made haste to say; "it will
+make father feel so badly if he thinks you are worrying."
+
+"I know it," said Polly, pulling herself out of her gloom in an
+instant, to be as gay as ever, till the big sombre dining room seemed
+instinct with life, and the cheeriest place imaginable.
+
+"What good times Americans do have!" exclaimed a lady, passing the
+door, and sending an envious glance within.
+
+"Yes, if they're the right kind of Americans," said her companion,
+wisely.
+
+All that wonderful day the sun seemed to shine more brightly than on
+any other day in the whole long year. And the two girls who had the
+birthday together, went here and there, arm in arm, to gladden all the
+tired, and often discontented, eyes of the fellow-travellers they
+chanced to meet. And when finally it came to the dusk, and Polly and
+Adela were obliged to say, "Our birthday is almost all over," why then,
+that was just the very time when Mother Fisher and the little doctor
+(for he was in the plan, you may be very sure, only he wanted her to
+make all the arrangements, "It's more in a woman's way, my dear," he
+had said),--well, then, that was their turn to celebrate the double
+birthday!
+
+"Where are those girls?" cried the little doctor, fidgeting about, and
+knocking down a little table in his prancing across the room. Jasper
+ran and picked it up. "No harm done," he declared, setting the books
+straight again.
+
+"O dear, did I knock that over?" asked Dr. Fisher, whirling around to
+look at the result of his progress. "Bless me, did I really do that?"
+
+"It's all right now," said Jasper, with a laugh at the doctor's face.
+"Lucky there wasn't anything that could break on the table."
+
+"I should say so," declared the little doctor; "still, I'm sorry I
+floored these," with a rueful hand on the books. "I'd rather smash some
+other things that I know of than to hurt the feelings of a book. Dear
+me!"
+
+"So had I," agreed Jasper, "to tell you the truth; but these aren't
+hurt; not a bit." He took up each volume, and carefully examined the
+binding.
+
+When he saw that this was so, the little doctor began to fidget again,
+and to wonder where the girls were, and in his impatience he was on the
+point of prancing off once more across the room, when Jasper said, "Let
+us go and find them--you and I."
+
+"An excellent plan," said Dr. Fisher, hooking his arm into Jasper's and
+skipping off, Jasper having hard work to keep up with him.
+
+"Here--where are you two going?" called Mr. King after them. And this
+hindered them so that Polly and Adela ran in unnoticed. And there they
+were on time after all; for it turned out that the little doctor's
+watch was five minutes ahead.
+
+Well, and then they all filed into the big dining room, and there, to
+be sure, was their special table in the centre, and in the middle of it
+was a tall Dutch cake, ornamented with all sorts of nuts and fruits and
+candies, and gay with layers of frosting, edged and trimmed with
+coloured devices, and on the very tip-top of all was an elaborate
+figure in sugar of a little Dutch shepherdess. And around this
+wonderful cake were plates of mottoes, all trimmed in the Dutch
+fashion--in pink and green and yellow--while two big bunches of posies,
+lay one at each plate, of the two girls who had a birthday together in
+Old Amsterdam.
+
+"Oh--oh!" cried Polly, seizing her bunch before she looked at the huge
+Dutch cake, and burying her nose deep among the big fragrant roses,
+"how perfectly lovely! Who did do this?"
+
+But no one said a word. And the little doctor was as sober as a judge.
+He only glared at them over his spectacles.
+
+"Grandpapa," gasped Polly, "you did."
+
+"Guess again," advised Grandpapa. "Mamsie--" Polly gave one radiant
+look at Mother Fisher's face.
+
+Then Dr. Fisher broke out into a hearty laugh. "You've guessed it this
+time, Polly, my girl," he said, "your mother is the one."
+
+"Your father really did it," corrected Mother Fisher. "Yes, Adoniram,
+you did,--only I saw to things a little, that's all."
+
+"Which means that pretty much the whole business was hers," added the
+little doctor, possessing himself of her hand under cover of the table.
+"Well, girls, if you like your birthday party fixings, that's all your
+mother and I ask. It's Dutch, anyway, and what you won't be likely to
+get at home; there's so much to be said for it."
+
+
+
+
+XII
+
+THE HENDERSON BOX
+
+
+And as Mother Fisher observed, they would all enjoy Marken better for
+the delay, for there would be more time to anticipate the pleasure; and
+then there was the Henderson box to get ready, for Grandpapa King had
+not only approved the plan; he had welcomed the idea most heartily. "It
+will be a good diversion from our scare," he said, when Polly and
+Jasper laid it before him.
+
+"And give us all something to do," he added, "so go ahead, children,
+and set to work on it." And Polly and Jasper had flown off with the
+good news, and every one did "set to work" as Grandpapa said, diving
+into the shops again.
+
+Phronsie tried to find the mate to her china cat, that was by this time
+sailing over the sea to Joel; and it worried her dreadfully, for, try
+as she would, she never could see another one. And she looked so pale
+and tired one night that Mr. King asked her, in consternation, as they
+were all assembled in one corner of the drawing-room, what was the
+matter.
+
+"I wish I could find a cat," sighed Phronsie, trying not to be so
+tired, and wishing the prickles wouldn't run up and down her legs so.
+"We've walked and walked, Grandpapa, and the shop wouldn't come, where
+it must be."
+
+"What kind of a cat is it you want?" asked Adela Gray.
+
+"It was just like Joey's," said Phronsie, turning her troubled blue
+eyes on Adela's face.
+
+"Well, what colour?" continued Adela.
+
+"It was yellow," said Phronsie, "a sweet little yellow cat."
+
+"With green eyes?"
+
+"No, I don't think it's eyes were green," said Phronsie, slowly trying
+to think, "but they were so pretty; and she had a pink ribbon around
+her neck, and--"
+
+"Oh, that settles it," declared Adela, quite joyful that she could help
+the little Pepper girl in any way, "at least the pink ribbon round its
+neck does, for I know where there is a cat exactly like that--that is,
+the one I saw had green eyes, but everything else is like it--it's
+sitting upon a shelf in a shop where I was just this very day, Phronsie
+Pepper."
+
+"Oh!" Phronsie gave a little gurgle of delight, and, slipping out of
+her chair, she ran over to Adela. "Will you show me that shop to-morrow?"
+she begged, in great excitement.
+
+"To be sure I will," promised Adela, just as happy as Phronsie; "we
+will go in the morning right after breakfast. May we, Mrs. Fisher?"
+looking over to her, where she sat knitting as cosily as if she were in
+the library at home. "For I think people who travel, get out of their
+everyday habits," she had said to her husband, before they started,
+"and I'm going to pack my knitting basket to keep my hands out of
+mischief."
+
+And old Mr. King had smiled more than once in satisfaction to glance
+over at Mother Fisher in her cosey corner of an evening, and it made
+him feel at home immediately, even in the dreariest of hotel parlours,
+just the very sight of those knitting needles.
+
+And so, in between the picture galleries and museums, to which some
+part of every day was devoted, the Peppers and Jasper and Adela, and
+old Mr. King, who always went, and Mother Fisher, who sometimes was of
+the party, the ransacking of the lovely shops took place. And it really
+seemed as if everything that the Henderson boys could possibly want,
+was in some of those places--no matter how out-of-the-way--and waiting
+to be bought to fly over the sea to Badgertown. At last off that box
+went. Then Polly was quite happy, and could enjoy things all the more,
+with a mind at rest.
+
+"Now we are all ready for Marken," she cried that night, after dinner,
+when the box was on its way to the steamer, "and I do hope we are going
+to-morrow." Jasper and she had a little table between them, and they
+were having a game of chess.
+
+"Yes, we are, I think," said Jasper, slowly considering whether he
+would better bring down one of his knights into the thick of the
+battle, or leave it to protect his queen.
+
+"Oh, how fine!" exclaimed Polly, unguardedly moving the pawn that held
+at bay a big white bishop, who immediately swooped down on her queen,
+and away it went off the board; and "oh, how perfectly dreadful!" all
+in one and the same breath.
+
+"You may have it back," said Jasper, putting the black queen in place
+again.
+
+"No, indeed--it's perfectly fair that I lost it," said Polly; "oh, I
+wouldn't take it back for anything. I was talking; it was all my own
+fault, Jasper."
+
+"Well, you were talking about Marken, and I don't wonder, for we have
+been so long trying to go there. Do take it back, Polly," he begged,
+holding it out.
+
+"No, indeed!" declared Polly again, shaking her brown head decidedly,
+"not for the world, Jasper."
+
+"What is going over in that corner?" called Grandpapa's voice, by the
+big reading table. He had finished his newspaper, and was now ready to
+talk. So Jasper and Polly explained, and that brought out the subject
+of Marken, and old Mr. King said yes, it was perfectly true that he had
+made all the arrangements to go the following day if the weather were
+fine. So Polly and Jasper swept off the remaining pieces on the chessboard,
+and packed them away in their box, and ran over to hear all the rest of it
+that he was now telling to the family.
+
+"So you see it didn't make any difference about that old queen anyway,"
+said Polly, as they hurried over to him, "for nobody has beaten."
+
+"I'm glad I didn't beat," declared Jasper. "I've that satisfaction,
+anyway, because you wouldn't have moved that pawn, Polly, if you hadn't
+been talking of Marken."
+
+The next day was fine enough to warrant the trip, though not absolutely
+sunshiny. Old Mr. King wisely deciding that the fun of the expedition
+would lose its edge if postponed again, said, "Start!" So after
+breakfast they all went down to the Wester dock and embarked on the
+little steamer bound for the island of Marken in the Zuyder Zee.
+
+"Oh, Polly, look," said Jasper, "doesn't Amsterdam look fine?" as the
+little steamer slowly put forth.
+
+Polly leaned over the rail and drew in long breaths of delight. "Come,
+Adela," she called, "here is a good place;" for the little old lady was
+still too much shaken up to make much attempt at travelling, so Polly
+had begged Mother Fisher and Grandpapa to ask Adela to come with them
+on their sightseeing trips.
+
+And this was done, and the young girl was happy as a bird. So here she
+was, going down to Marken too.
+
+Adela ran and kneeled down on the seat by Polly's side and hung over
+the rail too. "Don't the houses lean over queerly?" she said, pointing
+to the long narrow buildings they were leaving behind. They look worse
+from the water than when we are in the midst of them."
+
+"It's just as if they were holding each other up," said Polly. "Dear
+me, I should think they'd tumble over some fine day.
+
+"What makes them sag so?" asked Adela, intently regarding them.
+
+"That's because the city is built on piles, I suppose," said Jasper.
+It's mostly sand in Holland, you know, particularly around Amsterdam,
+and so they had to drive down piles to get something strong enough to
+put their houses on. That's what--who was it?--oh I know--Erasmus--meant
+when he said, 'I know a city whose inhabitants dwell on the tops of the
+trees like rooks.'"
+
+"O dear me," said Adela, quite impressed; "well, what makes them not
+sag any more?" she asked at length.
+
+"Because they've sagged all they want to, I suppose'" said Jasper,
+laughing. "Anyway they've stood so for years on years--probably, so
+it's fair to believe they're all right."
+
+"And I think they're ever so much prettier leaning every which way,"
+declared Polly. "We can see plenty of straight houses at home, so it's
+nice to see crooked ones over here. Oh, Jasper, there's the King's
+palace!"
+
+"Yes and there is the dome of the Lutheran Church," said Jasper.
+
+"Look at that woman with the boy," said Adela, on the wharf. She's got
+a little black bonnet tied on top of her white cap.".
+
+"That's nothing to what we shall see at Marken, I suppose," said Polly.
+"I'm going to take ever so many photographs." She tapped her kodak
+lovingly, as it hung from the strap on her shoulder.
+
+"I wish I'd brought mine," said Adela.
+
+"Why didn't you?" cried Polly, whirling around to scan Adela.
+
+"I forgot it," said Adela. "I put it on the table last night close to
+my hat and gloves, and then walked off this morning without it."
+
+"Now that's too bad!" exclaimed Polly in sympathy. Then she turned back
+uncomfortably, and began to talk of something else. "I'm not going to,"
+she said to herself; "it isn't my fault she forgot her kodak, and I
+want every one of my films myself. And I care a great deal more for
+Marken than for almost any other place." The next moment Mamsie seemed
+to say, "Is that my Polly?" and although she was at the other end of
+the boat, Polly's head drooped as if she had heard the words.
+
+"O dear me--and Adela hasn't any one but a sick grandmother--and I have
+just--everybody," she thought "You shall use my kodak," cried Polly,
+aloud, "one-half the time, Adela."
+
+"Oh, no," protested Adela; but she looked hungrily at Polly's kodak
+swinging over her shoulder.
+
+"Yes, you shall too," declared Polly, cheerily. "I can take all the
+pictures I want in that time, and I have lots of films."
+
+"I'll divide with you, Polly," said Jasper. "I brought ever so many,
+and will go shares with my kodak, too." But Polly made up her mind that
+Jasper's kodak was to be used for his own special pictures, for she
+knew he had set his heart on taking certain ones, and a good many of
+them, too.
+
+"Isn't that water just perfectly lovely!" she exclaimed; "such a bluish
+grey."
+
+"I think it's a greyish blue," said Adela, squinting along its surface
+critically.
+
+"Well, what's the difference?" asked Polly, laughing.
+
+"Not much," said Jasper, "I should think."
+
+"Well, anyway, it's lovely," declared Polly; "I just wish I could paint
+it."
+
+"Do you paint?" asked Adela, suddenly.
+
+"No," said Polly, "not a bit"
+
+"Polly is all for music," said Jasper, quickly. "You ought to hear her
+play."
+
+"Oh, I can't play much now," said Polly, "but I mean tot some time.
+Jasper, how long it is since we have had a duet." Her face dropped its
+cheery curves and a sad little look crept into her eyes.
+
+"That's the bother of travelling about; one can't play in a hotel,"
+said Jasper. "But wait till we get to Dresden, Polly."
+
+"Oh, I can't bear to wait," said Polly. "I don't want to hurry on,
+Jasper--but oh, I do wish we could play on a piano." Her fingers
+drummed on the rail in her eagerness.
+
+"Why, you are playing now," said Adela, bursting into a laugh, "or
+pretending to, Polly Pepper."
+
+"I know it," said Polly, laughing too; "well, that's what I always used
+to do in the little brown house,--drum on the table."
+
+"In the little brown where?" demanded Adela in astonishment.
+
+"The little brown house," answered Polly, and her eyes lightened as she
+seemed to see it before her. "That's where we used to live, Adela--oh,
+the sweetest place, you can't think!" Polly's fingers stopped drumming
+now, and the colour flew up to her cheek; she forgot all about Adela.
+
+"Oh, I suppose it had everything beautiful about it," said Adela,
+delighted to make Polly talk, "big gardens, and terraces, and--"
+
+"Oh, no," said Polly, "it didn't have gardens at all, Adela, only a
+little bit of a green grass-plot in front. But there was an apple tree
+at the back."
+
+"Apple tree at the back?" echoed Adela, faintly.
+
+"Yes, and we had beautiful plays under it," cried Polly, rushing on in
+remembrance; "and sometimes when all the work was finished, Mamsie
+would let us spend the whole afternoon out there. You can't think what
+perfectly splendid times we had there, Adela Gray!"
+
+Adela by this time was beyond words, but stared up at Polly's face
+speechlessly. "And what fun it was on baking days, Polly," cried
+Jasper, unable to keep quiet any longer; "do you remember when I burnt
+all my cakes around the edges?"
+
+"Well, that was because the old stove acted so," said Polly; "one
+minute it wouldn't bake at all, and the next it burnt things black."
+
+"And the washing the dishes and things up afterward," said Jasper,
+reflecting; "I think I liked that just as well as the baking, Polly."
+
+"It was good fun," said Polly; "and how funny you looked with one of
+Mamsie's aprons tied round under your chin, Jasper."
+
+"I know it," said Jasper, bursting into a laugh. "I must have looked
+like--I don't know what. But it was good fun, Polly."
+
+And then Phronsie came running up, and after her came Grandpapa to see
+that she got there all right.
+
+"Oh, Polly, do you see the windmills?" she cried, clapping her small
+hands.
+
+"Yes, Pet," said Polly, looking all along the soft curves of the shore,
+"there are hundreds of them, aren't there?"
+
+"There was a girl coming out of the door of one of them," announced
+Phronsie, climbing up on the seat and putting her arm around Polly's
+neck. "Polly, I'd like to live in a windmill; I would," she whispered
+close to her ear.
+
+"Would you, Pet?"
+
+"Yes, I would truly," she said. "Why couldn't I, Polly, just like that
+girl I saw coming out of the door?" she asked, looking back wistfully.
+
+"Well, that girl never had a little brown house to live in," said
+Polly; "think of that, Phronsie."
+
+
+
+
+XIII
+
+"THE CLEANEST PLACE IN ALL HOLLAND"
+
+
+"Oh, Polly, see the cunning little doll-houses!" exclaimed Phronsie in
+a little scream, flying about from Grandpapa at the head of his party
+on their way up from the boat-landing, and then back to the rear of the
+procession, which happened to be Polly and Jasper.
+
+"Hush, Phronsie, don't talk so loud; they are not doll-houses," said
+Polly. "People live in them."
+
+"People live in them!" echoed Phronsie, standing quite still on the
+paved road, that shone as if just freshly scoured.
+
+"Yes, yes; come along, child, the people will hear you," said Polly,
+seizing her hand.
+
+Phronsie suffered herself to be piloted along, but she stumbled more
+than once over the cobbles, her eyes were so busy.
+
+"Take care, Phronsie," warned Polly, "you came near falling on your
+nose that time."
+
+"I'll go on the other side," said Jasper; "there, now, Phronsie, give
+us your hand. Well, I don't wonder you are surprised. I never saw such
+a place as this Broek is."
+
+"They've just washed it all up, haven't they, Jasper?" asked Polly, her
+brown eyes scanning the little walks along each tiny garden they
+passed. Everything shone alike.
+
+"They're always washing up, I believe," answered Jasper, with a laugh.
+"I suppose they live in a pail of water, so to speak."
+
+"Oh, Jasper, in a pail of water!" exclaimed Phronsie, between them,
+poking her head out to look for such a strange and unwarrantable sight
+provided by the inhabitants of Broek.
+
+"I mean they're always scrubbing, so they can never be separated from
+their pails of water," said Jasper.
+
+"It seems almost too bad to step on such clean roads," said Polly,
+getting up on her tiptoes, and stepping gingerly off. When Phronsie saw
+Polly do that, she got up on her tiptoes too, and tried to get over the
+ground with her.
+
+"You can't do that long," said Jasper, with a laugh for both, "and it
+wouldn't do any good, Polly, if you could, for these Broek women will
+have to come out and scrub up after us all the same."
+
+"I suppose they will," said Polly, with a sigh of relief, coming down
+on to the rest of her feet, which proceeding, Phronsie was very glad to
+copy. "And it isn't as nice as it looks to walk on the tips of your
+toes. Jasper, do see those cunning little windows and those china
+images inside!"
+
+"It seems as if they were all windows," said Jasper, scanning the tiny
+panes shining at them from all the cottages. "Dear me, the Broek women
+have something to do, don't they, to keep everything so shiny and
+clean?"
+
+"Haven't they!" cried Polly. "Well, I don't wonder it is the cleanest
+place in all Holland. They must have to sit up all night and wash and
+scrub."
+
+"It's the cleanest place on the whole earth, I imagine," laughed
+Jasper.
+
+"But I should love to see some boys playing with mud pies," sighed
+Polly, running her glance up and down the immaculate road, and
+compassing all the tiny gardens possible to her range of vision.
+
+"Mud pies!" exclaimed Jasper, in mock surprise. "Polly, how can you
+mention such a thing as dirt or mud here!"
+
+"Jasper, do you suppose the children can have a good time here?"
+pursued Polly, anxiously, willing to give up the mud pies, if only
+reassured on the latter point, which seemed to her a very doubtful one.
+
+"We'll hope so," answered Jasper. "See the klompen outside that door,
+Polly. Well, here we are at the dairy, Polly."
+
+"And can I see the cows?" cried Phronsie. "Oh, Grandpapa is calling
+me," and off she ran.
+
+And so he was calling her, as he and the parson had now reached the
+dairy door, under cover with the dwelling, which seemed much less an
+object of painstaking care than the house where the cows resided and
+the cheeses were made.
+
+But everything was as neat as a pin in the house, though, and Polly and
+Jasper concluded they would explore the two rooms, as everybody seemed
+to be expected to do, after the main object of the visit was
+accomplished and the dairy inspected.
+
+"Dear me, do they have to take their shoes off before they go in the
+house?" cried Polly.
+
+"I suppose so," said Jasper. "Well, it isn't much trouble to get out of
+those sabots, that's one comfort for them."
+
+"Dear me," Mrs. Fisher was saying, "if they haven't a carpet on the
+floor for the cows to walk on!" And there, surely, were strips of
+carpeting all down the walks between the rows of stalls, and something
+that looked like braided hemp in the bottom of the stalls themselves.
+And everything was tiled where it could be, with little tiles, and all
+these and every bit of the woodwork itself shone beautifully--it was so
+clean and polished.
+
+Mrs. Fisher's black eyes shone, too. "It's beautiful," she said to her
+husband, "to see everything so clean for once in the world."
+
+"What are those hooks for?" asked Jasper of the stolid Dutchman, who
+showed them about, and who spoke English fairly well.
+
+"We hook the cows' tails up so they won't shake any dirt on their
+sides," said the Dutchman.
+
+"O dear me!" exclaimed Polly Pepper, and everybody laughed--but she
+didn't.
+
+"I think that is cruel," she said. "What do the poor things do to beat
+off the flies, pray tell?"
+
+"Flies?" said Mother Fisher. "I don't suppose they ever see a fly here,
+Polly."
+
+"They'd chase one worse than the dirt, I guess," said the little
+doctor.
+
+"Oh," said Polly, with a sigh of relief.
+
+"Come, Polly, let us go into the cheese room," suggested Jasper,
+peering in, for everything was connected and under one roof. "There's a
+man in there, and he is telling something;" so they skipped in, while
+Phronsie was bewailing that there were no cows there, and where were
+they?
+
+"Why, Phronsie, they are all out in the fields. You wouldn't have them
+shut up this hot day," said Grandpapa.
+
+"No," said Phronsie, swallowing the lump in her throat, "I wouldn't,
+Grandpapa; I'd much rather know they are having a nice time. I don't
+want them in here, I truly don't."
+
+"That's a nice child," said old Mr. King, approvingly. "Well, now,
+we'll see how they make these wonderful Edam cheeses, Phronsie."
+
+"I shall call this place the Cheesery," announced Polly, running about
+between the vats and the big press.
+
+"Oh, Polly, that's a capital name," said Jasper. "So shall I call it
+the 'Cheesery' in my journal. Look at the rows and rows of them,
+Polly."
+
+"And how round and yellow they are," said Polly; "just like pumpkins,
+aren't they? Wouldn't it be fine if we could take some home, to send to
+Badgertown? Dear Mrs. Beebe is so fond of cheese, Jasper."
+
+"It is a pity; but we couldn't take cheeses very well. Fancy our
+trunks, Polly!" He wrinkled up his face; at sight of it Polly laughed
+merrily.
+
+"No, of course not," she said; "but oh, how fine they look!"
+
+"Grandpapa, I'd like to buy one," said Phronsie, overhearing a bit of
+this, and opening her little bag that hung on her arm, to get her
+purse.
+
+"What in the world can you do with a Dutch cheese, child?" exclaimed
+old Mr. King.
+
+"But I would like to buy one," persisted Phronsie. And after much
+diving Phronsie produced the little silk purse--"Polly wants one,
+Grandpapa," she got up on her tiptoes to whisper confidentially.
+
+"Oh, is that it?" said Mr. King. "Well, now, Phronsie, I don't really
+believe Polly wants one. You would better ask her. If she wants one you
+shall buy it for her."
+
+So Phronsie ran off. "Do you, Polly? Do you?" then she gently pulled
+Polly's sleeve to make her hear, for Polly and Jasper were hanging on
+the description that the man in attendance was pouring forth.
+
+"Do I what?" cried Polly, only half understanding, and lost in the
+thought of how much fun it must be to make little yellow cheeses, and
+set them up in rows to be taken to market.
+
+"--want one of those dear sweet little cheeses?" finished Phronsie.
+
+"Yes, indeed," answered Polly, bobbing her head, and listening to the
+man with all her might.
+
+"Yes, she does, Grandpapa," declared Phronsie, flying back, "she told
+me so her very own self."
+
+"The goodness, she does!" exclaimed old Mr. King, "Well then, she shall
+have one. But pick out a small one, Phronsie, the very smallest you can
+find."
+
+This was so much a work of time, Phronsie laying aside one selection
+after another, each yellow cheese looking so much better on comparison,
+that at last old Mr. King was almost in despair, and counselled the
+purchase of the last one that Phronsie set her eyes on. But meantime
+she had spied one on the upper shelf of all.
+
+"There it is, Grandpapa," she cried, clapping her hands in delight,
+"the very littlest of all, and isn't it beautiful, Grandpapa, dear?"
+
+"Indeed it is," assented Grandpapa, and he had the man lift it down and
+do it up; a piece of a Dutch newspaper again doing duty, when Phronsie
+held out her arms to receive it. "You can't carry it, child; give it to
+me. What in the world shall we do with the thing?" all this Grandpapa
+was uttering in one breath.
+
+"Oh, Grandpapa, dear, I do so want to carry Polly's little yellow
+cheese," said Phronsie, the tears beginning to come in her eyes.
+
+Grandpapa, who had taken the round parcel from her arms, looked from it
+to her with increasing perplexity. "Have the goodness to put a string
+around it, will you?" he said to the man who was regarding him
+stolidly, after satisfying himself that the coin Phronsie had drawn out
+of her purse and put in his hand was a good one.
+
+"Yah, yah," said the man, and he brought out of one of his pockets a
+long piece of thick twine. This with much hard breathing accompanying
+the work, he proceeded to twist and interlace around the paper
+containing the little yellow cheese in such a way that when it was
+completed, Phronsie was carrying what looked like a little net basket,
+for there was a good strong twine handle sticking up, into which she
+put her small hand in great satisfaction.
+
+When they all gathered in the living room of the house that had open
+doors into the cow-house and dairy, all being under one roof, they
+found a huge pile of photographs displayed of various views of the
+premises indoors and out.
+
+"But they aren't half as nice as ours will be," whispered Jasper; "how
+many did you take, Polly?"
+
+"Three," said Polly.
+
+"Oh, Polly, didn't you get more than that?" said Jasper, quite
+disappointed for her, for Polly dearly loved to take photographs. "Oh,
+you've let Adela Gray take your kodak," he added; "it's a shame I
+didn't give you mine. Take it now, Polly," he begged, slinging off the
+leather strap from his shoulder.
+
+"No, no," said Polly, "I don't want to, Jasper, and I wanted Adela to
+take it, and don't let her hear us, she may come back from the other
+room;"--for Adela had disappeared with the kodak; "and it's all right,
+Jasper," she finished up incoherently.
+
+"Aren't these queer beds, Mrs. Fisher?" the parson's wife was saying,
+peering into the shelves against the side of the wall, boarded up, with
+doors swung open inviting inspection.
+
+"The idea of sleeping in one of them!" exclaimed Mrs. Fisher,
+inspecting the interior with a sharp eye. "They're clean enough and as
+neat as a pink"--with a critical glance along the white lace spread and
+the immaculate pillow--"but to be shut up in a box like that. I should
+as soon go to bed in a bureau drawer."
+
+"So should I," laughed the parson's wife; "and look at the artificial
+flowers hanging up over the head, and that picture pinned, above the
+foot. Well, well, well, and so that is a Dutch bed!"
+
+"There are a good many kinds and sorts of Dutch beds, I suppose,"
+observed Mrs. Fisher, turning away, "just as there are a good many
+American ones; but I hope there aren't many of this particular kind."
+
+"Jasper," exclaimed Polly, as they all filed decorously out of the
+"Model Farm," "how I do wish you and I could race down to the
+boat-landing!"
+
+Jasper looked longingly down the washed and shining road. "So do I,
+Polly," he said, "but I suppose it wouldn't do; we should shock these
+natives."
+
+"I suppose so," assented Polly, ruefully. Just then Phronsie came up
+holding with both hands her paper-covered, twine-netted little round
+yellow cheese.
+
+"What in the world has Phronsie got!" exclaimed Polly, catching sight
+of her. "Come here, Pet," she called.
+
+Phronsie hesitated. On Polly's calling her again she drew near, but
+more slowly than was her wont.
+
+"What have you got, Phronsie?" asked Polly, wondering and not a little
+hurt by her manner. "A little basket of string; isn't it funny, and
+where did you get it?"
+
+"It isn't a basket," corrected Phronsie, "and I cannot tell you now,
+Polly," said Phronsie, shaking her head.
+
+"Why, Phronsie," began Polly in surprise; and she couldn't help it, her
+voice quavered in spite of her.
+
+When Phronsie heard that, she was equally distressed, and at once
+decided to present the gift then instead of carrying it back to the
+hotel for Polly as she had at first intended. So she cast her burden
+into Polly's hands and piped out, "It's for you, Polly, a sweet little
+yellow cheese; you said you wanted it," and stood smiling and
+triumphant.
+
+"Oh, my goodness me!" exclaimed Polly Pepper, standing quite still.
+Then she did shock the natives, for she sat right down in the road,
+with the cheese in her hands.
+
+
+
+
+XIV
+
+THE ISLAND OF MARKEN
+
+
+When the boat was nearing the island of Marken, the little yellow
+cheese had been presented with all due formality to one of the sailors
+who had been specially kind in the matter of securing good seats for
+Mr. King's party, Polly and Phronsie having held a whispered conference
+in a retired nook, to come out of it bright and smiling.
+
+"And now it has made two people happy, Phronsie," Polly had said, when
+the presentation was well over, and she ended up with a kiss. "It made
+me happy in the first place because you thought of me, and then, just
+think, Pet, that poor sailor, how glad he will be to take it home."
+
+"Will he, Polly?" asked Phronsie, in a rapture; "and do you think he
+has got any little girls?"
+
+"Perhaps so," said Polly, "and at any rate, he can eat it himself. And
+he looks hungry enough."
+
+"I'd rather he had some little girls, Polly," said Phronsie,
+thoughtfully, "and have him give them each a piece."
+
+"Well, maybe he has some; we'll think so, anyway," Polly answered. "Oh,
+see, Jasper is calling us."
+
+To be sure, there he was on the other side of the boat nearest Marken,
+with a big group of passengers, intently watching the Marken children
+running along in their clacking sabots, on the high bank, and holding
+out their arms, singing something all the while in a shrill, high key.
+
+"They want some stuivers," cried Jasper. "Come, Polly and Phronsie, let
+us toss them some."
+
+Whiz--spin--went the coins, to fall into the thick stubby grass on the
+bank. The children, stopping their song in mid-air, scrambled and
+sprawled all over each other in their efforts to secure the coveted
+money. So Jasper and Polly threw the bits next time in the other
+direction. Then there was a shout and a rush, and the same thing was
+repeated till only a tangle of arms and legs could be seen. But some
+one of them always got the money.
+
+"Dear me! they've eyes just like birds!" exclaimed Parson Henderson;
+"to think of finding anything in that thick grass."
+
+"Let them alone for that," laughed old Mr. King; "their wits are
+sharpened by practice."
+
+"Look out, Phronsie!" exclaimed Jasper. "Your stuivers went into the
+water. Here, I'll hold you up, then you can throw it farther. There you
+go," swinging her to his shoulder. "Now, then"--he guided her hand, and
+away spun the coin.
+
+"It did, it did," crowed Phronsie, from her high perch. "It did,
+Jasper, go right straight down in the grass just like yours and
+Polly's."
+
+"So it did, Pet. Well, now, here is another."
+
+"There's a little girl back there and she hasn't any," mourned
+Phronsie. "Oh, dear, I want to give her some."
+
+"To be sure," said Jasper. "Well, we must give her some, and that's a
+fact." The small girl kept on at a dog-trot along the bank, her eyes
+fixed on the wonderful people who tossed out such magic wealth, and
+holding out her arms and singing her shrill song. But when the money
+was thrown, she was always a bit too late, and the other children,
+scrambling and scuffling, had pounced upon it, and had made off with
+it.
+
+"Here, you boys, keep away; you've had enough; we're going to give this
+to the little girl," Jasper shouted to them as they threw coin after
+coin.
+
+"They don't know what you are saying, my boy," said old Mr. King,
+laughing heartily at the performance, "and they wouldn't mind you in
+the least if they did."
+
+"I suppose not," said Jasper in chagrin. "Oh, the mean little beggars!"
+
+"Hold up your apron," screamed Polly to the little girl.
+
+"That's a good idea," said Jasper. "Why didn't we think of it before?"
+
+"She won't understand any better than the boys," said old Mr. King.
+"You forget, children, that these youngsters don't know our language."
+
+"What a bother," exclaimed Jasper, "it is to have so many different
+languages, anyway!"
+
+"And she hasn't any apron, Polly," corrected her mother; "that is her
+brown gown."
+
+Polly was already going through the motions of holding up an imaginary
+apron. And at last the little girl understood by gestures what she
+could not possibly get into her head by words, so she picked up the
+skirt of her gown in her sturdy little fists, and one, two, three
+clinking coins fell safely into it. But the boys racing along in
+advance soon discovered this successful trick, and completely swarmed
+around her, howling dreadfully, so she hastened off, happy in her
+prize, which she huddled up in her gown as she ran.
+
+"Isn't this just richness?" exclaimed Polly, gazing all about her in an
+ecstasy. "Oh, Jasper, what pictures we'll take--and do see that woman's
+cap! and those pot-hooks of hair over her eyes, and that funny, long
+dangling curl!"
+
+"Take care, Polly, you almost stepped off backward down the bank,"
+warned Adela, pulling her back, as they got off the steamboat and
+stopped a bit to look around.
+
+"Dear me, did I?" said Polly. "Well, it's enough to make any one step
+backward to see such funny clothes; and they are hay-making, Adela
+Gray, as sure as you live."
+
+"Didn't you suppose they would be?" answered Adela, composedly. "Why,
+that's one of the things I specially wanted to see."
+
+"Yes, so did I," said Polly. "Well, it's too, too splendid for
+anything. I'm going to begin to take pictures right straight off." Then
+she stopped and looked at Adela. "You may first," she said.
+
+"No, I'm not going to," declared Adela.
+
+"Yes, yes," said Polly, "I'd rather you did first; I truly had, Adela."
+She ran after her, for Adela had retreated down the bank, and made as
+if she were going to follow the party. "Now, Adela, be good and listen
+to reason."
+
+But Adela ran off.
+
+"Now that's too bad," mourned Polly, "for I'm afraid she'll keep away
+from me all the while we're on this island, and then I can't get a
+chance to give her my kodak at all."
+
+"She had it at the 'Model Farm,'" said Jasper, by way of comfort, for
+Polly's face fell.
+
+"Oh, that was nothing," said Polly, "such a little bit of a while
+doesn't count."
+
+"Well, let us take pictures as fast as we can," suggested Jasper, "and
+then when we do come up with Adela, why you'll have yours done."
+
+So Polly roused out of her dejection and set to work, and presently the
+hay-makers, and the Marken boys and girls, the funny little houses that
+looked as if they dropped down pellmell from the clouds and settled
+where they had dropped--the high ridges along which the men and boys,
+walking in their full baggy trousers, looked as if they were blown up,
+and formed a Dutch perspective perfectly awful--all these queer,
+delightful things were presently imprisoned in the two kodaks.
+
+Jasper looked up. "There, that's my last picture," he declared. "At any
+rate, for now."
+
+"Oh, one more! I must get a good picture of those girls raking hay."
+Polly ran off a few steps and sat down on a log to focus. The Marken
+girls happened to look up, and immediately whirled around and presented
+their backs to her.
+
+"Oh, dear, how hateful!" she exclaimed; "that would have been a
+splendid picture."
+
+"Never mind," said Jasper; "you can catch them unawares, and have
+another try at them."
+
+"Not so good as that," said Polly, sorrowfully. "Well, it can't be
+helped." So she was just going to get up from her log, when the girls,
+thinking from her attitude that she had given up the idea of taking a
+picture of them, turned back to their work. As quick as a flash Polly
+focussed again, and was just touching the button, when a hand came in
+front of her kodak, and she saw the grinning face of a Marken girl
+under its pot-hook of hair and with the long, dangling curl on one
+side, close to her own.
+
+"Too late!" exclaimed Polly. "And don't you ever do that again." And
+the hand was withdrawn, and the girl clattered off as fast as she could
+run in her wooden shoes.
+
+"I got them," said Polly, running back in triumph to Jasper.
+
+"Yes, and I took a picture of the saucy girl while she was trying to
+stop yours," said Jasper. "So she didn't do much harm, after all. Oh,
+here is a splendid group! See them standing by that old tumble-down
+house, Polly," he added excitedly.
+
+"I thought you had taken your last picture, Jasper," said Polly,
+bursting into a laugh.
+
+"Well, I had then, but I've begun again," said Jasper, recklessly. He
+walked up to the group and held out his hand, then pointed to his
+kodak. They smiled and nodded, showing all their teeth, and the mother
+took the littlest baby, for there seemed to be a very generous number
+of the smaller members of the family, and sat down with it in her lap
+on the rickety step. Then they all drew up stiff as sticks, and didn't
+even wink.
+
+"That's capital," said Jasper, in huge satisfaction, pouring the coins
+into the mother's lap, where they rolled underneath the fat baby. Polly
+and he hurried on.
+
+"Oh, Polly, I'm so very glad you've come," said Phronsie, as Polly and
+Jasper ran up to a doorway through which they could see their party.
+Phronsie stood just inside, and appeared to be watching for them.
+"There's a woman here who's been showing us things." There was Mrs.
+Fisher up by the tiny window, bending over an old woman who had spread
+out in her lap some white embroidered garments, while a young woman
+hovered near, smiling and blushing, and very happy at all this notice.
+And the rest of the party crowded up as close as they could.
+
+"They are her daughter's wedding clothes," said Mrs. Fisher, "I do
+believe." For, the old woman was working fearfully hard to make them
+understand, and pointing first to the white garments and then to the
+young woman. "Wedding clothes?" asked Mrs. Fisher, speaking very
+slowly.
+
+The old woman seemed to understand the one word "wedding," for she
+nodded furiously and smiled well pleased; and then devoted her whole
+time and energy to the display of the garments. And she even laughed
+aloud when old Mr. King put some coins in her hard hand.
+
+Polly took the time to study her headgear. "I think there is a round
+board under the cap," she confided to Jasper when once out of doors;
+"how else could they be pulled so tight? And they look as hard as a
+drum."
+
+"I didn't investigate," he said, laughing. "I'll leave that to you,
+Polly."
+
+"Well, it's funny anyway," she said, "that all the women and girls
+dress alike in those queer gowns in two parts, and those embroidered
+jackets over their waists, and those caps and horrible pot-hooks and
+long curls."
+
+"It's well that we've got so many pictures, for the people at home
+would never believe our stories without them."
+
+"And these houses," continued Polly, squinting up at a crooked row,
+"all colours--green stripes and black stripes--and, O dear me! Jasper
+King, just look at Phronsie!"
+
+Jasper followed the direction of Polly's finger. There sat Phronsie on
+a grassy bank a little above them, with one of the fattest Marken
+babies in her lap. A variegated group of natives was near by, watching
+her intently. But Phronsie didn't appear to notice them.
+
+"Polly, I wish we had a baby just like this," sighed Phronsie, giving
+motherly pats to the stout little legs dangling down from her lap.
+
+"Come, children,"--Grandpapa emerged from the little old house,--"we
+must hurry on, else we sha'n't get through this island. Come, Phronsie
+--goodness me!" as he saw how she was occupied.
+
+"May I carry her?" begged Phronsie, staggering to her feet--"she's
+mine"--and dragging the Marken baby up with her.
+
+"Goodness me! no, child!" exclaimed Grandpapa, in horror. "Put her
+down, Phronsie; she's ever so much too heavy for you, dear." He put
+forth a protesting hand, but the tears ran down Phronsie's cheeks and
+fell on the baby's stiff white cap. At that old Mr. King was quite gone
+in despair.
+
+"Phronsie," Polly bent over and whispered close to the wet little
+cheek, "don't you see Grandpapa is feeling badly? I'm afraid he will be
+sick, Phronsie, if he is unhappy."
+
+Phronsie dropped the pudgy little hand, and threw herself into old Mr.
+King's arms. "Don't be sick, Grandpapa," she wailed, struggling with
+her tears. "I'd rather not have my baby, please; I don't want her.
+Please be all well, Grandpapa, dear."
+
+
+
+
+XV
+
+MR. KING DOES HIS DUTY
+
+
+Polly's face appeared over Adela's shoulder. "Don't!" said Adela,
+shrinking away into the corner of the big sofa, and putting her hands
+over something she held in her lap.
+
+"Excuse me!" exclaimed Polly, tumbling back in amazement. "I wasn't
+looking. I don't want to see. I only meant to surprise you." She kept
+backing off toward the door, the colour all over her round cheek.
+
+"You mustn't get mad, Polly," cried Adela, flying up straight to look
+at her, but still keeping her lap well covered.
+
+Jasper, running in, heard the words. "Polly never gets mad," he said
+slowly, standing quite still.
+
+"Well, she is now--just as mad as can be," said Adela, in a fretful
+little voice; "look at her."
+
+"Oh, I'm not mad, Adela," began Polly, "only sorry. And it's my fault,
+Jasper," seeing his face darken, "for I looked over her shoulder. I
+only wanted to surprise her; and Adela, of course, thought I wanted to
+see what she was doing."
+
+"Yes," said Adela, "I did think so, Polly Pepper, and I don't want
+anybody to see it." With that she huddled the thing, whatever it was,
+down by her side, and ran out of the room as fast as she could go.
+
+"A disagreeable creature," began Jasper, hotly; "and she's been a
+perfect nuisance all along to take her everywhere. Now we drop her,
+Polly." He looked more like his father at this moment than Polly had
+ever seen him before.
+
+"Oh, no, Jasper," she remonstrated in dismay.
+
+"Yes, we drop her like a hot cake," said Jasper, decidedly; "that would
+be my opinion, Polly."
+
+"But we can't, she's so alone," went on Polly; "and, besides, she's
+troubled about something. That's what makes her feel so."
+
+"It's a queer way to bear trouble, I should think, to abuse you," said
+Jasper, "when you've been bothering yourself about her all this time."
+
+"Oh, I don't mind," said Polly, brightening up, "if only you won't talk
+of our dropping her, Jasper."
+
+Jasper turned on his heel, and walked to the window. When he looked
+back, the annoyance had dropped out of his face, and he was just
+saying, "All right, Polly, it ought to be as you say, I'm sure," when
+Adela Gray rushed into the room and up to Polly, and flung her arms
+around her neck. "There, and there, and there!" and something tumbled
+into Polly's hands.
+
+"I didn't want anybody to see it," mumbled Adela, "for I've spoiled it;
+and I was trying to rub out the spots when you came in, and I made it
+worse than ever. But I'll give it to you now, Polly; and please tear it
+up, and I'll make you another."
+
+When this long speech was all mumbled out, Polly was looking at a
+little sketch of Phronsie holding the fat Marken baby, and the Marken
+people looking on.
+
+"Oh, Jasper!" screamed Polly, "do come here! Oh, Adela, did you draw
+this? And oh! how perfectly beautiful!" all in one breath.
+
+"It _is_ a good thing," said Jasper, taking the drawing from
+Polly's hand and examining it critically, while Polly threw her arms
+around Adela, and oh-ed and ah-ed her delight at finding that she could
+draw and sketch so beautifully; and now to think of having this lovely
+picture of Phronsie!
+
+"But, you must tear it up," said Adela, in alarm, "else I'm sorry I
+gave it to you, Polly."
+
+"Tear it up!" repeated Polly, in astonishment; "tear up this lovely
+picture of Phronsie! What do you mean, Adela Gray?"
+
+"Oh, I've a copy, of course," said Adela, carelessly; "and I'm going to
+do you another better one."
+
+"Where did you learn to draw so well?" asked Jasper, in admiration of
+the bold, accurate lines, and the graceful curves.
+
+"In school, at Paris," said Adela, quietly.
+
+Polly looked over Jasper's arm, and scanned the sketch. "I never saw
+anything so lovely!" she exclaimed. "And it's just alive! Isn't it,
+Jasper?"
+
+"Yes, it is splendid," he said enthusiastically; "and that's the best
+part of it--it's alive, Polly, as you say."
+
+"I'd give anything in all this world, Adela, if I could draw like
+that," mourned Polly.
+
+"I'd rather play on the piano," said Adela, "than do all the drawing in
+the world. But I can't learn; the music master said there was something
+the matter with my ear, and I never could tell one note from another by
+the sound. I do so wish I could play on the piano, Polly Pepper!" she
+added discontentedly.
+
+"Well, Jasper can do both,--play on the piano, and draw, too," said
+Polly.
+
+"I can't draw like this," said Jasper, holding the sketch off at arm's
+length to view it again. "I couldn't if I were to try a thousand
+years."
+
+"Oh, Jasper!" exclaimed Polly, who couldn't bear to think there was
+anything that he could not do.
+
+"Well, I can't," said Jasper.
+
+"Let me see some of your sketches," begged Adela. "It's so nice to find
+some one else who can draw. Do show me some."
+
+"Oh, no," protested Jasper, in dismay, "not after this," pointing to
+Adela's drawing.
+
+"Do, Jasper," begged Polly, imploringly, "get your portfolio."
+
+"Oh, I couldn't bring them all in," said Jasper. "I wouldn't show those
+old things for the world, Polly."
+
+"Well, bring some of them, do," she begged, while Adela said, "I showed
+mine, and I didn't want to, I'm sure." So Jasper ran up to his room,
+and pretty soon he came back with his portfolio.
+
+"You did bring it, after all," exclaimed Polly, in satisfaction,
+patting the brown leather cover. "Oh, how nice of you, Jasper," as they
+ran over and ensconced themselves in a cosey corner.
+
+"I took out the worst ones," said Jasper, with a laugh. "And I'm
+awfully sorry I didn't leave behind more of the others."
+
+"I hope you brought that woman with a basket of vegetables we saw at
+the market the other day," said Polly, as he opened the portfolio. "Do
+tell me, Jasper, you did bring that, didn't you?" beginning to fumble
+through the pile.
+
+"Yes, I did, Polly," said Jasper; "she's in there all safe and sound."
+
+So for the next hour, there was great turning over and comparing of
+sketches, and much talk about vertical lines and graceful curves, and
+shading and perspective, and expression, and dear knows what all, as
+the three heads bent over the portfolio. So intent were they all, that
+no one heard Grandpapa come in, and he sat there in a farther corner,
+for a good quarter of an hour. At last Polly looked up and saw him.
+
+"Oh, Grandpapa!" she cried, flying off from the group, and carrying
+Adela's sketch in her hand. "Just see what a perfectly beautiful
+picture of Phronsie! Adela Gray made it. She draws splendidly,
+Grandpapa."
+
+Old Mr. King took the little sketch and fairly beamed at it.
+
+"It's very like,--it is excellent," he declared, caring nothing for its
+merits as a drawing, but only seeing Phronsie as she sat with the big
+Marken baby in her lap on the stubbly bank.
+
+"Isn't it, Grandpapa?" cried Polly, overflowing with happiness; "and
+she has given it to me, Grandpapa. Oh, isn't she good!"
+
+"She is, indeed," assented old Mr. King, just as well pleased as Polly.
+"A very good girl, indeed. Come here, Adela."
+
+Adela, whose sharp ears had caught most of this dialogue at the other
+end of the room,--although Jasper was keeping a steady fire of talk to
+drown it if possible,--was looking in dismay at him.
+
+"O dear me, I wish they'd stop," she breathed in distress.
+
+"I thought you said you had no ear," said Jasper, laughing at her face.
+
+"I can't tell music notes," she said, "but I can hear things."
+
+"Yes, I should think you could," he said. And then came old Mr. King's
+"Come here, Adela," so she had to go across the room, shaking every
+step of the way, and stand in front of him.
+
+"I didn't know we had such a good little artist among us," said
+Grandpapa, wonderfully well pleased and smiling kindly at her.
+
+"That is nothing," said Adela, in despair at ever stopping the flow of
+praise. "I spoiled it, and I'm going to do Polly a better one."
+
+"Nothing could be better, my dear," said Grandpapa, blandly; "it is a
+fine likeness of Phronsie." And then he questioned her as to her
+training in the art, and what she meant to do in the future, and where
+she intended to study and all that, getting an immense amount of
+information so artfully that Adela never for an instant suspected his
+reason. All the time he was holding the sketch of Phronsie in his hand,
+and intently gazing on it most of the time.
+
+"Well," he said at last, "I won't keep you young people any longer,"
+--for Jasper had thrown down the portfolio and joined the group,--"so
+run back to your own corner. Dear me," pulling out his watch, "it's only
+twenty minutes to luncheon. How time does fly, to be sure! To-morrow
+morning, remember, we are off for Antwerp."
+
+"O dear, dear!" exclaimed Polly, as they ran back and bent over the
+portfolio again, "we haven't half seen Amsterdam, Jasper."
+
+"No, and you wouldn't if you stayed a year," observed Jasper, wisely.
+
+"We must go over to the Ryks Museum once more," said Polly.
+
+"Yes, let us go there directly after luncheon," proposed Jasper. "I
+know what you want to do, Polly,--sit in front of 'The Night Watch'
+again."
+
+"Yes, I do," said Polly. "I couldn't go away without seeing that
+picture once more, Jasper."
+
+"I don't like that 'Night Watch,'" said Adela, "it's too dark and too
+smutty. I don't see why people like it so much."
+
+"Well, I do like it very much," reiterated Polly. "I know it's
+dreadfully dark, but the people in front seem to be stepping right out
+of the shadows, and to be alive. It seems to me they are just going to
+come right up toward me, as I sit there."
+
+"And that, after all, I suppose is the best thing one can say of a
+picture," said Jasper. "And it is always the finest time to look at
+that picture in the afternoon, you know, so we will go there, Polly,
+after luncheon."
+
+"And then Phronsie will want to see that picture of a woman with a cat,
+I suppose," said Polly. "Dear me, who was it that painted that, Jasper?
+I never can remember the artists' names."
+
+"Metsu was it--Jan--no, Gabriel--Metsu," answered Jasper, wrinkling his
+brows. "Neither can I remember all those fellows' names. Yes, indeed,
+you'll find Phronsie won't let us go there without paying respects to
+her special picture."
+
+"And then I suppose Grandpapa will take us for a last drive in Vondel
+Park. Oh, what nice times we have had, Jasper King!" exclaimed Polly,
+leaning back against the sofa, and clasping her hands restfully. "I
+just love Amsterdam! And I hate to leave it!"
+
+"So you said about The Hague, Polly," observed Jasper, turning to her
+with a little laugh.
+
+"Well, wasn't it perfectly beautiful?" asked Polly, flying up straight
+again. "Just think of that dear 'House in the Wood,' Jasper."
+
+"I know it; you wanted to go there day after day," laughed Jasper.
+
+"Why, we only went there three times," said Polly, "I'm sure, Jasper.
+And the picture-gallery--"
+
+"That is in the Maurit--rit, whatever is the rest of it? Oh, I know,"
+said Jasper, guilty of interrupting, "Mauritshuis, that is where the
+picture-gallery is, Polly."
+
+"Yes, that's it," echoed Polly; "it's fine--Paul Potter's 'Bull' is
+there."
+
+"Oh, I want to see that picture very much!" exclaimed Adela. "I've
+never been to The Hague."
+
+"Well, you'll go, perhaps, sometime," said Polly, with an uncomfortable
+feeling that she ought not to enjoy the things that Adela hadn't seen.
+"And you are going to Antwerp with us to-morrow, anyway," she added,
+brightening up.
+
+"Yes," said Adela, "Grandmamma is really going there. But that's all;
+for we go straight over to England then, and I sha'n't see you ever
+again, Polly Pepper," she finished gloomily.
+
+And that evening Grandpapa sat down by little old Mrs. Gray in the
+parlour after dinner, and though he began about something as far
+distant as possible, before long he was talking about Adela, and her
+wonderful talent. And the most surprising thing about it all was, that
+the little old lady, not intending to do it in the least, nor really
+comprehending how much she was telling, soon had him informed on all
+that he had set his heart on learning--how Adela had just been taken
+from the Paris school, because the little fortune her father had left,
+had somehow shrunk up, and there was no more money to keep her there.
+"I can't tell how it is, sir," she mourned, raising her faded eyes
+under the widow's cap to the kind old face above her, "I thought there
+was enough to educate my grandchild; it wasn't a big sum, but I
+supposed it was quite sufficient; but now it appears to be almost gone,
+and I have only just enough to keep me." She didn't add that the
+curate, her husband, when he crept into his grave, in the English
+churchyard, had left her nothing but the memory of his good name, her
+small means coming as a legacy from some of his grateful friends, they,
+too, long since dead.
+
+Old Mr. King made no comment, only passed on with a few little leading
+remarks when the information seemed to be on the wane. And then he said
+he thought he would like a game of backgammon, and he challenged the
+parson to come on and be beaten. And at an early hour the party broke
+up. "For remember," said Grandpapa, for about the fiftieth time that
+day, "it's Antwerp to-morrow!"
+
+So it was at Antwerp that the whole splendid business was concluded.
+And when the story of it came out, there was a regular jubilee all
+around. For were not Adela and Adela's grandmother going with the King
+party around a bit more on the continent, and then off to Paris again,
+and back to the beloved school--Grandpapa's gift to the girl with the
+talent, to keep it alive!
+
+And the little widow, stunned at first by the magnitude of the gift,
+could do nothing but feebly protest, "Oh, no, sir!" and put up both
+shaking hands to ward off the benefaction.
+
+"It's your duty, Madam," said Mr. King, sternly, at which she shrank
+down farther in her chair. "Who knows what such talent will do in the
+world? and it's my duty to see that it is kept alive,--nothing more nor
+less than a question of duty."
+
+He stamped up and down the room vehemently, and the little old lady
+protesting that she wanted to do her duty,--she was sure she always
+did,--the hardest part was over, and old Mr. King chuckled to himself
+triumphantly.
+
+"And now," cried Polly, in a transport, when the first surprise was
+over, and everybody had settled down to the quiet enjoyment of it all,
+"we've really and truly got a celebrated artist all to ourselves," and
+she drew herself up in pride.
+
+"I'm not celebrated yet," said Adela, with two little red spots on her
+cheeks, and with happy eyes on her grandmother. "You had better wait
+till I am."
+
+"Oh, well; you will be," said Polly, confidently, "sometime, and then
+we can say 'yes, we knew her when she was a girl,' and we'll go to
+picture-galleries the same as we do here, and see your name stuck up in
+the corners of the very best ones, Adela."
+
+
+
+
+XVI
+
+"LET US FLY AT THOSE BOOKS"
+
+
+"Now, Polly, in Antwerp," said Jasper, "we can see Rubens to
+perfection. Won't we just revel in his paintings, though!"
+
+"Won't we!" ejaculated Polly. "I'm so glad Grandpapa came here to this
+hotel." She leaned out of the window as she spoke.
+
+"Under the very eaves of the Cathedral, almost, isn't it?" said Jasper,
+in satisfaction.
+
+The chimes just then pealed out. Indeed, it seemed as if they did
+nothing but ring, so short were the intervals. But to Polly and Jasper
+they brought only echoes of delight.
+
+"There are forty of those bells, aren't there?" asked Polly, resting
+her elbows on the window-sill.
+
+"I believe so," answered Jasper, absently. Polly looked at him
+curiously.
+
+"Polly," he said abruptly, "do you know what I mean to do?"
+
+"No," said Polly; "tell me, do, Jasper."
+
+"Well, I mean to sit right down and finish my book. I'm ashamed to
+confess that it's not up to date."
+
+"Neither is mine," confessed Polly.
+
+"Well, now, that won't do," said Jasper, decidedly. "You see if we once
+let those books get behindhand, we're lost. We never can catch up, in
+all this world."
+
+"We've had so much to do and to see," began Polly.
+
+"That won't be any excuse that will amount to anything," said Jasper,
+shaking his head. "Let's fly at them and tackle them now, Polly."
+
+"I say so, too," she cried, and deserting the window, they surrounded
+the centre-table, and soon had the big journals, photographs, and
+pictures, of every sort and size, the ink bottle, and library paste,
+scissors, and all the rest of the paraphernalia, spread out on it.
+
+"It's good that Grandpapa is lying down and doesn't wish to go out,"
+remarked Polly, snipping away at a fearful rate, and pausing only to
+write down the dates and other bits of information around each picture,
+as she pasted it in. "Now we'll have all this morning to finish these
+books up to to-day."
+
+"And none too much for the job," said Jasper, sagely. "I declare I
+shall feel like enjoying myself twice as well, when once they're up to
+date. They've been hanging round my conscience every day since I
+slackened work on them."
+
+"And I am so glad you made me come away from that window, and set to
+work," said Polly, "or I never would have commenced on mine to-day."
+
+"Oh, yes, you would, I think, Polly," said Jasper. "Well, we are at it
+now, and that's enough. Now says I, I'm on book No. 2!" And he flapped
+down the cover of the completed one. "That's done, thank fortune!"
+
+"Oh, Jasper, have you the green one done?" asked Polly. "Why, I have
+three more pages of mine to do."
+
+"Well, you'll catch up on the red one, I dare say," said Jasper,
+opening No. 2. "We are getting on famously, aren't we, Polly?" glancing
+over at her work.
+
+"Yes, and I'm so glad you proposed this way to keep a journal," said
+Polly, "to have them labelled 'My Notes on My European Journey,' and to
+have No. 1 green, and No. 2 red, and so on all through the rest of the
+colours."
+
+"That will help us to find them in a hurry," said Jasper, "and keep
+them distinct; but I didn't propose it, Polly, about the books. It was
+your plan as much as mine."
+
+"No." Polly was guilty of contradicting. "I never should have thought
+of having the books of different colours and labelling them in that
+way, Jasper."
+
+"Well, you first thought of cutting out pictures and all sorts of
+items, and then writing the dates and whatever else we wanted to around
+the pictures," said Jasper. "I'm sure that's more important than the
+title of the book, Polly."
+
+"Well, won't the boys love to see them," asked Polly, suddenly, with a
+light in her eyes, ignoring the question as to her claim to the idea,
+"when we get home, Jasper?"
+
+"Won't they, though!" he responded, falling to work with a will.
+
+And so Antwerp was entered with clear consciences as to journals, and a
+strict determination not to fall behind again on them.
+
+But Polly slipped in so many of the beautiful photographs of the
+"Descent from the Cross," and the other two famous pictures by Rubens,
+that her red book was closed the third day of their stay in the old
+town of Antwerp; and the photographs had even overflowed into the
+yellow book, No. 3.
+
+They had a habit, most of their party, of dropping into the Cathedral
+once a day at least, usually in the morning, and sometimes before
+service. And then when it was quiet, and before the ordinary throng of
+sight-seers trailed through, Jasper would hire some chairs of one of
+the old women who always seem to be part and parcel of European
+cathedrals; and they would sit down before the painting, its wings
+spread over the dingy green background, and study what has made so many
+countless travellers take long and oftentimes wearisome journeys to
+see.
+
+And Polly always wanted to go after that to see the "Assumption," which
+is the altar-piece, and then the "Elevation of the Cross," both by
+Rubens. "And I am sure, Grandpapa," she would always say, "I like them
+as well as I do the famous painting."
+
+"And so do I, Polly, in a way," Grandpapa would invariably reply. "They
+are all marvellous, and that is all we can say, for no expressions
+could give the truth about them."
+
+After the Cathedral, which they loved all the more,--"for being perched
+under its eaves" (as Polly always said when speaking of the hotel that
+was for the time being their home),--Polly and Jasper set next in their
+regard the Musée Plantin-Moretus. They were never tired of running down
+there to the Marché du Vendredi, until it became a regular question
+every day at dinner, "Well, what more have you discovered at the Musée
+Plantin?"
+
+And old Mr. King would often answer, for he was as interested as the
+young people, "Marvellous things." And then he would expatiate on the
+antique furniture, the paintings, engravings, and tapestries, till the
+little doctor, fresh from his hospital visitations, would remark that
+it was just as good as if he had time to visit the place, to hear
+Grandpapa tell it all. And Adela would bring out her little sketches,
+which now she was not averse to showing, since everybody was so kind
+and sympathising, and there would be some little nook or corner of
+corridor or court that Polly would fall upon and pronounce, "Just
+perfect, and how did you get it?"
+
+"Oh, I just drew a bit now and then when you were looking at things,"
+said Adela, carelessly.
+
+"Everything just dances off your pencil," said Polly, wishing she could
+draw, and wondering if it was any use for her to try to learn.
+
+And every afternoon they would go to drive as usual, very often around
+the docks, which gave them all a good idea of this wonderful port. They
+were never tired of watching the hydraulic cranes, of inspecting the
+dry docks; the intertwining railways by which all the docks, large and
+small, are connected, and the two basins, Le Petit and Le Grand Bassin.
+
+"Dear me!" exclaimed Jasper, on one of these occasions, "I thought
+Amsterdam docks were huge affairs, but Antwerp!" And he left his
+sentence in mid-air, which was more impressive after all.
+
+But Parson Henderson liked the church of St. Jacques best of all things
+in Antwerp, and he used to steal away mornings to go there again and
+again. And he asked Polly and Jasper to go there with him one day, and
+Polly begged to have Adela go too, and they all came home as
+enthusiastic as he was.
+
+And then suddenly Mr. King would wrench them all off from this
+delightful study and put his foot down peremptorily. "No more
+cathedrals for a time," he would declare; "my old head cannot carry any
+more just yet." And he would propose a little in-letting of fun. And
+then off they would go a-shopping, or to the Zoological Gardens; and
+they always had concerts, of course, wherever they were, for Polly and
+Jasper's sakes, if for no other reason. And by and by somebody
+announced, one fine morning, that they had been in Antwerp a fortnight.
+
+And then one day Mother Fisher looked into Polly's brown eyes, and
+finding them tired, she calmly tucked Polly quietly in bed. "Why,
+Mamsie," declared Polly, "I'm not sick."
+
+"No, and I'm not going to have you be," observed Mrs. Fisher, sensibly.
+"This running about sight-seeing is more tiresome, child, than you
+think for, and dreadfully unsettling unless you stop to rest a bit. No,
+Jasper," as he knocked at the door, "Polly can't go out to-day, at
+least not this morning. I've put her to bed."
+
+"Is Polly sick, Mrs. Fisher?" called Jasper, in great concern.
+
+"No, not a bit," answered Mrs. Fisher, cheerily, "but she's tired. I've
+seen it coming on for two or three days back, so I'm going to take it
+in time."
+
+"And can't she come out, to-day?" asked Jasper, dreadfully
+disappointed, with a mind full of the host of fine things they had
+planned to do.
+
+"No, Jasper," said Mother Fisher, firmly, "not to jaunt about." So
+Jasper took himself off, feeling sure, despite his disappointment, that
+Polly's mother was right.
+
+And there was another person who wholly agreed with Mother Fisher, and
+that was old Mr. King. "If you can stop those young folks from killing
+themselves running about to see everything, you'll do more than I can,
+Mrs. Fisher," he observed. "It makes no difference how long I plan to
+stay in a town, so as to do it restfully, if they won't rest."
+
+"That is a fact," said Mother Fisher. "Well, that's my part to see that
+they do rest."
+
+"I don't envy you the job," said the old gentleman, drily.
+
+Polly fidgeted and turned on her pillow, knowing Mamsie was right, but
+unable to keep from thinking of the many beautiful plans that Jasper
+and she had formed for that very morning, till her head spun round and
+round. "I can't get to sleep," she said at last.
+
+"Don't try to," said her mother, dropping the heavy wool curtains till
+the room was quite dark; "that's the worst thing in the world to do, if
+you want to rest. Just lie still and don't try to think of anything."
+
+"But I can't help thinking," said poor Polly, feeling sure that Jasper
+was dreadfully disappointed at the upsetting of all the plans.
+
+"Never say you can't help anything, Polly," said her mother, coming
+over to the bedside to lay a cool hand on Polly's hot forehead, and
+then to drop a kiss there; and somehow the kiss did what all Polly's
+trying had failed to accomplish.
+
+"That's good, Mamsie," she said gratefully, and drew a long, restful
+breath.
+
+Mother Fisher went out and closed the door softly.
+
+It was just three o'clock that afternoon when Polly woke up.
+
+"Oh, I'm dreadfully ashamed!" she exclaimed when she found it out.
+"I've slept almost this whole day!"
+
+Mother Fisher smiled, "And it's the best day's work you've done in one
+long while, Polly," she said.
+
+"And here's my girl, Polly," cried Grandpapa, when she ran down to him,
+and holding her at arm's length, he gazed into her bright eyes and on
+her rosy cheeks. "Well, well, your mother's a clever woman, and no
+mistake."
+
+So Polly knew if she didn't take care and not get tired again, she
+would be tucked into bed another fine day.
+
+It was a long summer morning, and they were sailing up the Rhine, with
+the delights of Brussels and Cologne behind them, and in between the
+covers of the purple book, No. 4, Polly had been looking at ruined
+castles and fortresses, at vine-clad terraces, and châlets, until she
+turned to Grandpapa with a sigh.
+
+"Tired, Polly, little woman?" he said, cuddling her up against him.
+
+"No, not tired, Grandpapa," said Polly, "but, oh, there's so very much
+of it over here in Europe."
+
+"If you've found that out, you've learned the lesson early," said old
+Mr. King, with a laugh. "As many times as I've been over here, there's
+nothing that surprises me so much as the presumption with which we
+travellers all rush about, expecting to compass all there is."
+
+"But we ought to see everything," said Polly, "oughtn't we, Grandpapa,
+when we've come so far to see it?" and she looked troubled.
+
+"There's just where you are wrong, Polly, child," said old Mr. King.
+"And this 'ought to see,' why, it's an old dragon, Polly, lying in wait
+to destroy. Don't you let it get hold of you, but take my advice and
+see only what you can make your own and remember. Then you've got it."
+
+
+
+
+XVII
+
+POLLY WROTE A NICE LITTLE NOTE
+
+
+"Polly," said Jasper, running down the stairs after her, on her way to
+the little garden on the terrace at Heidelberg, "here's something for
+you; just came in the mail."
+
+"For me," said Polly, as he put a little parcel in her hand.
+
+"Yes," said Jasper, "father just gave it to me."
+
+"What can it be!" cried Polly, wonderingly; "oh, something from Alexia
+or one of the other girls, most likely," and she tore off the outer
+wrapper.
+
+"It is registered," said Jasper, "and Mr. Henderson got it out for you,
+father said; that can't be from one of the girls, Polly," as the next
+layer of paper dropping off, disclosed the name of one of the biggest
+of big London jewellers across a wooden box.
+
+"What can it be!" gasped Polly, tugging at the cover.
+
+"Here--let me." Jasper essayed to open it, but it stuck fast in the
+slide. Another pull, and a little red leather case appeared in view.
+
+"What in the world--" began Polly; "oh, it can't be for me!" and she
+stood staring at it, without any attempt to take it out.
+
+"It must be for you, Polly," said Jasper. "There couldn't be any other
+Miss Mary Pepper, and besides it is addressed to father's care, and
+comes through our bankers,--see here." He stooped, and picked up the
+outer wrapper; it was torn almost in two, but the name and address was
+all there.
+
+So Polly lifted out the little red leather case, still feeling very
+much as if she were opening a parcel belonging to some one else, and
+touching a spring at the end, the top flew up, and there on a white
+satin bed lay a little green enamelled watch set with diamonds.
+
+"O dear me!" exclaimed Polly, tumbling back in the utmost distress,
+"now I _have_ got some one else's box, Jasper. How very dreadful!"
+
+"Let us go to father," said Jasper, feeling this quite beyond him.
+"Shut the box up tight, Polly; it might tumble out on the way."
+
+"You carry it, do, Jasper," begged Polly, with an eye askance at the
+little case; and snapping the cover down, she set it in his hand.
+
+"All right, now, then," said Jasper. "We must carry these papers, and
+wooden box, and the whole business. Don't worry, Polly," seeing her
+face, "father will straighten it out."
+
+"Give me the wrapper, Jasper, and the wooden box, if only you'll take
+the other," said Polly, feeling very much depressed at coming into
+possession of other people's property; and Jasper followed with the
+little enamelled watch.
+
+And Grandpapa was just as much astounded as was Polly herself; and all
+the family congregating in Mother Fisher's room, the little watch was
+handed about from one to the other, and everybody stared at everybody
+else, and the mystery thickened every moment. And the strangest thing
+about it was that no one opened the little back cover where any one
+might have read:--
+
+"Polly Pepper, from her grateful friend, Arthur Selwyn."
+
+--until the middle of the night, when Jasper was awakened by a noise as
+if some one were prowling around in his father's room. He started up
+and listened.
+
+"It's I," said old Mr. King's voice. So Jasper threw on his wrapper,
+and hurried in. There sat his father, in dressing-gown and slippers, by
+the table, with the little enamelled watch in his hand.
+
+"Of all the idiots, Jasper," he exclaimed, "your father is the very
+worst. I've only just this moment thought to look in here." He flashed
+the little watch around in Jasper's face; it was now opened at the
+back.
+
+"Dear me!" cried Jasper, for want of anything better to say, as he read
+the inscription. Then he looked helplessly at his father.
+
+"Earl or no earl, this piece of foolishness goes back," fumed old Mr.
+King, getting out of his chair, and beginning to march back and forth
+across the floor as he always did when irritated. "Yes, sir, the very
+first thing in the morning," he repeated, as vehemently as if Jasper
+had contradicted him.
+
+"But, father--" began the boy.
+
+"Yes, sir, it goes back, I tell you," repeated his father, now well
+wrought up to a passion. "What right has he to send such a piece of
+foolishness to my Polly Pepper? I can give her all the watches she
+needs. And this trumpery," pointing to the jewelled gift still lying in
+Jasper's hand, "is utterly unfit for a schoolgirl. You know that
+yourself, Jasper."
+
+"But Polly was kind to him," began Jasper, again.
+
+"Kind to him!" snorted his father, "don't I know that? Of course she
+was. Polly Pepper would be kind to any one. But that's no reason why
+the old idiot should presume to give her such a silly and expensive
+present as that. The man doesn't know anything who would do such a
+thing. And this one is queerer than the average."
+
+"As you say, he is eccentric," observed Jasper, seeing here a loophole
+by which to get in a soothing word.
+
+"Eccentric? That's a mild way to put it," fumed his father. "He's odder
+than Dick's hatband. Heaven save Old England if many of her earls are
+like him. Well, I shall just write the fellow a decent sort of a note,
+and then I'll pack the box off to him, and that'll be the end of the
+matter."
+
+"I'm afraid Polly will be sorry," said Jasper, feeling at a standstill
+so far as finding the right word was concerned, for everything he
+uttered only seemed to make matters worse. So he said the best thing he
+could think of, and stopped short.
+
+"Sorry?" Old Mr. King came to a dead stop and glared at him. "You can't
+mean that Polly Pepper would like me to keep that watch. It's the last
+thing on earth that she would want, such a gewgaw as that. Why, the
+child hates the sight of it already as much as I do."
+
+"I don't think Polly would want the watch," said Jasper, quickly. "I
+know she doesn't like it, and I'm sure I wish I could smash it myself,"
+he added in a burst.
+
+"That's the most sensible thing you've said yet, Jasper," said his
+father, with a grim smile.
+
+"But she would feel dreadfully for you to send it back, for don't you
+see, father, that would hurt his feelings? And Polly would worry
+awfully to have that happen."
+
+Old Mr. King turned uneasily, took a few steps, then came back to throw
+himself into his chair again.
+
+"And this old gentleman has such ill attacks," said Jasper, pursuing
+his advantage, "that it might be the very thing to bring one on if he
+should get that watch back."
+
+"Say no more, say no more, Jasper," said his father, shortly; "put this
+thing up for tonight, and then get back to bed again." And Jasper knew
+that was the end of it.
+
+And the next day Polly wrote a nice little note, thanking the old earl
+for his gift, and hoping that he was quite well; and with so many other
+pleasant things in it, that if she could have seen him when he received
+it, she would have been glad indeed. And then she handed the little red
+leather case to Mr. King. "Keep it for me, Grandpapa," she said simply.
+
+"All right, Polly, my child," he said. And then everybody forgot all
+about the episode and proceeded to enjoy Heidelberg.
+
+"I'm so sorry for people who are not going to Bayreuth, Adela!"
+exclaimed Polly, looking out of the compartment window, as the train
+steamed rapidly on from Nuremberg where they had passed several days of
+delight revelling in the old town.
+
+Adela, with her mind more on those past delights, had less attention
+for thoughts of music, so she answered absently, "Yes. Oh, Polly,
+wasn't that Pentagonal Tower fine? What is it they call it in German?"
+
+But Polly didn't hear, being absorbed in the Wagner festival of which
+her mind was full, so Jasper answered for her. "Alt-Nuenberg, you mean,
+the oldest building of all Nuremberg."
+
+"Yes," said Adela, "well, I got two or three sketches of that tower."
+
+"Did you?" cried Jasper, "now that's good."
+
+"And I got that horrible old robber-knight,--what's his name?--sitting
+inside his cell, you know."
+
+"Eppelein von Gallingen," supplied Jasper. "Well, he was a horrible-looking
+customer, and that's a fact."
+
+"Oh, I liked him," said Adela, who rejoiced in ugly things if only
+picturesque, "and I got into one corner of the cell opposite him, so as
+to sketch it all as well as I could in such a dark place, and a lady
+came down the little stairs; you remember them."
+
+"I rather think I do," said Jasper, grimly. "I was trying to get out of
+the way of a huge party of tourists, and I nearly broke my neck."
+
+"Well, this lady came down the stairs. I could see her where I sat, but
+she couldn't see me, it was so dark in the cell; and she called to her
+husband--I guess he was her husband, because he looked so
+_triste_." Adela often fell into French, from being so long at the
+Paris school, and not from affectation in the least. "And she said,
+'Come, Henry, let us see what is in there.' And she took one step in,
+and peered into that robber-knight's face; you know how he is sitting
+on a little stool, his black hair all round his face, staring at one."
+
+"Yes, I do," said Jasper; "he was uncanny enough, and in the darkness,
+his wax features, or whatever they were made of, were unpleasantly
+natural to the last degree."
+
+"Well," said Adela, "the lady gave a little squeal, and tumbled right
+back into her husband's arms. And I guess she stepped on his toes, for
+he squealed, too, though in a different way, and he gave her a little
+push and told her not to be a goose, that the man had been dead a
+thousand years more or less and couldn't hurt her. So then she stepped
+back, awfully scared though, I could see that, and then she caught
+sight of me, and she squealed again and jumped, and she screamed right
+out, 'Oh, there's another in there, in the corner, and it glared at
+me.' And I didn't glare at all," finished Adela, in disdain. "And then
+I guess he was scared, too, for he said, 'That old cell isn't worth
+seeing, anyway, and I'm going down into the torture chamber,' and they
+hurried off."
+
+"That torture chamber!" exclaimed Jasper; "how any one can hang over
+those things, I don't see; for my part, I'd rather have my time
+somewhere else."
+
+"Oh, I like them," said Adela, in great satisfaction, "and I've got a
+picture of the 'Iron Virgin.'"
+
+"That was a good idea, to put the old scold into that wooden tub
+concern," said Jasper; "there was some sense in that. I took a picture
+of it, and the old tower itself. I got a splendid photograph of it, if
+it will only develop well," he added. "Oh, but the buildings--was ever
+anything so fine as those old Nuremberg houses, with their high-peaked
+gables! I have quantities of them--thanks to my kodak."
+
+"What's this station, I wonder?" asked Polly, as the train slowed up.
+
+Two ladies on the platform made a sudden dash at their compartment.
+"All full," said the guard, waving them off.
+
+"That was Fanny Vanderburgh," gasped Polly.
+
+"And her mother," added Jasper.
+
+"Who was it?" demanded old Mr. King.
+
+His consternation, when they told him, was so great, that Jasper racked
+his brains some way to avoid the meeting.
+
+"If once we were at Bayreuth, it's possible that we might not come
+across them, father, for we could easily be lost in the crowd."
+
+"No such good luck," groaned old Mr. King, which was proved true. For
+the first persons who walked into the hotel, as the manager was giving
+directions that the rooms reserved for their party should be shown
+them, were Mrs. Vanderburgh and her daughter.
+
+"Oh!" exclaimed Mrs. Vanderburgh, as if her dearest friends were before
+her, "how glad I am to see you again, dear Mr. King, and you all." She
+swept Mrs. Fisher and Mrs. Henderson lightly in her glance as if
+toleration only were to be observed toward them. "We have been
+perfectly _désolée_ without you, Polly, my dear," she went on,
+with a charming smile. "Fanny will be happy once more. She has been
+disconsolate ever since we parted, I assure you."
+
+Polly made some sort of a reply, and greeted Fanny, as of old times, on
+the steamer; but Mrs. Vanderburgh went on, all smiles and eagerness--so
+rapidly in her friendly intentions, that it boded ill for the future
+peace of Mr. King's party. So Mr. King broke into the torrent of words
+at once, without any more scruple. "And now, Mrs. Vanderburgh, if you
+will excuse us, we are quite tired, and are going to our rooms." And he
+bowed himself off, and of course his family followed; the next moment
+Fanny and her mother were alone.
+
+"If this is to be the way," said Mrs. Vanderburgh, with a savage little
+laugh, "we might much better have stayed in Paris, for I never should
+have thought, as you know, Fanny, of coming to this out-of-the-way
+place, seeing that I don't care for the music, if I hadn't heard them
+say on the steamer that this was their date here."
+
+"Well, I wish that I was at home," declared Fanny, passionately, "and I
+never, never will come to Europe, Mamma, again as long as I live. You
+are always chasing after people who run away from you, and those who
+like me, you won't let me speak to."
+
+"Well, I shall be thankful for the day when you are once in society,"
+said her mother, every shred of self-control now gone; "and I shall
+sell my tickets for this old Wagner festival, and go back to Paris
+to-morrow morning."
+
+At that, Fanny broke into a dismal fit of complaining, which continued
+all the time they were dressing for dinner, and getting settled in
+their room, and then at intervals through that meal.
+
+Polly looked over at her gloomy face, three tables off, and her own
+fell.
+
+"You are not eating anything, child," said Grandpapa, presently, with a
+keen glance at her. "Let me order something more."
+
+"Oh, no, Grandpapa," and "yes, I will," she cried, incoherently, making
+a great effort to enjoy the nice things he piled on her plate.
+
+Jasper followed her glance as it rested on the Vanderburgh table. "They
+will spoil everything," he thought. "And to think it should happen at
+Bayreuth."
+
+"Yes, we are going," said Fanny Vanderburgh as they met after dinner in
+the corridor. Her eyes were swollen, and she twisted her handkerchief
+in her fingers. "And I did--did--did--" here she broke down and
+sobbed--"so want to hear the Wagner operas."
+
+"Don't cry," begged Polly, quite shocked. "Oh, Fanny, why can't you
+stay? How very dreadful to lose the Wagner music!" Polly could think of
+no worse calamity that could befall one.
+
+"Mamma doesn't know anybody here except your party," mumbled Fanny,
+"and she's upset, and declares that we must go back to Paris
+to-morrow. Oh, Polly Pepper, I hate Paris," she exploded. And then
+sobbed worse than ever.
+
+"Wait here," said Polly, "till I come back." Then she ran on light feet
+to Grandpapa, just settling behind a newspaper in a corner of the
+general reading room.
+
+"Grandpapa, dear, may I speak to you a minute?" asked Polly, with a
+woful feeling at her heart. It seemed as if he must hear it beating.
+
+"Why, yes, child, to be sure," said Mr. King, quite surprised at her
+manner. "What is it?" and he laid aside his paper and smiled
+reassuringly.
+
+But Polly's heart sank worse than ever. "Grandpapa," she began
+desperately, "Fanny Vanderburgh is feeling dreadfully."
+
+"And I should think she would with such a mother," exclaimed the old
+gentleman, but in a guarded tone. "Well, what of it, Polly?"
+
+"Grandpapa," said Polly, "she says her mother is going to take her back
+to Paris tomorrow morning."
+
+"How very fine!" exclaimed Mr. King, approvingly; "that is the best
+thing I have heard yet. Always bring me such good news, Polly, and I
+will lay down my newspapers willingly any time." And he gave a pleased
+little laugh.
+
+"But, Grandpapa--" and Polly's face drooped, and there was such a sad
+little note in her voice, that the laugh dropped out of his. "Fanny
+wanted above all things to hear the Wagner operas--just think of losing
+those!" Polly clasped her hands, and every bit of colour flew from her
+cheek.
+
+"Well, what can I do about it?" asked the old gentleman, in a great
+state of perturbation. "Speak out, child, and tell me what you want."
+
+"Only if I can be pleasant to Fanny," said Polly, a wave of colour
+rushing over her face. "I mean if I may go with her? Can I, Grandpapa,
+this very evening, just as if--" she hesitated.
+
+"As if what, Polly?"
+
+"As if we all liked them," finished Polly, feeling as if the words must
+be said.
+
+There was an awful pause in which Polly had all she could do to keep
+from rushing from the room. Then Grandpapa said, "If you can stand it,
+Polly, you may do as you like, but I warn you to keep them away from
+me." And he went back to his paper.
+
+
+
+
+XVIII
+
+BAYREUTH AND OLD FRIENDS
+
+
+Jasper turned around to gaze at the vast audience filing into the
+Wagner Opera House before he took his seat. "This makes me think of
+Oberammergau, Polly," he said.
+
+"To think you've seen the Passion Play," she cried, with glowing
+cheeks.
+
+"That was when I was such a little chap," said Jasper, "ages ago,--nine
+years, Polly Pepper,--just think; so it will be as good as new next
+year. Father is thinking a good deal of taking you there next summer."
+
+"Jasper," cried Polly, her cheeks all in a glow, and regardless of next
+neighbours, "what can I ever do to repay your father for being so very
+good to me and to all of us?"
+
+"Why, you can keep on making him comfortable, just as you are doing
+now, Polly," replied Jasper. "He said yesterday it made him grow
+younger every minute to look at you. And you know he's never sick now,
+and he was always having those bad attacks. Don't you remember when we
+first came to Hingham, Polly?" as they took their seats.
+
+"O dear me, I guess I do, Jasper, and how you saved Phronsie from being
+carried off by the big organ man," and she shivered even now at this
+lapse of years. "And all the splendid times at Badgertown and the
+little brown--"
+
+Just then a long hand came in between the people in the seat back of
+them. "I'm no end glad to see you!" exclaimed a voice. It was Tom
+Selwyn.
+
+"I'm going over into that vacant seat." Tom forgot his fear of Polly
+and his hatred of girls generally, and rushed around the aisle to
+plunge awkwardly into the seat just back of Jasper. "I'll stay here
+till the person comes." His long arms came in contact with several
+obstacles, such as sundry backs and shoulders in his progress, but he
+had no time to consider such small things or to notice the black looks
+he got in consequence.
+
+"Now, isn't this jolly!" he exclaimed. Jasper was guilty of staring at
+him; there seemed such a change in the boy, he could hardly believe it
+was really and truly Tom Selwyn.
+
+"My grandfather is well now, and he would have sent some message to you
+if he knew I was to run across you," went on Tom, looking at Jasper,
+but meaning Polly; "did you get a little trifle he sent you some weeks
+ago? He's been in a funk about it because he didn't hear."
+
+Wasn't Polly glad that her little note was on the way, and perhaps in
+the old gentleman's hands at this very time!
+
+"Yes," she said, "and he was very kind and--" Tom fumbled his tickets
+all the while, and broke in abruptly.
+
+"I didn't know as you'd like it, but it made him sick not to do it, and
+so the thing went. Glad it didn't make you mad," he ended suddenly.
+
+"He meant it all right, I'm sure," said Jasper, seeing that Polly
+couldn't speak.
+
+"Didn't he though!" exclaimed Tom.
+
+"And it didn't come till the day we left Heidelberg," said Polly,
+finding her tongue, and speaking rapidly to explain the delay; "that
+was a week ago."
+
+"Whew!" whistled Tom; "oh, beg pardon!" for several people turned
+around and stared; so he ducked his head, and was mostly lost to view
+for a breathing space. When he thought they had forgotten him, he
+bobbed it up. "Why, Grandfather picked it out--had a bushel of things
+sent up from London to choose from, you know, weeks and weeks ago, as
+soon as he got up to London. That's no end queer."
+
+"No," said Polly, "it didn't come till then. And I wrote to your
+grandfather the next morning and thanked him."
+
+"Now you did!" exclaimed Tom, in huge delight, and slapping his knee
+with one long hand. "That's no end good of you." He couldn't conceal
+how glad he was, and grinned all over his face.
+
+At this moment Mrs. Vanderburgh, who, seeing Fanny so happy again,
+concluded to stay on the strength of resurrected hopes of Polly
+Pepper's friendship, sailed into the opera house, with her daughter.
+And glancing across the aisle, for their seats were at the side, she
+caught sight of the party she was looking for, and there was a face she
+knew, but wasn't looking for.
+
+"Fanny," she cried, clutching her arm, "there is Tom Selwyn! Well, now
+we _are_ in luck!" And Tom saw her, and again he ducked, but for a
+different reason. When he raised his head, he glanced cautiously in the
+direction he dreaded. "There's that horrible person," he whispered in
+Jasper's ear.
+
+"Who?" asked Jasper, in astonishment.
+
+"That woman on the steamer--you knew her--and she was looking straight
+at us. Duck for your life, Jasper King!"
+
+"Oh, that," said Jasper, coolly, following the bob of his head. "Yes,
+Mrs. Vanderburgh, I know; and she is at our hotel."
+
+"The dickens! And you're alive!" Tom raised his head and regarded him
+as a curiosity.
+
+"Very much so," answered Jasper, smothering a laugh; "well, we mustn't
+talk any more."
+
+Polly was sitting straight, her hands folded in her lap, with no
+thought for audience, or anything but what she was to see and hear on
+that wonderful stage. Old Mr. King leaned past Parson Henderson, and
+gazed with the greatest satisfaction at her absorbed face.
+
+"I pity anybody," he said to himself, "who hasn't some little Peppers
+to take about; I only wish I had the boys, too. But fancy Joel
+listening to 'Parsifal'!"
+
+This idea completely overcame him, and he settled back into his seat
+with a grim smile.
+
+Polly never knew that Mamsie, with a happy look in her black eyes, was
+regarding her intently, too, nor that many a glance was given to the
+young girl whose colour came and went in her cheek, nor that Jasper
+sometimes spoke a low word or two. She was lost in the entrancing world
+of mystery and legend borne upward by the grand music, and she scarcely
+moved.
+
+"Well, Polly." Old Mr. King was smiling at her and holding out his
+hand. The curtains had closed for the intermission, and all the people
+were getting out of their chairs. Polly sat still and drew a long
+breath. "Oh, Grandpapa, must we go?"
+
+"Yes, indeed, I hope so," answered Mr. King, with a little laugh. "We
+shall have none too much time for our supper, Polly, as it is."
+
+Polly got out of her seat, very much wishing that supper was not one of
+the needful things of life.
+
+"It almost seems wicked to think of eating, Jasper," she said, as they
+picked up their hats and capes, where he had tucked them under the
+seats.
+
+"It would be more wicked not to eat," said Jasper, with a little laugh,
+"and I think you'll find some supper tastes good, when we get fairly at
+it, Polly."
+
+"I suppose so," said Polly, feeling dreadfully stiff in her feet, and
+beginning to wish she could have a good run.
+
+"And what we should do with you if we didn't stop for supper," observed
+Jasper, snapping the case to the opera-glasses, "I'm sure I don't know,
+Polly. I spoke to you three times, and you didn't hear me once."
+
+"Oh, Jasper!" exclaimed Polly, in horror, pausing as she was pinning on
+her big, flowered hat, with the roses all around the brim; "O dear me,
+there it goes!" as the hat spun over into the next row.
+
+"I'll get it," cried Tom Selwyn, vaulting over the tops of the seats
+before Jasper had a chance to try for it.
+
+Just then Mrs. Vanderburgh, who hadn't heard any more of the opera than
+could fit itself into her lively plans for the campaign she laid out to
+accomplish in siege of Tom Selwyn, pushed and elbowed herself along.
+"Of course the earl isn't here--and the boy is alone, and dreadfully
+taken with Jasper King, so I can manage him. And once getting him, I'll
+soon have the earl to recognise me as a relation." Then, oh! visions of
+the golden dream of bliss when she could visit such titled kin in Old
+England, and report it all when at home in New York, filled her head.
+And with her mind eaten up with it, she pushed rudely by a plain,
+somewhat dowdy-looking woman who obstructed her way.
+
+The woman raised a quiet, yet protesting face; but Mrs. Vanderburgh,
+related to an earl, surveyed her haughtily, and pressed on.
+
+"Excuse me," said the plain-looking woman, "but it is impossible for me
+to move; the people are coming out this way, Madam, and--"
+
+"And I must get by," answered Mrs. Vanderburgh, interrupting, and
+wriggling past as well as she could. But the lace on her flowing sleeve
+catching on the umbrella handle of a stout German coming the other way,
+she tore it half across. A dark flush of anger rushed over her face,
+and she vented all her spite on the plain-looking person in her path.
+"If you had moved, this wouldn't have happened!" she exclaimed.
+
+"It was impossible for me to do so," replied the woman, just as quietly
+as ever. Just then Tom Selwyn rushed up: "Mother!" to the plain-looking
+woman; "well, we _did_ get separated! Oh!" and seeing her
+companion he plunged back.
+
+Fanny Vanderburgh, well in the rear, a party of young German girls
+impeding the way, felt her mother's grasp, and looked around.
+
+"Oh, you've torn your lace sleeve!" she exclaimed, supposing the black
+looks referred to that accident.
+
+"Torn my sleeve!" echoed her mother, irately, "that's a trifle," while
+Fanny stared in surprise, knowing, by past experience, that much lesser
+accidents had made black days for her; "I'm the unluckiest person
+alive. And think of all the money your father has given me to spend,
+and it won't do any good. Fanny, I'm going straight back to Paris, as
+quickly as possible."
+
+"Why, I'm having a good time now," said Fanny, just beginning to enjoy
+herself. "Polly Pepper is real nice to me. I don't want to go home a
+bit." All this as they slowly filed out in the throng.
+
+"Well, you're going; and, oh, those Peppers and those Kings, I'm sick
+to death of their names," muttered her mother, frowning on her.
+
+"Why can't we wait for Polly?" asked Fanny, not catching the last
+words, and pausing to look back.
+
+"Because you can't, that's why. And never say a word about that Polly
+Pepper or any of the rest of that crowd," commanded her mother, trying
+to hurry on.
+
+"Polly Pepper is the sweetest girl--the very dearest," declared Fanny,
+in a passion, over her mother's shoulder, "and you know it, Mamma."
+
+"Well, I won't have you going with her, anyway, nor with any of them,"
+answered her mother, shortly.
+
+"Because you can't," echoed Fanny, in her turn, and with a malicious
+little laugh. "Don't I know? it's the same old story--those you chase
+after, run away from you. You've been chasing, Mamma; you needn't tell
+me."
+
+"Oh, Jasper," Polly was saying, "did you really speak to me?"
+
+"Three times," said Jasper, with a laugh, "but you couldn't answer, for
+you didn't hear me."
+
+"No," said Polly, "I didn't, Jasper."
+
+"And I shouldn't have spoken, for it isn't, of course, allowed. But I
+couldn't help it, Polly, it was so splendid," and his eyes kindled.
+"And you didn't seem to breathe or to move."
+
+"I don't feel as if I had done much of either," said Polly, laughing.
+"Isn't it good to take a long stretch? And oh, don't you wish we could
+run, Jasper?"
+
+He burst into another gay little laugh, as he picked up the rest of the
+things. "I thought so, Polly, and you'll want some supper yet. Well,
+here is Tom coming back again."
+
+"Indeed I shall, and a big one, Jasper," said Polly, laughing, "for I
+am dreadfully hungry."
+
+"Come to supper with us," Jasper said socially over the backs of
+several people, in response to Tom Selwyn's furious telegraphing.
+
+"Can't," said Tom, bobbing his head; "must stay with my mother. Thought
+you never would turn around." Jasper looked his surprise, and
+involuntarily glanced by Tom. "Yes, my mother's here; we've got
+separated, she's gone ahead," said Tom, jerking his head toward the
+nearest exit. "She says we'll go and see you. Where?"
+
+"Hotel Sonne," said Jasper.
+
+Tom disappeared--rushed off to his mother to jerk himself away to a
+convenient waiting-place till the disagreeable woman on the steamer had
+melted into space. Then he flew back, and in incoherent sentences made
+Mrs. Selwyn comprehend who she was, and the whole situation.
+
+The earl's daughter was a true British matron, and preserved a quiet,
+immovable countenance; only a grim smile passed over it now and then.
+At last she remarked coolly, as if commenting on the weather, "I don't
+believe she will trouble you, my son." Never a word about the lace
+episode or the crowding process.
+
+Tom sniffed uneasily. "You haven't crossed on a steamer with her,
+mother."
+
+"Never you mind." Mrs. Selwyn gave him a pat on the back. "Tom, let us
+talk about those nice people," as they filed slowly out with the crowd.
+
+Not a word did Tom lisp about the invitation to supper, but tucked his
+mother's arm loyally within his own. "Sorry I forgot to engage a
+table!" he exclaimed, as they entered the restaurant.
+
+"Why, there is Tom!" exclaimed Jasper, craning his neck as his party
+were about to sit down. "Father, Tom Selwyn is here with his mother,
+and they can't find places, I almost know, and we might have two more
+chairs easily at our table," he hurried it all out.
+
+"What is all this about?" demanded old Mr. King; "whom are you talking
+about, pray tell, Jasper?"
+
+So Jasper ran around to his father's chair and explained. The end of it
+all was, that he soon hurried off, being introduced to Tom's mother, to
+whom he presented his father's compliments, and would she do him the
+favour to join their party? And in ten minutes, every one felt well
+acquainted with the English matron, and entirely forgot that she was an
+earl's daughter. And Tom acquitted himself well, and got on famously
+with old Mr. King.
+
+But he didn't dare talk to Polly, but edged away whenever there was the
+least chance of matters falling out so that he would have to.
+
+And then it came out that the Selwyns thought of going to Munich and
+down to Lucerne.
+
+"And the Bernese Alps," put in Jasper, across the table. "How is that,
+Tom, for an outing? Can't you do it?" For it transpired that Mrs.
+Selwyn had left the other children, two girls and two smaller boys,
+with their grandfather, on the English estate. They all called this
+place home since the father was in a business in Australia that
+required many long visits, and Tom's mother had decided that he should
+have a bit of a vacation with her, so they had packed up and off,
+taking in the Wagner festival first, and here they were. "Yes," after
+she considered a bit, "we can do that. Join the party and then over to
+Lucerne, and perhaps take in the Bernese Alps."
+
+Only supposing that Polly's letter hadn't gone to the little old earl,
+Jasper kept saying over and over to himself. Just for one minute,
+suppose it!
+
+And in the midst of it all, the horn sounded; the intermission was
+over, chairs were pushed back hastily, and all flocked off. No one must
+be late, and there must be no noisy or bustling entrances into the
+opera house.
+
+And if Polly Pepper sat entranced through the rest of the matchless
+performance, Tom Selwyn--three seats back and off to the left--was just
+as quietly happy. But he wasn't thinking so much of "Parsifal" as might
+have been possible. "It's no end fine of the little mother to say
+'yes,'" he kept running over and over to himself, with a satisfied
+glance at the quiet face under the plain, English bonnet.
+
+"It's funny we don't see Fanny Vanderburgh anywhere," said Polly, as
+they went through the corridor and up the hotel stairs that night.
+
+"She and her mother probably came home earlier," said Mrs. Fisher; "you
+know we were delayed, waiting for our carriages. You will see her in
+the morning, Polly."
+
+But in the morning, it was ten o'clock before Mr. King's party gathered
+for breakfast, for Grandpapa always counselled sleeping late when out
+the night before. And when Polly did slip into her chair, there was a
+little note lying on her plate.
+
+"Fanny Vanderburgh has gone," she said, and turned quite pale.
+
+It was too true. Mrs. Vanderburgh had sold her two tickets to the
+"Flying Dutchman," to be presented that evening, and departed from
+Bayreuth.
+
+"It's no use, Polly," Fanny's note ran, "trying to make me have a good
+time. Mamma says we are to go back to Paris; and go we must. You've
+been lovely, and I thank you ever so much, and good-by."
+
+Mother Fisher found Polly, a half-hour later, curled up in a corner of
+the old sofa in her room, her face pressed into the cushion.
+
+"Why, Polly," exclaimed her mother, seeing the shaking shoulders, and,
+bending over her, she smoothed the brown hair gently, "this isn't
+right, child--"
+
+Polly sprang up suddenly and threw her arms around her mother's neck.
+Her face was wet with tears, and she sobbed out, "Oh, if I'd done more
+for her, Mamsie, or been pleasant to Mrs. Vanderburgh, she might have
+stayed."
+
+"You haven't any call to worry, Polly, child," said Mother Fisher,
+firmly. "You did all that could be done--and remember one thing, it's
+very wrong to trouble others as you certainly will if you give way to
+your feelings in this manner."
+
+"Mamsie," exclaimed Polly, suddenly wiping away the trail of tears from
+her cheek, "I won't cry a single bit more. You can trust me, Mamsie, I
+truly won't."
+
+"Trust you," said Mother Fisher, with a proud look in her black eyes,
+"I can trust you ever and always, Polly; and now run to Mr. King and
+let him see a bright face, for he's worrying about you, Polly."
+
+
+
+
+XIX
+
+MR. KING HAS A LITTLE PLAN FOR POLLY
+
+
+"Oh Jasper," exclaimed Polly, clasping her hands, "do you suppose we'll
+ever get to a piano where it's all alone, and nobody wants to play on
+it--"
+
+"But just you and I," finished Jasper. "I declare I don't know. You see
+we don't stay still long enough in any one place to hire a decent one;
+and besides, father said, when we started, that it was better for us to
+rest and travel about without any practising this summer. You know he
+did, Polly."
+
+"I know it," said Polly; "but oh, if we could just play once in a
+while," she added mournfully.
+
+"Well, we can't," said Jasper, savagely; "you know we tried that at
+Brussels, when we thought everybody had gone off. And those half a
+dozen idiots came and stared at us through the glass door."
+
+"And then they came in," added Polly, with a little shiver at the
+recollection. "But that big fat man with the black beard was the worst,
+Jasper." She glanced around as if she expected to see him coming down
+the long parlour.
+
+"Well, he didn't hear much; there didn't any of them," said Jasper;
+"that's some small satisfaction, because you hopped off the piano stool
+and ran away."
+
+"You ran just as fast, I'm sure, Jasper," said Polly, with a little
+laugh.
+
+"Well, perhaps I did," confessed Jasper, bursting into a laugh. "Who
+wouldn't run with a lot of staring idiots flying at one?" he brought up
+in disgust.
+
+"And we forgot the music," went on Polly, deep in the reminiscence,
+"and we wouldn't go back--don't you remember?--until the big fat man
+with the dreadful black beard had gone, for he'd picked it up and been
+looking at it."
+
+"Yes, I remember all about it," said Jasper; "dear me, what a time we
+had! It's enough to make one wish that the summer was all over, and
+that we were fairly settled in Dresden," he added gloomily, as he saw
+her face.
+
+"Oh, no," exclaimed Polly, quickly, and quite shocked to see the
+mischief that she had done.
+
+"We wouldn't have the beautiful summer go a bit faster, Jasper. Why,
+that would be too dreadful to think of."
+
+"But you want to get at your music, Polly."
+
+"I'll fly at it when the time comes," cried Polly, with a wise little
+nod, "never you fear, Jasper. Now come on; let's get Phronsie and go
+out and see the shops."
+
+Old Mr. King in a nook behind the curtain, dropped the newspaper in his
+lap and thought a bit. "Best to wait till we get to Lucerne," he said
+to himself, nodding his white head; "then, says I, Polly, my child, you
+shall have your piano."
+
+And when their party were settling down in the hotel at Lucerne, ending
+the beautiful days of travel after leaving Munich, Jasper's father
+called him abruptly. "See here, my boy."
+
+"What is it, father?" asked Jasper, wonderingly; "the luggage is all
+right; it's gone up to the rooms--all except the portmanteau, and
+Francis will go down to the station and straighten that out."
+
+"I'm not in the least troubled in regard to the luggage, Jasper,"
+replied his father, testily; "it's something much more important than
+the luggage question about which I wish to speak to you."
+
+Jasper stared, well knowing his father's views in regard to the luggage
+question. "The first thing that you must unpack--the very first," old
+Mr. King was saying, "is your music. Don't wait a minute, Jasper, but
+go and get it. And then call Polly, and--"
+
+"Why, father," exclaimed Jasper, "there isn't a single place to play
+in. You don't know how people stare if we touch the piano. We can't
+here, father; there's such a crowd in this hotel."
+
+"You do just as I say, Jasper," commanded his father. "And tell Polly
+to get her music; and then do you two go to the little room out of the
+big parlour, and play to your hearts' content." And he burst into a
+hearty laugh at Jasper's face, as he dangled a key at the end of a
+string, before him.
+
+"Now I do believe, father, that you've got Polly a piano and a little
+room to play in," cried Jasper, joyfully, and pouncing on the key.
+
+"You go along and do as I tell you," said Mr. King, mightily pleased at
+the success of his little plan. "And don't you tell Polly Pepper one
+word until she has taken her music down in the little room," as Jasper
+bounded off on the wings of the wind.
+
+And in that very hotel was the big fat man with the dreadful black
+beard, resting after a long season of hard work.
+
+But Polly and Jasper wouldn't have cared had they known it, as long as
+they had their own delightful little music room to themselves--as they
+played over and over all the dear old pieces, and Polly revelled in
+everything that she was so afraid she had forgotten.
+
+"I really haven't lost it, Jasper!" she would exclaim radiantly, after
+finishing a concerto, and dropping her hands idly on the keys. "And I
+was _so_ afraid I'd forgotten it entirely. Just think, I haven't
+played that for three months, Jasper King."
+
+"Well, you haven't forgotten a bit of it," declared Jasper, just as
+glad as she was. "You didn't make any mistakes, hardly, Polly."
+
+"Oh, yes, I made some," said Polly, honestly, whirling around on the
+piano stool to look at him.
+
+"Oh, well, only little bits of ones," said Jasper; "those don't
+signify. I wish father could have heard that concerto. What a pity he
+went out just before you began it."
+
+But somebody else, on the other side of the partition between the
+little music room and the big parlour, had heard, and he pulled his
+black beard thoughtfully with his long fingers, then pricked up his
+ears to hear more. And it was funny how, almost every day, whenever the
+first notes on the piano struck up in Mr. King's little music room, the
+big fat man, who was so tired with his season of hard work, never
+seemed to think that he could rest as well as in that particular corner
+up against that partition. And no matter what book or paper he had in
+his hand, he always dropped it and fell to pulling his black beard with
+his long fingers, before the music was finished.
+
+And then, "Oh, Polly, come child, you have played long enough," from
+Mother Fisher on the other side of the partition; or old Mr. King would
+say, "No more practising to-day, Miss Polly;" or Phronsie would pipe
+out, "Polly, Grandpapa is going to take us out on the lake; do come,
+Polly." And then it was funnier yet to see how suddenly the big fat man
+with the dreadful black beard seemed to find that particular corner by
+that partition a very tiresome place. And as the piano clicked down its
+cover, he would yawn, and get up and say something in very rapid German
+to himself, and off he would go, forgetting all about his book or
+newspaper, which, very likely, would tumble to the floor, and flap away
+by itself till somebody came and picked it up and set it on the sofa.
+
+One morning old Mr. King, hurrying along with his batch of English mail
+to enjoy opening it in the little music room where Jasper and Polly
+were playing a duet, ran up suddenly against a fat heavy body coming
+around an opposite angle.
+
+"Oh, I beg your pardon, sir," exclaimed Mr. King in great distress, the
+more so as he saw that the stranger's glasses were knocked off his nose
+by the collision. "I do trust they are not broken," he added, in a
+concerned tone, endeavouring to pick them up.
+
+But the big man was before him. "Not a beet, not a beet," he declared,
+adjusting them on his nose again. Then he suddenly grasped old Mr.
+King's hand. "And I be very glad, sir, _very_ glad indeed, dat I
+haf roon into you."
+
+"Indeed!" exclaimed Mr. King, releasing his hand instantly, and all the
+concern dropping out of his face.
+
+"_Very_ glad indeed!" repeated the big man, heartily; then he
+pulled his black beard, and stood quite still a moment.
+
+"If you have nothing more to remark, sir," said Mr. King, haughtily,
+"perhaps you will be kind enough to stand out of my way, and allow me
+to pass. And it would be as well for you to observe more care in the
+future, sir, both in regard to your feet, and your tongue, sir."
+
+"Yes, I am _very_ glad," began the big man again, who hadn't even
+heard Mr. King's tirade, "for now--" and he gave his black beard a
+final twitch, and his eyes suddenly lightened with a smile that ran all
+over his face, "I can speak to you of dis ting dat is in my mind.
+Your--"
+
+"I want to hear nothing of what is on your mind," declared old Mr.
+King, now thoroughly angry. "Stand aside, fellow, and let me pass," he
+commanded, in a towering passion.
+
+The big man stared in astonishment into the angry face, the smile
+dropping out of his own. "I beg to _ex_cuse myself," he said, with
+a deep bow, and a wave of his long fingers. "Will you pass?" and he
+moved up as tightly as possible to the wall.
+
+Old Mr. King went into the little music room in a furious rage, and
+half an hour afterward Polly and Jasper, pausing to look around, saw
+him tossing and tumbling his letters and newspapers about on the table,
+fuming to himself all the while.
+
+"Father has had bad news!" exclaimed Jasper, turning pale; "something
+about his agents, probably."
+
+"O dear me! and here we have been playing," cried Polly in remorse,
+every vestige of colour flying from her cheek.
+
+"Well, we didn't know," said Jasper, quickly. "But what can we do now,
+Polly?" he turned to her appealingly.
+
+"I don't know," she was just going to say helplessly, but Jasper's face
+made her see that something must be done. "Let's go and tell him we are
+sorry," she said; "that's what Mamsie always liked best if she felt
+badly."
+
+So the two crept up behind old Mr. King's chair: "Father, I'm _so_
+sorry," and "Dear Grandpapa, I'm _so_ sorry," and Polly put both
+arms around his neck suddenly.
+
+"Eh--what?" cried Mr. King, sitting bolt upright in astonishment. "Oh,
+bless me, children, I thought you were playing on the piano."
+
+"We were," said Polly, hurrying around to the side of the table, her
+face quite rosy now, "but we didn't know--" and she stopped short,
+unable to find another word.
+
+"--that you felt badly," finished Jasper. "Oh, father, we didn't know
+that you'd got bad news." He laid his hand as he spoke on the pile of
+tumbled-up letters.
+
+"Bad news!" ejaculated old Mr. King, in perplexity, and looking from
+one to the other.
+
+"No, we didn't," repeated Polly, clasping her hands. "Dear Grandpapa,
+we truly didn't, or we wouldn't have kept on playing all this time."
+
+Mr. King put back his head and laughed long and loud, as he hadn't done
+for many a day, his ill humour dropping off in the midst of it. "The
+letters are all right," he said, wiping his eyes, "never had better
+news. It was an impertinent fellow I met out there, that's all."
+
+"Father, who has dared--" began Jasper, with flashing eyes.
+
+"Don't you worry, my boy; it's all right, the fellow got his quietus;
+besides, he wasn't worth minding," said Mr. King, carelessly. "Why,
+here is your mother," turning to Polly. "Now then, Mrs. Fisher, what is
+it; for I see by your eye some plan is on the carpet."
+
+"Yes, there is," said Mrs. Fisher, coming in with a smile, "the doctor
+is going to take a day off."
+
+"Is that really so?" cried Mr. King, with a little laugh. "What! not
+even going to visit one of his beloved hospitals?" while Polly
+exclaimed, radiantly, "Oh, how perfectly elegant! Now we'll have
+Papa-Doctor for a whole long day!"
+
+Phronsie, who had been close to her mother's gown during the delivery
+of this important news, clasped her hands in a quiet rapture, while
+Polly exclaimed, "Now, Grandpapa, can it be the Rigi?" Jasper echoing
+the cry heartily.
+
+"I suppose it is to be the Rigi," assented old Mr. King, leaning back
+in his chair to survey them all, "that is, if Mrs. Fisher approves.
+We'll let you pick out the jaunting place," turning to her, "seeing
+that it is the doctor's holiday."
+
+"I know that Dr. Fisher wants very much to go up the Rigi," said his
+wife, in great satisfaction at the turn the plans were taking.
+
+"And we'll stay over night, father," cried Jasper, "won't we?"
+
+"Stay over night?" repeated his father, "I should say so. Why, what
+would be the good of our going up at all, pray tell, if we didn't
+devote that much time to it and have a try for a sunrise?"
+
+"We're to go up the Rigi!" exclaimed Polly, giving a little whirl, and
+beginning to dance around the room, repeating, "We're to go up the
+Rigi," exactly as if nobody knew it, and she was telling perfectly
+fresh news.
+
+"Here--that dance looks awfully good--wait for me," cried Jasper. And
+seizing her hands, they spun round and round, Phronsie scuttling after
+them, crying, "Take me, too. I want to dance, Polly."
+
+"So you shall," cried Polly and Jasper together; so they made a little
+ring of three, and away they went, Polly this time crying, "Just think,
+we're going to have the most beautiful sunrise in all this world."
+
+And on the other side of the partition, in his accustomed nook in the
+big parlour, the big fat man with the black beard sat. He pulled this
+same black beard thoughtfully a bit, when Mr. King was telling about
+the impertinent fellow. Then he smiled and jabbered away to himself
+very hard in German; and it wasn't till the King party hurried off to
+get ready for the Rigi trip, that he got up and sauntered off.
+
+And almost the first person that old Mr. King saw on getting his party
+into a car on the funicular railway, was the "impertinent fellow," also
+bound for the top of the Rigi.
+
+"Oh, Grandpapa!" Polly got out of her seat and hurried to him with
+cheeks aflame, when midway up.
+
+"I know--isn't it wonderful!" cried Grandpapa, happy in her pleasure,
+and finding it all just as marvellous as if he hadn't made the ascent
+several times.
+
+"Yes, yes!" cried Polly. "It is all perfectly splendid, Grandpapa; but
+oh, I mean, _did_ you hear what that lady said?" and she dropped
+her voice, and put her mouth close to Grandpapa's ear.
+
+"I'm sure I didn't," said old Mr. King, carelessly, "and I'm free to
+confess I'm honestly glad of it. For if there is one thing I detest
+more than another, Polly, my girl, it is to hear people, especially
+women, rave and gush over the scenery."
+
+"Oh, she didn't rave and gush," cried Polly, in a whisper, afraid that
+the lady heard. "She said, Grandpapa, that Herr Bauricke is at Lucerne;
+just think, Grandpapa, the great Herr Bauricke!"
+
+She took her mouth away from the old gentleman's ear in order to look
+in his face.
+
+"Polly, Polly," called Jasper from his seat on the farther end, "you
+are losing all this," as the train rounded a curve. "Do come back."
+
+"Now, I'm glad of that," exclaimed Grandpapa, in a tone of the greatest
+satisfaction, "for I can ask him about the music masters in Dresden and
+get his advice, and be all prepared before we go there for the winter
+to secure the very best."
+
+"And I can see him, and perhaps hear him play," breathed Polly, in an
+awestruck tone, quite lost to scenery and everything else. Jasper
+leaned forward and stared at her in amazement. Then he slipped out of
+his seat, and made his way up to them to find out what it was all
+about.
+
+"How did she know?" he asked, as Polly told all she knew; "I'm just
+going to ask her." But the lady, who had caught snatches of the
+conversation, though she hadn't heard Mr. King's part of it, very
+obligingly leaned forward in her seat and told all she knew.
+
+And by the time this was done, they all knew that the information was
+in the American paper printed in Paris, and circulated all over the
+Continent, and that the lady had read it that very morning just before
+setting out.
+
+"The only time I missed reading that paper," observed old Mr. King,
+regretfully.
+
+"And he is staying at our very hotel," finished the lady, "for I have
+seen you, sir, with your party there."
+
+"Another stroke of good luck," thought old Mr. King, "and quite easy to
+obtain the information I want as to a master for Polly and Jasper."
+
+"Now then, children," he said to the two hanging on the conversation,
+"run back to your seats and enjoy the view. This news of ours will
+keep."
+
+So Polly and Jasper ran back obediently, but every step of the toilsome
+ascent by which the car pushed its way to the wonderful heights above,
+Polly saw everything with the words, "Herr Bauricke is at _our_
+hotel," ringing through her ears; and she sat as in a maze. Jasper was
+nearly as bad.
+
+And then everybody was pouring out of the cars and rushing for the
+hotel on the summit; all but Mr. King's party and a few others, who had
+their rooms engaged by telegraphing up. When they reached the big
+central hall there was a knot of Germans all talking together, and on
+the outside fringe of this knot, people were standing around and
+staring at the central figure. Suddenly some one darted away from this
+outer circle and dashed up to them. It was the lady from their hotel.
+
+"I knew you'd want to know," she exclaimed breathlessly; "that's Herr
+Bauricke himself--he came up on our train--just think of it!--the big
+man in the middle with the black beard." She pointed an excited finger
+at the knot of Germans.
+
+Old Mr. King followed the course of the finger, and saw his
+"impertinent fellow who wasn't worth minding."
+
+
+
+
+XX
+
+"I SHOULD MAKE HIM HAPPY," SAID PHRONSIE
+
+
+Polly got Jasper away into a side corridor by a beseeching little pull
+on his sleeve. "Oh, just to think," she mourned, "I called that great
+man such unpleasant things--that he was big and fat, and--oh, oh!"
+
+"Well, he _is_ big and fat," declared Jasper. "We can't say he
+isn't, Polly."
+
+"But I meant it all against him," said Polly, shaking her head. "You
+know I did, Jasper," she added remorsefully.
+
+"Yes, we neither of us liked him," said Jasper, "and that's the honest
+truth, Polly."
+
+"And to think it was that _great_ Herr Bauricke!" exclaimed Polly.
+Then her feelings overcame her, and she sank down on the cushioned seat
+in the angle.
+
+Jasper sat down beside her. "I suppose it won't do to say anything
+about people after this until we know them. Will it, Polly?"
+
+"Jasper," declared Polly, clasping her hands, while the rosy colour
+flew over her cheek, "I'm never going to say a single--"
+
+Just then the big form of Herr Bauricke loomed up before them, as he
+turned into the corridor.
+
+Polly shrank up in her corner as small as she could, wishing she was as
+little as Phronsie, and could hop up and run away.
+
+Herr Bauricke turned his sharp eyes on them for a moment, hesitated,
+then came directly up, and stopped in front of them. "I meant--I
+_in_tended to speak to your grandfader first. Dat not seem best
+_now_." The great man was really talking to them, and Polly held
+her breath, not daring to look into his face, but keeping her gaze on
+his wonderful fingers. "My child," those wonderful fingers seized her
+own, and clasped them tightly, "you have great promise, mind you, you
+know only a leedle now, and you must work--_work--work_." He
+brought it out so sharply, that the last word was fairly shrill. "But I
+tink you will," he added kindly, dropping his tone. Then he laid her
+fingers gently in her lap.
+
+"Oh, she does, sir," exclaimed Jasper, finding his tongue first, for
+Polly was beyond speaking. "Polly works all the time she can."
+
+"Dat is right." Herr Bauricke bobbed his head in approval, so that his
+spectacles almost fell off. "I hear dat, in de music she play. No
+leedle girl play like dat, who doesn't work. I will hear you sometime
+at de hotel," he added abruptly, "and tell you some tings dat will help
+you. To-morrow, maybe, when we go down from dis place, eh?"
+
+"Oh, sir," exclaimed Polly, springing off from her cushion before
+Jasper could stop her. "You are _so_ good--but--but--I cannot,"
+then her breath gave out, and she stood quite still.
+
+"Eh?" exclaimed Herr Bauricke, and pushing up his spectacles to stare
+into her flushed and troubled face. "Perhaps I not make my meaning
+clear; I mean I _geef_ you of my time and my best _ad_vice.
+Now you understand--eh?" He included Jasper in his puzzled glance.
+
+"Yes, sir," Jasper made haste to say. "We do understand; and it is so
+very good of you, and Polly will accept it, sir." "For father will make
+it all right with him as to the payment," he reflected easily.
+
+"Ah, now," exclaimed Herr Bauricke, joyfully, a light beaming all over
+his fat face, "dat is someting like--to-morrow, den, we--"
+
+"But, oh, sir," Polly interrupted, "I cannot," and she twisted her
+hands in distress. "I--I--didn't like you, and I said so." Then she
+turned very pale, and her head drooped.
+
+Jasper leaned over, and took her hand. "Neither did I, sir," he said.
+"I was just as bad as Polly."
+
+"You not tink me nice looking--so?" said Herr Bauricke. "Well, I not
+tink so myself, eeder. And I scare you maybe, wid dis," and he twisted
+his black beard with his long fingers. "Ah, so; well, we will forget
+all dis, leedle girl," and he bent down and took Polly's other fingers
+that hung by her side. "And eef you not let me come to-morrow to your
+leedle music room, and tell you sometings to help you learn better, I
+shall know dat you no like me _now_--eh?"
+
+"Oh, sir," Polly lifted her face, flooded with rosy colour up to her
+brown hair, "if you only will forgive me?"
+
+"I no forgeef; I not remember at all," said Herr Bauricke, waving his
+long fingers in the air. "And I go to-morrow to help you, leedle girl,"
+and he strode down the corridor.
+
+Polly and Jasper rushed off, they scarcely knew how, to Grandpapa, to
+tell him the wonderful news,--to find him in a truly dreadful state of
+mind. When they had told their story, he was as much worse as could
+well be imagined.
+
+"Impossible, impossible!" was all he could say, but he brought his hand
+down on the table before him with so much force that Jasper felt a
+strange sinking of heart. What could be the matter?
+
+"Why, children, and you all" (for his whole party was before him),
+exclaimed Mr. King, "Herr Bauricke is that impertinent person who
+annoyed me this morning, and I called him 'fellow' to his face!"
+
+It was so very much worse than Jasper had dreamed, that he collapsed
+into the first chair, all Polly's prospects melting off like dew before
+the sun.
+
+"Hum!" Little Dr. Fisher was the first to speak. He took off his big
+spectacles and wiped them; then put them on his nose and adjusted them
+carefully, and glared around the group, his gaze resting on old Mr.
+King's face.
+
+Polly, who had never seen Jasper give way like this, forgot her own
+distress, and rushed up to him. "Oh, don't, Jasper," she begged.
+
+"You see I can't allow Herr Bauricke to give any lessons or advice to
+Polly after this," went on Mr. King, hastily. "Of course he would be
+paid; but, under the circumstances, it wouldn't do, not in the least.
+It is quite out of the question," he went on, as if some one had been
+contradicting him. But no one said a word.
+
+"Why don't some of you speak?" he asked, breaking the pause. "Dr.
+Fisher, you don't generally keep us waiting for your opinion. Speak out
+now, man, and let us have it."
+
+"It is an awkward affair, surely," began the little doctor, slowly.
+
+"Awkward? I should say so," frowned Mr. King; "it's awkward to the last
+degree. Here's a man who bumps into me in a hotel passage,--though, for
+that matter, I suppose it's really my fault as much as his,--and I
+offer to pick up his spectacles that were dropped in the encounter. And
+he tells me that he is glad that we ran up against each other, for it
+gives him a chance to tell me what is on his mind. As if I cared what
+was on his mind, or on the mind of any one else, for that matter," he
+declared, in extreme irritation. "And I told him to his face that he
+was an impertinent fellow, and to get out of my way. Yes, I did!"
+
+A light began to break on little Dr. Fisher's face, that presently
+shone through his big spectacles, fairly beaming on them all. Then he
+burst into a laugh, hearty and long.
+
+"Why, Adoniram!" exclaimed Mother Fisher, in surprise. Polly turned a
+distressed face at him; and to say that old Mr. King stared would be
+stating the case very mildly indeed.
+
+"Can't you see, oh, can't you see," exploded the little doctor, mopping
+up his face with his big handkerchief, "that your big German was trying
+to tell you of Polly's playing, and to say something, probably pretty
+much the same that he has said to her and to Jasper? O dear me, I
+should like to have been there to see you both," ended Dr. Fisher,
+faintly. Then he went off into another laugh.
+
+"I don't see much cause for amusement," said old Mr. King, grimly, when
+this idea broke into his mind, "for it's a certain fact that I called
+him a fellow, and told him to get out of the way."
+
+"Well, he doesn't bear you any malice, apparently," said the little
+doctor, who, having been requested to speak, saw no reason for
+withholding any opinion he might chance to have, "for, if he did, he
+wouldn't have made that handsome offer to Polly."
+
+"That may be; the offer is handsome enough," answered Mr. King, "that
+is the trouble, it's too handsome. I cannot possibly accept it under
+the awkward circumstances. No, children," he turned to Polly and
+Jasper, as if they had been beseeching him all the while, "you needn't
+ask it, or expect it," and he got out of his chair, and stalked from
+the room.
+
+Jasper buried his face in his hands, and a deep gloom settled over the
+whole party, on all but little Dr. Fisher. He pranced over to Polly and
+Jasper just as merrily as if nothing dreadful had happened. "Don't you
+be afraid, my boy," he said; "your father is a dreadfully sensible man,
+and there's no manner of doubt but that he will fix this thing up."
+
+"Oh, you don't know father," groaned Jasper, his head in his hands,
+"when he thinks the right thing hasn't been done or said. And now Polly
+will miss it all!" And his head sank lower yet.
+
+"Nonsense!" exclaimed Dr. Fisher. Yet he had a dreadful feeling coming
+over him, and he turned to Polly imploringly.
+
+"Oh, I do believe it, Jasper," cried Polly, "what Papa-Doctor says. And
+just look at Mamsie!" she cried, beneath her breath.
+
+And truly Mother Fisher was having a hard time to control herself. That
+Jasper could see as he lifted his head. And the little doctor also saw,
+and skipped back across the room to her side. And Phronsie, feeling
+plunged into the deepest woe by all this dreadful state of affairs,
+that had come too bewilderingly for her to rally to Grandpapa's side,
+first began to cry. And then, thinking better of it, went softly out of
+the door, and no one noticed her when she went--with the tears running
+down her cheeks.
+
+Down the long corridor she hurried, not knowing which way Grandpapa
+went, but turning into the little reading room, she spied him sitting
+by the table. The apartment was otherwise empty. He wasn't reading, not
+even looking at a paper, but sitting bolt upright, and lost in thought.
+
+"Grandpapa," she said, laying a soft little hand on his arm. "Oh, I'm
+so glad I found you." And she nestled up to his side.
+
+"Eh? Oh, Phronsie, child." Old Mr. King put his arm around her, and
+drew her closely to him. "So you came after your old Grand-daddy, did
+you?"
+
+"Yes, I did," said Phronsie, with a glad little cry, snuggling up
+tighter to him, while the tears trailed off down his waistcoat, but not
+before he had seen them.
+
+"Now, Phronsie, you are not to cry any more," he said, with a pang at
+the sight. "You won't, dear; promise me that."
+
+So Phronsie promised; and he held her hands, and, clearing his throat,
+he began, "Well, now I suppose they felt pretty badly, back there in
+the room, your mother and all--eh, Phronsie?"
+
+"Yes, Grandpapa," said Phronsie, her round face falling. Yet she had
+promised not to cry, and, although she had a hard time of it, every
+tear was kept back valiantly.
+
+"And Polly, now--" asked old Mr. King, cautiously, "and Jasper--how
+were they feeling?"
+
+"Grandpapa," Phronsie did not trust herself to reply, but, springing
+up, she laid her rosy little mouth close to his ear. "What does it
+all--the dreadful thing mean?" she whispered.
+
+"It means," old Mr. King whispered back, but very distinctly, "that
+your old Granddaddy is an idiot, Phronsie, and that he has been rude,
+and let his temper run away with him."
+
+"Oh, no, Grandpapa dear," contradicted Phronsie, falling back from him
+in horror. "You couldn't ever be that what you say." And she flung both
+arms around his neck and hugged him tightly.
+
+"What? An idiot? Yes, I have been an idiot of the worst kind," declared
+Mr. King, "and all the rest just as I say; rude and--why, what is the
+matter, Phronsie?" for the little arms clutched him so tightly he could
+hardly breathe.
+
+"Oh, Grandpapa," she wailed, and drawing away a bit to look at him, he
+saw her face convulsed with the effort not to cry. "Don't say such
+things. You are never naughty, Grandpapa dear; you can't be," she
+gasped.
+
+"There, there, there," ejaculated old Mr. King, frightened at the
+effect of his words and patting her yellow hair, at his wits' end what
+to say. So he broke out, "Well, now, Phronsie, you must tell me what to
+do."
+
+Thereupon Phronsie, seeing there was something she could really do to
+help Grandpapa, came out of her distress enough to sit up quite
+straight and attentive in his lap. "You see I spoke rudely to a man,
+and I called him a fellow, and he was a gentleman, Phronsie; you must
+remember that."
+
+"Yes, I will, Grandpapa," she replied obediently, while her eyes never
+wandered from his face.
+
+"And I told him to get out of the way and he did," said Mr. King,
+forcing himself to a repetition of the unpleasant truth. "O dear me,
+nothing could be worse," he groaned.
+
+"And you are sorry, Grandpapa dear?" Phronsie leaned over and laid her
+cheek softly against his.
+
+"Yes, I am, Phronsie, awfully sorry," confessed the old gentleman; "but
+what good will that do now? My temper has made a terrible mess of it
+all."
+
+"But you can tell the gentleman you are sorry," said Phronsie. "Oh,
+Grandpapa dear, do go and tell him now, this very minute." She broke
+away from him again, and sat straight on his knee, while a glad little
+smile ran all over her face.
+
+"I can't--you don't understand--O dear me!" Mr. King set her abruptly
+on the floor, and took a few turns up and down the room. Phronsie's
+eyes followed him with a grieved expression. When she saw the distress
+on his face, she ran up to him and seized his hand, but didn't speak.
+
+"You see, child,"--he grasped her fingers and held them closely,--"it's
+just this way: the gentleman wants to do me a favour; that is, to help
+Polly with her music."
+
+"Does he?" cried Phronsie, and she laughed in delight. "Oh, Grandpapa,
+how nice! And Polly will be so happy."
+
+"But I cannot possibly accept it," groaned old Mr. King; "don't you
+see, child, after treating him so? Why, how could I? The idea is too
+monstrous!" He set off now at such a brisk pace down the room that
+Phronsie had hard work to keep up with him. But he clung to her hand.
+
+"Won't that make the gentleman sorry?" panted Phronsie, trotting along
+by his side.
+
+"Eh--oh, what?" exclaimed old Mr. King, coming to a dead stop suddenly.
+"What's that you say, Phronsie?"
+
+"Won't the gentleman feel sorry?" repeated Phronsie, pushing back the
+waves of yellow hair that had fallen over her face, to look up at him.
+"And won't he feel badly then, Grandpapa?"
+
+"Eh--oh, perhaps," assented Mr. King, slowly, and passing a troubled
+hand across his brow. "Well, now, Phronsie, you come and sit in my lap
+again, and we'll talk it over, and you tell me what I ought to do."
+
+So the two got into the big chair again, and Phronsie folded her hands
+in her lap.
+
+"Now begin," said old Mr. King.
+
+"I should make the gentleman happy, Grandpapa," said Phronsie,
+decidedly.
+
+"You would--no matter what you had to do to bring it about?" asked
+Grandpapa, with a keen pair of eyes on her face. "Eh? think now,
+Phronsie."
+
+"I should make the gentleman happy," repeated Phronsie, and she bobbed
+her head decidedly. "I really should, Grandpapa."
+
+"Then the best way is to have it over with as soon as possible," said
+old Mr. King; "so come on, child, and you can see that the business is
+done up in good shape." He gathered her little fingers up in his hand,
+and setting her once more on the floor, they passed out of the
+apartment.
+
+The door of the private parlour belonging to Mr. King's rooms was flung
+wide open, and into the gloomy interior, for Mother Fisher and Jasper
+were still inconsolable, marched old Mr. King. He was arm in arm, so
+far as the two could at once compass the doorway, with Herr Bauricke;
+while Phronsie ducked and scuttled in as she could, for the big German,
+with ever so many honorary degrees to his name, held her hand fast.
+
+Old Mr. King continued his march up to Mother Fisher. "Allow me to
+introduce Herr Bauricke, Professor and Doctor of Music, of world-wide
+distinction," he said, bowing his courtly old head.
+
+And then Mother Fisher, self-controlled as she had always been,
+astonished him by turning to her husband to supply the answering word.
+
+"Glad to see you!" exclaimed the little doctor, bubbling over with
+happiness, and wringing the long fingers extended. "My wife is overcome
+with delight," which the big German understood very well; and he smiled
+his knowledge of it, as he looked into her black eyes. "She is like to
+mein Frau," he thought, having no higher praise. And then he turned
+quickly to Polly and Jasper.
+
+
+
+
+XXI
+
+ON THE RIGI-KULM
+
+
+For all that grand old Rigi's summit claimed them, it was some time
+before Mr. King's party left the little parlour. Herr Bauricke surely
+didn't want to until he had gotten it settled just what he did mean
+about Polly's music. That she showed great promise, that some faults in
+the way she had been taught were there, but it was by no means too late
+to mend them, that she had spirit and expression and love for the art.
+
+"Ah, dat is eet, after all." Herr Bauricke clasped his long fingers and
+beamed at her, and then swept the entire party. "Lofe, ah, how one must
+lofe eet! Eef not, shame, shame!" His countenance darkened frightfully,
+and he fairly glared at them, as he unclasped his hands and swung one
+over his head, while his black beard vibrated with each word.
+
+"Goodness me!" exclaimed Tom Selwyn, "it takes a musical man to sling
+around. I say, Jasper, I'd like to do a bit of boxing or cricketing
+with him." But Jasper didn't hear or see anything but Herr Bauricke and
+Polly; and, indeed, the whole room was given up to the "musical man"
+and his words.
+
+At last Polly drew a long breath; Grandpapa was taking her hand. "Let
+us all go out and explore a bit," and off they went, the entire party.
+And the "musical man," as Tom still continued to call him in private,
+proved to be as expert in the use of his feet as his fingers, for he
+led them here, there, and everywhere that promised the least chance of
+a good view.
+
+But Polly saw only the glorious future when, on the morrow, Herr
+Bauricke would really show her on the piano how best to study and to
+work! And the rosy glow of sunset wasn't one-half as bright as all her
+dreams.
+
+"Polly," said Phronsie, pulling her hand gently, as she peered up into
+her face, "are you looking at it?"
+
+"What, Pet? Oh, yes," said Polly, starting out of her revery with a
+little laugh, "you mean the sunset?"
+
+"Yes," said Phronsie, "I do mean that. Are you looking at it, Polly?
+Because if you are not looking, I wish you would, Polly."
+
+"Well, I suppose I am looking at it, Phronsie," said Polly, with
+another little laugh, "but perhaps not in just the right way, for you
+see, Phronsie, I can't seem to see anything but just the splendid thing
+that is coming to-morrow. Oh, Phronsie Pepper, just think of that."
+
+"I know," said Phronsie, with a little gurgle of delight at Polly's
+happiness, "and I am so glad, Polly."
+
+"Of course you are," declared Polly, warmly, "just as glad as can be,
+Phronsie," and she threw her arm around her. "And now I'm going to look
+at the sunset in the right way, I hope. Isn't it beautiful, child?"
+
+"Polly," declared Phronsie, suddenly wriggling away from Polly's arm,
+to stand in front of her with a beaming face, "I think it's just as
+beautiful as it can be up top here. I can see right in between that red
+cloud and that little pink teenty one. And I wish I could just go in,
+Polly."
+
+"Wouldn't it be nice?" echoed Polly, enthusiastically.
+
+"What?" asked Adela, hurrying up from a point of rocks below, where she
+had been sketching.
+
+"Oh, to go in between those clouds there and see it all," said Polly.
+
+"Dear me!" exclaimed Adela, "I shouldn't like it. I'd much rather stay
+down here, and sketch it."
+
+"We could go sailing off, oh, ever so far," said Polly, swinging her
+arms to suit the action to the words. "And you'd be stuck to your rock
+here, Adela; while, Phronsie, you and I would sit on the edge of a
+cloud, and let our feet hang over; and oh, Adela, you could sketch us
+then as we went sailing by."
+
+"How that would look!" exclaimed Adela, with such a face that Polly
+burst out into a merry laugh, and Phronsie, joining with her little
+crow of delight and clapping her hands at the idea of such fun, brought
+pretty much the whole party around them.
+
+"What's up?" cried Tom to Jasper, on the way to the girls with some
+fear, for he didn't dare even yet to talk much to Polly. As for Adela,
+he let her severely alone.
+
+"Don't know," said Jasper, "but we'll soon find out," and they did, by
+Phronsie's flying away from Polly and skipping down over the rocks to
+meet them.
+
+"Oh, Jasper, Polly's telling how we would sail on that beautiful
+cloud," announced Phronsie, her yellow hair flying from her face as she
+sped along, heedless of her steps.
+
+"Take care or you'll fall," warned Jasper. "See, your mother is looking
+worried." And, truth to tell, Mrs. Fisher, on a point of rocks a little
+way off with the others, was getting a bit alarmed as she saw the
+progress of her baby.
+
+"I'll take care," said Phronsie, sobering down at thought of Mamsie's
+being troubled, and beginning to pick her way carefully. And Jasper
+gathered up her fingers in his, thinking of the time when she toiled up
+and down the long stairway, when she first came to what was now her
+home, blessed thought! and Polly and he sat down at the foot to watch
+her.
+
+"And so Polly and you are going to try sailing on that cloud there,"
+said Jasper, squinting up at the brilliant sky.
+
+"We aren't really going, Jasper," said Phronsie, shaking her head,
+soberly, "because you see we can't. But Polly's pretending it all; and
+we're to sit on the edge and swing our feet. And Adela is going to make
+a picture of us."
+
+"Whew!" whistled Jasper. "And I say, Polly,"--for now they had
+scrambled up to the two girls,--"isn't there room for us on that cloud
+too?" While Tom kicked pebbles, and wished he knew how to talk to
+girls.
+
+"Perhaps," said Polly, gaily. "Oh, I suppose that those who couldn't
+get on our cloud could take the next one."
+
+"I'd rather have your cloud, Polly," said Jasper.
+
+"And Grandpapa must come too," cried Phronsie, in alarm at the very
+thought of his being left out. "I want him on our cloud, Polly."
+
+"Yes, and Mamsie and Papa-Doctor," finished Polly, ready for any
+nonsense, she was just bubbling over so with joy at thought of the
+morrow and what it would bring. "Well, it is good the cloud is big,"
+squinting up at the radiant sky.
+
+"And, Tom, you are coming on that cloud-boat."
+
+Jasper pulled him forward with a merry laugh, giving him a clap on the
+back at the same time.
+
+"Eh--oh, I can't--no, thank you," stammered Tom, thus suddenly brought
+into notice. "Excuse me," just as if the invitation had been a _bona
+fide_ one.
+
+Polly never smiled, but Adela giggled right out. Tom's face flushed,
+and he rushed off furiously, determined never to chance it again
+whereby he'd be mortified before girls--not he!
+
+All the gay time was flown, and the red and pink and purple clouds
+looked down upon a sorry, uncomfortable little group. Jasper spoke
+first. "I must go after him," and he dashed down the rocks.
+
+"O dear me, I couldn't help it," said Adela, twisting uncomfortably,
+"it was so silly in him to take it all in earnest."
+
+"He didn't really think we meant it," said Polly, her brown eyes very
+grave. Would Jasper really persuade him to forget that laugh? "But he
+is shy, and he said the first thing that came into his head."
+
+"Boys haven't any right to be shy," said Adela, fussing with her little
+sketching block and pencil, "they are so big and strong."
+
+"Why did Tom run away so fast?" asked Phronsie, only half
+comprehending.
+
+"Never mind, child," said Polly, with a reassuring pat on her head.
+
+"And isn't Jasper coming back?" asked Phronsie, in great distress.
+
+"Yes, oh, I guess so," said Polly. "Well, there, the pretty glow has
+all faded; see, Phronsie," pointing up to the leaden clouds that no one
+who had failed to see a few moments before could have imagined alive
+with colour. "Now we ought to run over to the others, for they'll be
+going back to the hotel."
+
+"It's all gone," said Phronsie, sadly, looking up at the darkening sky.
+"Polly, where has the pretty red and pink gone to?"
+
+"Oh, I don't know," said Polly, thinking only of Tom, and what a hard
+time Jasper must be having with him. "Take care, Phronsie, don't look
+up now--you'll fall! There, take my hand; now come on."
+
+"O dear me, I didn't mean to laugh," Adela was saying to herself as she
+fell back in the zig-zag path down the rocks. "I wish I hadn't--I'll
+--I'll--" What she meant to do wasn't very clear in her mind; what she
+did do, was to run up to her grandmother's and her room, and toss her
+sketch-book on the table, and herself on the bed, for a good hearty
+cry.
+
+Polly found her there, when they couldn't find her anywhere else, with
+much searching and running about. Little old Mrs. Gray was worrying
+dreadfully, so afraid she had been blown from the rocks; for the wind
+had now risen, and all the travellers were seeking the shelter and
+warmth of the hotel corridor and parlours.
+
+"Oh, Adela, how _could_ you?" Polly was going to say. And then she
+thought that would be the very worst thing in all the world, for
+Adela's shoulders were shaking, and it would only make her cry worse.
+And besides, Polly remembered how she had sometimes given way in just
+this fashion, and how much worse she would have been, had it not been
+for a wise, good mother. So she ran out in the hall. "I must tell her
+grandmother," she said to herself.
+
+"Have you found her?" asked Jasper, looking up from the foot of the
+staircase.
+
+"Yes," said Polly, "I have."
+
+"All right." And Jasper vanished, and Polly went slowly back, wishing
+she could be downstairs with all the dear people, instead of trying to
+comfort this dismal girl. The next moment she was kneeling down by the
+side of the bed, and trying to get hold of one of Adela's hands. But
+Adela bounced over to the farther side, and she cried out angrily,
+"It's all very well for you to say so, because you didn't do it. And
+everybody likes you. O dear me--tee--hee--boo--hoo!"
+
+"But I've often done things just as bad," confessed Polly, "and, Adela,
+I've cried like this, too. But Mamsie--oh, Adela! she made me see it
+was wrong; so I had to stop it, you know."
+
+"How is it wrong?" asked Adela, rolling over, and taking the
+handkerchief away from one eye enough to see Polly Pepper's face. "I
+can cry, I guess, if I want to, without asking anybody."
+
+"Oh, no, you can't," said Polly, decidedly. "I mean no one can."
+
+"Why not, pray tell?" said Adela, sniffing very hard. "My eyes are my
+own, and I shall cry, too, whenever I want to."
+
+"Well, I can't just tell you exactly why you can't cry when you want
+to," said Polly, afraid she wasn't going to say the right word, "but
+Mamsie could if she were here. I'll go and call her, Adela." And Polly
+sprang to her feet. "She'll come, I know."
+
+"Oh, no--no," cried Adela, in mortal alarm. "I don't want her--I mean
+I'd rather have you. You're a girl; and a woman talking at me scares
+me."
+
+"Then you mustn't cry if I stay," said Polly, stopping short, and
+seeing her advantage, "for I surely shall go, Adela," she added firmly,
+"unless you stop crying."
+
+"O dear me." Adela squirmed all over the bed. "I can't stop--I've
+always cried as much as I wanted to. O dear me--boo-hoo-hoo! I mean--I'll
+stop, don't go--" sopping up her wet face with a nervous hand. "See,
+Pol-_ly_!" for Polly had slipped out of the room. Adela flew
+off from the bed. "Polly--Polly, Pol-_ly_!" she called, in a
+piteous little tone.
+
+Polly, halfway down the stairs, looked back. "Oh, you are up," she
+said, with a smile. "Now that's fine; come." And she held out her hand.
+
+"Mercy me, and O my!" cried Adela. "I can't go looking like this; why,
+I'm a perfect sight, I know, Polly Pepper! and my nose feels all bunged
+out of shape and as big!"
+
+"Never mind," said Polly, as reassuringly, "just dash some water over
+it, and it'll be all right. I'll wait here for you."
+
+So Polly stood on her stair while Adela, bemoaning all the way that she
+didn't look fit to be seen, and that she was a perfect sight, and she
+couldn't go down among them all, stumbled back into her room. And
+pretty soon Polly heard a big splash. "O dear me--oh, what shall I do?"
+
+"What _is_ the matter?" cried Polly, deserting her stair, to run
+in and up to the washstand.
+
+"Just see what I've done," exclaimed Adela, holding out one arm. It was
+dripping wet, and the water was running off in a stream and down to
+meet a small puddle where the splash had struck on the floor.
+
+"The pitcher slipped--O dear me--ugh--" cried Adela, wriggling all
+over.
+
+"Stand still," said Polly, "do, Adela, till I wipe your sleeve dry."
+And she got the towel and began to sop and to pat Adela's arm.
+
+"It never'll feel dry, it's perfectly awful--ugh--Polly Pepper,"
+declared Adela, twisting away from Polly's fingers; "it's just like a
+wet snake--ugh--O dear me! and it gives me the creeps."
+
+"You'll have to put on another waist, I do think," said Polly, hanging
+up the towel, aghast to find herself growing angry at all this delay,
+and with half a mind to run and leave Adela to herself.
+
+"O dear me, and there's this water running all over the floor," cried
+Adela, stepping gingerly over the pool, and trying to pick off the wet
+sleeve from her arm at the same time.
+
+"I'll fix it," said Polly, as cheerily as she could, "while you get
+your waist on." And she sopped the water up. "There, that's done," she
+announced with satisfaction; "now do hurry, Adela."
+
+"I can't get out of this old, horrid, wet sleeve," said Adela, very red
+in the face, and pulling and twitching at it.
+
+"Take care, you'll tear it," warned Polly.
+
+"I don't care if I do," said Adela, peevishly. "O dear me, somebody's
+coming!" With that she flew into the closet and pulled to the door.
+
+"Why, Polly!" exclaimed Mother Fisher, in surprise, "what is the
+matter? We are all waiting to go in to dinner."
+
+"Oh, I'm so sorry," began Polly, feeling as if nothing would be so
+delightful as to have a good cry in Mamsie's arms and tell all the
+story.
+
+"Well, you must come right away," said Mrs. Fisher. "Why, where is
+Adela?" looking around the room.
+
+"I'm here," said Adela, from the closet.
+
+"Come out here, Adela," said Mrs. Fisher. So Adela came out, the wet
+sleeve still on her arm; but she had gotten out of the rest of the
+waist.
+
+"That's too bad," said Mrs. Fisher; and in a minute Adela's wet arm was
+free and nicely dried, and a clean waist being found, it was soon on,
+and then Mother Fisher took up the hairbrush. "We must have this all
+nice and smooth," she said. And Adela stood still, liking it all very
+much; and her hair was brushed, much as if she had been Phronsie, and
+then Mother Fisher released her with a smile. "There, now you are
+ready," she said.
+
+"She didn't scold a bit," said Adela, going after her with Polly down
+the stairs, and forgetting her red eyes and swollen nose.
+
+"Our mother never scolds," declared Polly, with her head very high,
+"never in all this world, Adela Gray."
+
+And at dinner Tom Selwyn looked across the table, and when he caught
+sight of Adela's face, and saw that some one else could feel as badly
+as he could, and he guessed the reason, he made up his mind what he was
+going to do next. And as soon as the meal was over, without giving
+himself time to think, he marched up to Adela. "Say, I didn't much mind
+because you laughed, don't you know," and held out his hand.
+
+"I've been crying ever since," said Adela, "and I didn't mean to
+laugh."
+
+"I know it," said Tom to the first part of her sentence, and looking at
+her nose. "Well, never mind now, so it's quits, and shake hands."
+
+"I don't know what quits is," said Adela, putting out her hand.
+
+"Oh, it's when things are evened up somehow," said Tom; "not exactly
+that, but it will do well enough by way of explaining."
+
+"And I'm never going to laugh again at anybody," said Adela, lifting
+her red eyes.
+
+"Well, come on, don't you want a game of draughts?" said Tom,
+awkwardly.
+
+"Draughts?" repeated Adela, very much puzzled. "I don't know it."
+
+"Why, what a whopper!" Tom was going to say, but changed it to, "Why, I
+saw you playing it last night with Polly Pepper."
+
+"Why, no, you didn't," said Adela, not very politely, "that was
+checkers."
+
+"That's the same thing," said Tom, triumphantly, "only you Americans
+call it that funny name."
+
+"Well, I think it's a great deal nicer name than draughts," said Adela;
+"that's silly."
+
+"Well, checkers; that's senseless," retorted Tom, "and, besides, you
+Americans always say 'nice' at everything." Then he looked at her red
+eyes and poor little nose, and added kindly, "Well, never mind, call it
+checkers, then, I don't care; let's have a game," and he rushed for the
+board.
+
+Mrs. Selwyn looked from her corner where she had taken a book, and
+smiled to see him playing a game with a girl. Then she nodded over to
+Jasper, and he smiled back.
+
+And Adela never once thought how she looked. And she beat Tom twice,
+and that quite set her up. And then for the next three games he routed
+her men completely off the board. And, strange to say, she kept her
+temper, and even smiled at the disaster.
+
+"That's a good game." Old Mr. King came up as the last one was going
+on. "Tom, my boy, you play a fine one."
+
+"And she fights well," said Tom, generously. "She beat me twice."
+
+"You don't say so," exclaimed Mr. King. "Well, that's doing pretty
+well, Adela, to get ahead of the English lad. But you don't stand much
+of a chance this time; Tom's got the game, sure." And so it proved in
+less time than it takes to write it.
+
+And then everybody said "good night" to everybody else; for the Alpine
+horn would sound at the earliest dawn to waken the sleepers to see the
+sunrise.
+
+"Mamsie," cried Polly, raising her head suddenly as she cuddled into
+bed, "supposing we shouldn't hear that horn--just supposing it! Oh,
+can't I stay awake? Do let me, Mamsie."
+
+"Your Grandfather has made arrangements for us all to be called," said
+Mrs. Fisher, "so we won't have to depend on the horn, and now you must
+go to sleep just as fast as ever you can. Then you'll be as bright as a
+button in the morning, Polly."
+
+"Mamsie," said Polly, "I don't think Grandpapa has kept from doing
+anything he could to make us happy, do you, Mamsie? not a single
+thing."
+
+"No," said Mother Fisher, "I don't, Polly."
+
+
+
+
+XXII
+
+POLLY TRIES TO HELP
+
+
+"Mamsie, what shall we do?" Polly clasped her hands in despair, and
+looked down on Phronsie, sleeping away as if she meant to take her own
+time to wake up, regardless of sunrise on the Rigi. "O dear me, and she
+went to bed so early last night on purpose."
+
+"You go right along, Polly," said Mother Fisher. "Put on your golf cape
+over your jacket, child, it's dreadfully cold out there. I shall stay
+with Phronsie, for of course we wouldn't leave her alone with Matilda,
+and all go off for a nice time."
+
+"No, of course not," cried Polly, in horror at the mere thought.
+
+"And she's in such a nice sleep and so warm, that it's a pity to wake
+her up," finished Mrs. Fisher.
+
+"O dear me," cried Polly, in distress, "I'd rather stay, Mamsie, and
+have you go."
+
+"No," said Mrs. Fisher, firmly, "I shall stay, so that is all there is
+about it, Polly. Now run along, child, and tell Matilda to hurry out
+too, for she wants to see the sunrise."
+
+Polly still lingered, until her mother looked up in surprise. "Why,
+Polly," she said, reprovingly.
+
+"O dear me!" exclaimed Polly, "I didn't mean to disobey, Mamsie, I
+really didn't; I'll go." And setting a kiss on Mother Fisher's black
+hair, she ran out on unsteady feet, and with all her comfort gone.
+
+When she joined her group it would have been rather hard to distinguish
+any of them, as everybody was wrapped up in shawls and rugs, if Jasper
+hadn't been a sort of scout in waiting for her and Mrs. Fisher and
+Phronsie. And Tom could easily be picked out, for he hung around in
+Jasper's wake, and besides, he was so very big.
+
+"Where are they?" asked Jasper, looking down the corridor back of her.
+
+"Oh, Mamsie isn't coming, nor Phronsie either, for she's asleep. And
+Mamsie made me come," finished Polly, dismally.
+
+"O dear me," said Jasper, quite gone in sympathy. Tom Selwyn poked his
+head forward to hear, but, as it was something quite beyond his powers
+to help, he thrust his hands into his pockets, and kicked aimlessly on
+the floor.
+
+"Well, come on, Polly," said Jasper, wishing he could lift the gloom
+from Polly's face, and feeling quite dismal himself.
+
+Little Dr. Fisher, muffled up in a big plaid shawl so that only his
+spectacles gleamed in between the folds and his cap, suddenly edged up
+back of Polly, and dropped the folds away from his ears so that he
+could hear what was going on. And when the group hurried out of the
+door, into the cold gray dawn, he was skipping down to his wife's room,
+in the liveliest way imaginable.
+
+Old Mr. King had gone on ahead with the parson, as he couldn't scramble
+so fast. And now he met them with, "Well, are you all here--where's
+Phronsie?"
+
+"Oh, Jasper, I can't tell him," gasped Polly, up on the tiptop bunch of
+rocks, and trying to be glad of the promise of the beautiful sunrise to
+come, for everybody agreed that it was apparently to be the best one
+that had gladdened the hearts of travellers for years. Then she whirled
+around and stared with all her might, "If there isn't Mamsie coming!"
+
+"As true as you live it is!" cried Jasper, with a good look, and
+springing down the rocks to help her up. Tom Selwyn plunged after him,
+getting there first. So in the bustle, nobody answered Mr. King. And
+he, supposing from the merry chatter that Phronsie was in the midst of
+it, concluded it best not to interrupt their fun, even if he could make
+them hear.
+
+"Your father made me come, Polly," said Mrs. Fisher, coming up between
+the two boys. "But I'd so much rather that he saw it." And her downcast
+face looked so very much like Polly, that Jasper thought matters hadn't
+bettered themselves any.
+
+"But, Mamsie," said Polly, creeping up to her with all the comfort she
+could, "it makes him happy, just as it made you happy to have me go."
+
+"I know it," said Mother Fisher, with a sigh, "but he has so few
+pleasures, Polly, and he works so hard." And her gaze wandered off to
+the distant clouds, slowly beginning to break away.
+
+Polly held her breath as they waited and looked, although her heart was
+sad when the wee little streak of light began to come over in the east.
+
+"Isn't that just beautiful!" exclaimed Jasper, trying to enjoy it as
+much as he had expected; "see, Polly, the stars seem going out--daylight's
+coming!"
+
+"I know," said Polly, "so it is." Sure enough, a little strip of gold
+touched up the leaden sky, and spread slowly.
+
+"See, it's turning pink." Mrs. Selwyn's plain, quiet face glowed. "See,
+Polly, look at that peak bathed in colour."
+
+Just then a little voice said, "Oh, isn't that beautiful!" And whirling
+around on her rock, Polly saw little Dr. Fisher staggering along with a
+big bundle in his arms, out of which was peering Phronsie's face.
+
+Mother Fisher had turned too. "Oh, Adoniram!" was all she said, as
+Polly sprang off to meet them.
+
+"Give her to me," cried Tom Selwyn, of course reaching there first,
+before either Polly or Jasper; and before Dr. Fisher quite knew how,
+Phronsie was perched on the broad shoulder, and Tom was prancing up the
+rocky path as easily as if a bird had lighted on his arm.
+
+"She woke up, luckily," said little Dr. Fisher, "and she's bundled up
+so there isn't a chance of her taking cold. Wife, this is grand!" He
+gained her side, and drew her hand under the big shawl.
+
+"You've come just in time," cried Polly, skipping around on her rock to
+the imminent danger of falling on her nose, and varying the exercises
+by cuddling Phronsie's toes, done up in a big bundle.
+
+"I declare if Papa Fisher hasn't tied them up in one of the blankets,"
+she announced merrily.
+
+"A blanket is just as good as anything when the sunrise is waiting for
+you," said the little doctor, coolly.
+
+"Isn't it!" cried Polly, back at him, happily. "Oh--oh!"
+
+Everybody echoed, "Oh-oh!" then stood hushed to silence. A rosy blush
+spread from peak to peak, and all the shadows fell away. Everything
+below, towns, villages, lakes, and forests, stood out in the clear cold
+dawn, and at last the sun burst forth in all his glory.
+
+"I'm so glad that people don't chatter," said Polly, when at last they
+turned away, for the swift clouds had shut it all out. "Did you see
+Phronsie's face, Jasper, when that light burst out?"
+
+"Yes, and father's," answered Jasper. "I expect he'd been looking for
+her; everybody is so bundled up you can hardly find your best friend.
+And then he saw her."
+
+"Yes, and she saw him and called him," said Polly, "didn't you hear
+her?"
+
+"Didn't I, though?" said Jasper; "who could help it? Wasn't father
+pleased when he got up to us, Tom, to think you had Phronsie in such
+good shape? Phronsie, you're in luck," pinching as much of her toes as
+the bundle of blanket would allow; "you've got the best place of any of
+us, up on that perch."
+
+"I like it," said Phronsie, in grave delight, "very much, indeed,"
+surveying them out of the depths of the shawl, "and I wish it needn't
+stop."
+
+"Well, it must," said Polly, with a sigh. "Dear me, see those people
+run."
+
+"Well, it's cold," said Jasper; "let's you and I race to the hotel,
+Polly."
+
+"And the show is over," said Tom, "why shouldn't they run?" as Jasper
+and Polly set off, and he strode after, getting there nearly as soon.
+
+An hour later, Polly, who couldn't get to sleep again, for a nap before
+breakfast, went out to the little balcony window just outside her door,
+where she might sit and write in her journal, and meantime catch any
+chance view that the grey scudding clouds might afford. In this way she
+strove to work off the impatience possessing her for the beautiful hour
+to come after breakfast. "I can hardly believe it now," she thought,
+and she gave herself a little pinch to see if she were really awake;
+"it seems too good to be true to think that the great Professor
+Bauricke is actually going to tell me how to learn to play well!"
+
+"Say," a voice struck upon her ear, "oh, I'm in the most awful
+distress."
+
+Polly clapped her book to, and looked up.
+
+"O dear, dear!" It was a tall, spare woman with a face that had
+something about it like Grandma Bascom's. It must have been the cap-frills
+flapping around her cheeks.
+
+"What can I do for you?" asked Polly, springing up. "Oh, do take my
+chair and sit down and tell me about it."
+
+"Oh, will you help me? The land! I couldn't set when I'm in such
+trouble," declared the old woman. "My senses, I should fly off the
+handle!" Polly, feeling that she was in the presence of some dreadful
+calamity, stood quite still. "You see, me and my sister--she's in
+highstrikes now in there." The old woman tossed her head to indicate a
+room further down the hall, whereat the cap-frills flapped wilder than
+ever. "Bein' as it belonged to both of us, she feels as bad as I do,
+but as I was the one that lost it, why it stands to reason I've got to
+shake around and get it again. Say, will you help me? You've got a pair
+of bright eyes as ever I see in a head; and what's the good of 'em if
+you can't help in trouble like this?"
+
+Polly, feeling that her eyes would never forgive her if she didn't let
+them help on such an occasion, promised.
+
+"What is it you have lost?" she asked.
+
+"Don't you know?" cried the old woman, impatiently. "Mercy me! how many
+times shall I tell you? My buzzom pin; it was took of Pa when he was a
+young man and awful handsome, and I didn't want to leave it in the room
+when we went out, cause somebody might get in, and they'd be sure to
+want it, so I pinned it on my nightcap strings and it's gone, and I
+a-gallivanting round on them rocks, a-looking at the sunrise, and I can
+see that to home all I want to. I must have been crazy."
+
+"Oh, I see; and you want me to go out and help you look for it," said
+Polly, her brow clearing.
+
+"Of course," assented the old woman, impatiently. "Land, your
+intellects ain't as bright as your eyes. My sakes!--how many times do
+you expect me to tell you? I've been a-looking and a-peeking
+everywhere, but my eyes are old, and I don't dare to tell any one to
+help me, for like enough they'd pick it up when I warn't seein', and
+slip Pa in their pocket, and I never'd see him again."
+
+Polly, feeling, if Pa were slipped in a pocket and carried off, it
+would be a calamity indeed, said heartily, "I'll get my jacket and cap
+and come right out."
+
+"She looks honest; I guess I hain't done no harm to tell her about our
+buzzom pin," said the old woman to herself as Polly disappeared. Mamsie
+being asleep, Polly could say nothing to her, but feeling that she
+would allow it if she knew, she threw on her things and ran out to meet
+the old woman, with a shawl tied over her nightcap and a big long cape
+on.
+
+"I tell you she's in highstrikes," said the old woman, going down the
+hall. "That's our room, 37, an' I've seen you an' your folks goin' by,
+so I feel in some ways acquainted. An' if I don't find Pa, I'll be
+flabbergasted myself."
+
+"Do let us hurry," said Polly, her mind now only on Pa. So they went
+down the stairs and out by the door and up the rocky path just where
+the old woman said she and sister Car'line took when they went out to
+see the sunrise.
+
+"An' I wish we'd kept in bed," ejaculated Polly's companion. "I most
+lost my teeth out, they chattered so; and so did Car'line hers. But
+that wouldn't 'a' been nothin' to losin' Pa, cause we could 'a' got
+more teeth; but how could we 'a' got him took when he was nineteen and
+so handsome? There! here we stopped, just at this identical spot!"
+
+"Well, I think we shall find it," said Polly, consolingly. "How did the
+pin look?" she asked, for the first time remembering to ask, and
+beginning to poke around in the crevices.
+
+"My land sakes! I never see such a girl for wanting to be told over and
+over," exclaimed the old woman, irritably, picking up first one ample
+gaiter and then another to warm her cold toes in her hands. "Haven't I
+told you he was awful handsome? Well, he had on his blue coat and big
+brass buttons for one thing, an' his shirt front was ruffled. And--"
+
+"Was it gold around it?" asked Polly, poking away busily.
+
+"Gold? I guess it was; and there was dents in it, where Car'line an' I
+bit into it when we were babies, 'cause mother give it to us when our
+teeth was comin'--'twas better'n a chicken bone, she said."
+
+"Oh," said Polly.
+
+"Well, now you know," said Car'line's sister, "an' don't for mercy's
+sakes ask any more useless questions. I'm most sorry I brung you."
+
+"I might go down and get the boys, Jasper and Tom--they'd love to
+help," said Polly, feeling that she was very much out of place, and
+there was no hope of finding Pa under the circumstances.
+
+The old woman clutched her arm and held her fast. "Don't you say a
+single word about any boys," she commanded. "I hate boys," she
+exploded, "they're the worry of our lives, Car'line and mine,--they get
+into our garden, and steal all our fruit, and they hang on behind our
+chaise when we ride out, and keep me a-lookin' round an' slashin' the
+whip at 'em the whole livelong time; O my--_boys!_"
+
+"What in the world is Polly Pepper doing up on those rocks?" cried
+Jasper, just spying her. "Come on, Tom, and let's see." And they seized
+their caps, and buttoned their jackets against the wind which had just
+sprung up, and dashed off to see for themselves.
+
+"Ugh--you go right away!" screamed Car'line's sister, as their heads
+appeared over the point of rocks, and shaking both hands fiercely at
+them.
+
+"Whew!" whistled Jasper, with his eyes in surprise on Polly.
+
+"And what old party are you?" demanded Tom, finding it easy to talk to
+her, as she was by no means a girl. "And do you own this mountain,
+anyway?"
+
+"Oh, don't," begged Polly. "And Jasper, if you would go away, please,
+and not ask any questions."
+
+"All right," said Jasper, swallowing his disappointment not to know.
+"Come on, Tom, Polly doesn't want us here."
+
+"An' I won't have you here," screamed the old woman, harder than ever.
+"So get away as soon as you can. Why, you are boys!"
+
+"I know it." Tom bobbed his head at her. "We've always been, ma'am."
+
+"An' boys are good for nothing, an' lazy, an' thieves--yes, I wouldn't
+trust 'em." So she kept on as they hurried back over the rocky path.
+
+"That's a tiger for you!" ejaculated Tom. Then he stopped and looked
+back a little anxiously. "Aren't you afraid to leave Polly with her?"
+
+"No," said Jasper; "it would trouble Polly to have us stay." Yet he
+stopped and looked anxious too. "We will wait here."
+
+And after a while, down came the two searchers--the old woman quite
+beside herself now, and scolding every bit of the way,--"that she
+didn't see what bright eyes were for when they couldn't find anything--an'
+now that Pa'd gone sliding down that mountain, they might as well
+give up, she an' Car'line"--when a sudden turn in the path brought the
+boys into view waiting behind the rocks. Then all her fury burst upon
+them.
+
+"See here, now," cried Tom, suddenly squaring up to her and looking at
+the face between the nodding cap-frills, "we are ready to take a
+certain amount of abuse, my friend and I, but we won't stand more, I
+can tell you."
+
+"Oh, don't," began Polly, clasping her hands. "Oh, Tom, _please_
+keep still. She doesn't know what she's saying, for she's lost her pin
+with her father on."
+
+"Hey?" cried Jasper. "Say it again, Polly," while Tom shouted and
+roared all through Polly's recital.
+
+"Was it an old fright with a long nose in a blue coat and ruffles, and
+as big as a turnip?" he asked between the shouts. While Polly tried to
+say, "Yes, I guess so," and Miss Car'line's sister so far overcame her
+aversion to boys as to seize him by the arm, Tom shook her off like a
+feather. "See here, old party," he cried, "that ancient pin of yours is
+reposing in the hotel office at this blessed moment. Jasper and I,"
+indicating his friend, "ran across it on the rocks up there more than
+an hour ago, and--"
+
+"Oh, Pa's found!" exclaimed the old woman, in a shrill scream of
+delight, beginning to trot down to the hotel office.
+
+"Yes, it would have been impossible for Pa to have got off this
+mountain without making a landslide," said Tom, after her.
+
+
+
+
+XXIII
+
+IN THE SHADOW OF THE MATTERHORN
+
+
+They had been days at dear Interlaken, walking up and down the
+_Hoheweg_, of which they never tired, or resting on the benches
+under the plane and walnut trees opposite their hotel, just sitting
+still to gaze their fill upon the _Jungfrau_. This was best of
+all--so Polly and Jasper thought; and Phronsie was content to pass hour
+after hour there, by Grandpapa's side, and imagine all sorts of pretty
+pictures and stories in and about the snow-clad heights of the majestic
+mountain.
+
+And the throng of gaily dressed people sojourning in the big hotels,
+and the stream of tourists, passed and repassed, with many a curious
+glance at the stately, white-haired old gentleman and the little
+yellow-haired girl by his side.
+
+"A perfect beauty!" exclaimed more than one matron, with a sigh for her
+ugly girls by her side or left at home.
+
+"She's stunning, and no mistake!" Many a connoisseur in feminine
+loveliness turned for a last look, or passed again for the same
+purpose.
+
+"Grandpapa," Phronsie prattled on, "that looks just like a little tent
+up there--a little white tent; doesn't it, Grandpapa dear?"
+
+"Yes, Phronsie," said Grandpapa, happily, just as he would have said
+"Yes, Phronsie," if she had pointed out any other object in the snowy
+outline.
+
+"And there's a cunning little place where you and I could creep into
+the tent," said Phronsie, bending her neck like a meditative bird. "And
+I very much wish we could, Grandpapa dear."
+
+"We'd find it pretty cold in there," said Grandpapa, "and wish we were
+back here on this nice seat, Phronsie."
+
+"What makes it so cold up there, Grandpapa, when the sun shines?" asked
+Phronsie, suddenly. "Say, Grandpapa, what makes it?"
+
+"Oh, it's so far up in the air," answered old Mr. King. "Don't you
+remember how cold it was up on the Rigi, and that was about nine
+thousand feet lower?"
+
+"Oh, Grandpapa!" exclaimed Phronsie, in gentle surprise, unable to
+compass such figures.
+
+Mr. King's party had made one or two pleasant little journeys to the
+Lauterbrunnen Valley, staying there and at Mürren, and to Grindelwald
+as well; but they came back to sit on the benches by the walnut and the
+plane trees, in front of the matchless Jungfrau. "And this is best of
+all," said Polly.
+
+And so the days slipped by, till one morning, at the breakfast table,
+Mrs. Selwyn said, "Tomorrow we must say good-by--my boy and I."
+
+"Hey--what?" exclaimed Mr. King, setting his coffee-cup down, not very
+gently.
+
+"Our vacation cannot be a very long one," said Tom's mother, with a
+little smile; "there are my father and my two daughters and my other
+boys in England."
+
+Tom's face was all awry as Mr. King said, "And you mean to say, Mrs.
+Selwyn, that you really must move on to-morrow?"
+
+"Yes; we really must," she said decidedly. "But oh," and her plain,
+quiet face changed swiftly, "you cannot know how sorry we shall be to
+leave your party."
+
+"In that case, Mrs. Fisher,"--old Mr. King looked down the table-length
+to Mamsie,--"we must go too; for I don't intend to lose sight of these
+nice travelling companions until I am obliged to." Tom's face was one
+big smile. "Oh, goody!" exclaimed Polly, as if she were no older than
+Phronsie.
+
+Jasper clapped Tom's back, instead of wasting words.
+
+"So we will all proceed to pack up without more ado after breakfast.
+After all, it is wiser to make the move now, for we are getting so that
+we want to take root in each place."
+
+"You just wait till you get to Zermatt," whispered Polly to Phronsie,
+who, under cover of the talk buzzing around the table, had confided to
+her that she didn't want to leave her beautiful mountain. "Grandpapa is
+going to take us up to the Gorner Grat, and there you can see another
+mountain,--oh, so near! he says it seems almost as if you could touch
+it. And it's all covered with snow, Phronsie, too!"
+
+"Is it as big as my mountain here?" asked Phronsie.
+
+"Yes, bigger, a thousand feet or more," answered Polly, glad that she
+had looked it up.
+
+"Is it?" said Phronsie. "Every mountain is bigger, isn't it, Polly?"
+
+"It seems to be," said Polly, with a little laugh.
+
+"And has it a little white tent on the side, just like my mountain
+here?" asked Phronsie, holding Polly's arm as she turned off to catch
+the chatter of the others.
+
+"Oh, I suppose so," answered Polly, carelessly. Then she looked up and
+caught Mamsie's eye, and turned back quickly. "At any rate, Phronsie,
+it's all peaked on the top--oh, almost as sharp as a needle--and it
+seems to stick right into the blue sky, and there are lots and lots of
+other mountains--oh, awfully high,--and the sun shines up there a good
+deal, and it's too perfectly lovely for anything, Phronsie Pepper."
+
+"Then I want to go," decided Phronsie. "I do so want to see that white
+needle, Polly."
+
+"Well, eat your breakfast," said Polly, "because you know we all have
+ever so much to do to-day to get off."
+
+"Yes, I will," declared Phronsie, attacking her cold chicken and roll
+with great vigour.
+
+"It seems as if the whole world were at Zermatt," said the parson,
+looking out from the big piazza crowded with the hotel people, out to
+the road in front, with every imaginable tourist passing and repassing.
+Donkeys were being driven up, either loaded down to their utmost with
+heavy bags and trunks, or else waiting to receive on their patient
+backs the heavier people. Phronsie never could see the poor animals,
+without such distress coming in her face that every one in the party
+considered it his or her bounden duty to comfort and reassure her. So
+this time it was Tom's turn to do so.
+
+"Oh, don't you worry," he said, looking down into her troubled little
+face where he sat on the piazza railing swinging his long legs, "they
+like it, those donkeys do!"
+
+"Do they?" asked Phronsie, doubtfully.
+
+"Yes, indeed," said Tom, with a gusto, as if he wished he were a
+donkey, and in just that very spot, "it gives them a chance to see
+things, and to hear things, too, don't you know?" went on Tom, at his
+wits' end to know how he was going to come out of his sentences.
+
+"Oh," said Phronsie, yet she sighed as she saw the extremely fat person
+just being hauled up to a position on a very small donkey's back.
+
+"You see, if they don't like it," said Tom, digging his knife savagely
+into the railing, "they have a chance to kick up their heels and
+unsettle that heavy party."
+
+"O dear me!" exclaimed Phronsie, in great distress, "that would hurt
+the poor woman, Tom."
+
+"Well, it shows that the donkey likes it," said Tom, with a laugh,
+"because he doesn't kick up his heels."
+
+"And so," ran on Tom, "why, we mustn't worry, you and I, if the donkey
+doesn't. Just think,"--he made a fine diversion by pointing with his
+knife-blade up to the slender spire of the Matterhorn--"we're going up
+on a little jaunt to-morrow, to look into that fellow's face."
+
+Phronsie got out of her chair to come and stand by his side. "I like
+that white needle," she said, with a gleeful smile. "Polly said it was
+nice, and I like it."
+
+"I should say it was," declared Tom, with a bob of his head. "Phronsie,
+I'd give, I don't know what, if I could climb up there." He thrust his
+knife once more into the railing, where it stuck fast.
+
+"Don't." begged Phronsie, her hand on his sleeve, "go up that big white
+needle, Tom."
+
+"No, I won't; it's safe to promise that," he said grimly, with a little
+laugh. "Good reason why; because I can't. The little mother wouldn't
+sleep nights just to think of it, and I promised the granddaddy that I
+wouldn't so much as think of it, and here I am breaking my word; but I
+can't help it." He twitched his knife out suddenly, sprawled off from
+the railing, and took several hasty strides up and down the piazza.
+
+"Well, that's all right, Phronsie," he said, coming back to get astride
+the railing again; this time he turned a cold shoulder on Phronsie's
+"white needle." "Now, to-morrow, we'll have no end of fun." And he
+launched forth on so many and so varied delights, that Phronsie's
+pleased little laugh rang out again and again, bringing rest to many a
+wearied traveller, tired with the sights, sounds, and scenes of a
+European journey.
+
+"I wish we could stay at this nice place," said Phronsie, the next
+morning, poking her head out over the side of the car, as it climbed
+off from the Riffelalp station.
+
+"Take care, child," said Grandpapa, with a restraining hand.
+
+"You would want to stop at every place," said Polly, from the seat in
+front, with a gay little laugh. "And we never should get on at that
+rate. But then I am just as bad," she confessed.
+
+"So am I," chimed in Jasper. "Dear me, how I wanted to get a chance to
+sketch some of those magnificent curves and rapids and falls in the
+Visp River coming up."
+
+"Oh, that dear, delicious Visp River!" echoed Polly, while Adela began
+to bemoan that it was the best thing they had seen, and the car whizzed
+them by so fast, she couldn't do a thing--O dear!
+
+"I got some snap-shots, but I don't believe they are good for
+anything," said Jasper, "just from the pure perversity of the thing."
+
+"Take my advice," said Tom, lazily leaning forward, "and don't bother
+with a camera anyway."
+
+"As if you expected any one to take up with such a piece of advice,"
+ejaculated Jasper, in high disdain. "Say something better than that,
+Tom, if you want to be heard."
+
+"Oh, I don't expect to be heard, or listened to in the slightest," he
+said calmly. "Anybody who will trot round with a kodak hanging to his
+neck by a villanous strap--can't be--"
+
+"Who's got a villanous strap hanging to his neck?" cried Jasper, while
+the rest shouted as he picked at the fern-box thus hanging to Tom.
+
+"Oh, that's quite a different thing," declared Tom, his face growing
+red.
+
+"I know; one is a kodak, and the other is a fern-box," said Jasper,
+nodding. "I acknowledge they are different," and they all burst out
+laughing again.
+
+"Well, at least," said Tom, joining in the laugh, "you must
+acknowledge, too, that I go off by myself and pick up my wild flowers
+and green things, and I'm not bothering round focussing every living
+thing and pointing my little machine at every freak in nature that I
+see."
+
+"All right," said Jasper, good-naturedly, "but you have the strap round
+your neck all the same, Tom."
+
+And Phronsie wanted to stay at the Riffelberg just as much; and old Mr.
+King was on the point of saying, "Well, we'll come up here for a few
+days, Phronsie," when he remembered Mrs. Selwyn and her boy, and how
+they must get on. Instead, he cleared his throat, and said, "We shall
+see it after dinner, child," and Phronsie smiled, well contented.
+
+But when she reached the Corner Grat station, and took Grandpapa's
+hand, and began to ascend the bridle path to the hotel, she couldn't
+contain herself, and screamed right out, "Oh, Grandpapa, I'd rather
+stay here."
+
+"It _is_ beautiful, isn't it?" echoed old Mr. King, feeling twenty
+years younger since he started on his travels. "Well, well, child, I'm
+glad you like it," looking down into her beaming little face.
+
+"You are very much to be envied, sir. I can't help speaking to you and
+telling you so," said a tall, sober-looking gentleman, evidently an
+English curate off on his vacation, as he caught up with him on the
+ascent, where they had paused at one of the look-offs, "for having that
+child as company, and those other young people."
+
+"You say the truth," replied old Mr. King, cordially; "from the depths
+of my heart I pity any one who hasn't some children to take along when
+going abroad. But then they wouldn't be little Peppers," he added,
+under his breath, as he bowed and turned back to the view.
+
+"There's dear Monte Rosa," cried Polly, enthusiastically. "Oh, I just
+love her."
+
+"And there's Castor and Pollux," said Jasper.
+
+"And there's the whole of them," said Tom, disposing of the entire
+range with a sweep of his hand. "Dear me, what a lot there are, to be
+sure. It quite tires one."
+
+"Oh, anybody but a cold-blooded Englishman!" exclaimed Jasper, with a
+mischievous glance, "to travel with."
+
+"Anything on earth but a gushing American!" retorted Tom, "to go round
+the world with."
+
+"I wish I could sketch a glacier," bemoaned Adela, stopping every
+minute or two, as they wound around the bridle path, "but I can't; I've
+tried ever so many times."
+
+"Wait till we get to the _Mer de Glace_," advised Tom. "You can
+sit down in the middle of it, and sketch away all you want to."
+
+"Well, I'm going to," said Adela, with sudden determination. "I don't
+care; you can all laugh if you want to."
+
+"You can sketch us all," suggested Jasper, "for we shall have horrible
+old stockings on."
+
+"I sha'n't have horrible old stockings on," said Adela, in a dudgeon,
+sticking out her foot. "I wear just the same stockings that I do at
+home, at school in Paris, and they are quite nice."
+
+"Oh, I mean you'll have to put on coarse woollen ones that the peasant
+women knit on purpose,--we all shall have to do the same, on over our
+shoes," explained Jasper.
+
+"O dear me!" cried Adela, in dismay.
+
+"And I think we shall slip and slide a great deal worse with those
+things tied on our feet, than to go without any," said Polly, wrinkling
+up her brows at the idea.
+
+"'Twouldn't be safe to go without them," said Jasper, shaking his head,
+"unless we had nails driven in our shoes."
+
+"I'd much rather have the nails," cried Polly, "oh, much rather,
+Jasper."
+
+"Well, we'll see what father is going to let us do," said Jasper.
+
+"Wasn't that fun snowballing--just think--in July," cried Polly,
+craning her neck to look back down the path toward the Riffelberg
+station.
+
+"Did you pick up some of that snow?" asked Adela.
+
+"Didn't we, though!" exclaimed Jasper. "I got quite a good bit in my
+fist."
+
+"My ball was such a little bit of a one," mourned Polly; "I scraped up
+all I could, but it wasn't much."
+
+"Well, it did good execution," said Tom; "I got it in my eye."
+
+"Oh, did it hurt you?" cried Polly, in distress, running across the
+path to walk by his side.
+
+"Not a bit," said Tom. "I tried to find some to pay you back, and then
+we had to fly for the cars."
+
+The plain, quiet face under the English bonnet turned to Mrs. Fisher as
+they walked up the path together. "I cannot begin to tell you what
+gratitude I am under to you," said Tom's mother, "and to all of you.
+When I think of my father, I am full of thankfulness. When I look at my
+boy, the goodness of God just overcomes me in leading me to your party.
+May I tell you of ourselves some time, when a good opportunity offers
+for a quiet talk?"
+
+"I'd like nothing better," said Mother Fisher, heartily. "If there is
+one person I like more than another, who isn't of our family, or any of
+our home friends, it's Mrs. Selwyn," she had confided to the little
+doctor just a few days before. "She hasn't any nonsense about her, if
+she is an earl's daughter."
+
+"Earl's daughter," sniffed the little doctor, trying to slip a collar
+button into a refractory binding. "Dear me, now that's gone--no,
+'tisn't--that's luck," as the button rolled off into a corner of the
+bureau-top where it was easily captured.
+
+"Let me do that for you, Adoniram," said Mother Fisher, coming up to
+help him.
+
+"I guess you'll have to, wife, if it's done at all," he answered,
+resigning himself willingly to her hands; "the thing slips and slides
+like all possessed. Well, now, I was going to say that I wouldn't hate
+a title so much, if there was a grain of common sense went along with
+it. And that Mrs. Selwyn just saves the whole lot of English nobility,
+and makes 'em worth speaking to, in my opinion."
+
+And after they had their dinner, and were scattered in groups in the
+bright sunshine, sitting on the wooden benches by the long tables, or
+taking photographs, or watching through the big glass some mountain
+climbers on one of the snowy spurs of the Matterhorn, "the good
+opportunity for a quiet talk" came about.
+
+"Now," said Mother Fisher, with a great satisfaction in her voice, "may
+we sit down here on this bench, Mrs. Selwyn, and have that talk?"
+
+Tom's mother sat down well pleased, and folding her hands in her lap,
+this earl's daughter, mistress of a dozen languages, as well as
+mistress of herself on all occasions, began as simply and with as much
+directness as a child.
+
+"Well, you know my father. Let me tell you, aside from the
+eccentricities, that are mere outside matters, and easily explained, if
+you understood the whole of his life, a kinder man never lived, nor a
+more reasonable one. But it was a misfortune that he had to be left so
+much alone, as since my mother's death a dozen years ago has happened.
+It pained me much." A shadow passed over her brow, but it was gone
+again, and she smiled, and her eyes regained their old placid look. "I
+live in Australia with my husband, where my duty is, putting the boys
+as fast as they were old enough, and the little girls as well, into
+English schools. But Tom has always been with my father at the
+vacations, for he is his favourite, as of course was natural, for he is
+the eldest. And though you might not believe it, Mrs. Fisher, my father
+was always passionately fond of the boy."
+
+"I do believe it," said Mother Fisher, quietly, and she put her hand
+over the folded ones. Mrs. Selwyn unclasped hers, soft and white, to
+draw within them the toil-worn one.
+
+"Now, that's comfortable," she said, with another little smile.
+
+"And here is where his eccentricity became the most dangerous to the
+peace of mind of our family," continued Mrs. Selwyn. "My father seemed
+never able to discover that he was doing the lad harm by all sorts of
+indulgence and familiarity with him, a sort of hail-fellow-well-met way
+that surprised me more than I can express, when I discovered it on my
+last return visit to my old home. My father! who never tolerated
+anything but respect from all of us, who were accustomed to despotic
+government, I can assure you, was allowing Tom!--well, you were with
+him on the steamer," she broke off abruptly. The placid look was gone
+again in a flash.
+
+"Yes," said Mother Fisher, her black eyes full of sympathy; "don't let
+that trouble you, dear Mrs. Selwyn; Tom was pure gold down underneath--we
+saw that--and the rest is past."
+
+"Ah,"--the placid look came back as quickly--"that is my only comfort--that
+you did. For father told the whole, not sparing himself. Now he
+sees things in the right light; he says because your young people
+taught it to him. And he was cruelly disappointed because you couldn't
+come down to visit him in his home."
+
+"We couldn't," said Mother Fisher, in a sorry voice, at seeing the
+other face.
+
+"I understand--quite," said Tom's mother, with a gentle pressure of the
+hand she held. "And then the one pleasure he had was in picking out
+something for Polly."
+
+"Oh, if the little red leather case _had_ gone back to the poor
+old man!" ran through Mother Fisher's mind, possessing it at once.
+
+"I don't think his judgment was good, Mrs. Fisher, in the selection,"
+said Mrs. Selwyn, a small pink spot coming on either cheek; "but he
+loves Polly, and wanted to show it."
+
+"And he was so good to think of it," cried Mother Fisher, her heart
+warming more and more toward the little old earl.
+
+"And as he couldn't be turned from it, and his health is precarious if
+he is excited, why, there was nothing to be done about it. And then he
+insisted that Tom and I come off for a bit of a run on the Continent,
+the other children being with him. And as my big boy"--here a loving
+smile went all over the plain face, making it absolutely beautiful--"had
+worried down deep in his heart over the past, till I was more troubled
+than I can tell you, why, we came. And then God was good--for then we met
+you! Oh, Mrs. Fisher!"
+
+She drew her hands by a sudden movement away, and put them on Mother
+Fisher's shoulders. And then that British matron, rarely demonstrative
+with her own children, even, leaned over and kissed Polly's mother.
+
+"I can't see why it's so warm up here," said Polly, racing over to
+their bench, followed by the others. "Dear me, it's fairly hot." And
+she pulled off her jacket.
+
+"Don't do that, Polly," said her mother.
+
+"Oh, Mamsie, it's so very hot," said Polly; but she thrust her arms
+into the sleeves and pulled it on again.
+
+"I know; but you've been running," said Mrs. Fisher, "and have gotten
+all heated up."
+
+"Well, it's perfectly splendid to travel to places where we can run and
+race," said Polly, in satisfaction, throwing herself down on the rocks.
+The others all doing the same thing, Mr. King and the Parson and Mrs.
+Henderson found them, and pretty soon the group was a big one. "Well,
+well, we are all here together, no--where is Mrs. Gray?" asked Mr.
+King, presently.
+
+"She is resting in the hotel," said Mother Fisher, "fast asleep I think
+by this time."
+
+"Yes," said Adela, "she is. I just peeked in on her, and she hasn't
+moved where you tucked her up on the lounge."
+
+"Grandpapa," asked Polly, suddenly, from the centre of the group, "what
+makes it so very warm up here, when we are all surrounded by snow?"
+
+"You ask me a hard thing," said old Mr. King. "Well, for one thing, we
+are very near the Italian border; those peaks over there, you know,
+--follow my walking-stick as I point it,--are in sunny Italy."
+
+"Well, it is just like sunny Italy up here," said Polly, "I think,"
+blinking, and pulling her little cap over her eyes.
+
+"It's all the Italy you will get in the summer season," said Grandpapa.
+"You must wait for cold weather before I take one of you there."
+
+
+
+
+XXIV
+
+THE ROUND ROBIN
+
+
+"Dear me, how the summer is going!" mourned Polly, as they caught on
+the return journey the last glimpse of the roaring, tumbling Visp, and
+not all the craning of the necks could compass another view, as the
+cars drew them away from the rushing river.
+
+"Never mind, Polly," said Jasper, "there's all next summer; and after
+our winter in Dresden, and all our hard work over music, won't it be
+fine, though, to jaunt round again?" and his eyes glistened.
+
+"Dresden!" echoed Polly, sitting quite straight with very red cheeks;
+--"oh, Jasper!"
+
+The magic word, "Dresden," had unlocked visions of months of future
+delight, bringing back every word of dear Herr Bauricke; all the
+instruction he had given her, on those happy days at Lucerne, that
+Polly felt quite sure were engraven deep on her heart to last forever
+and ever.
+
+"And won't I study, though!" exclaimed Polly, to herself, "and make the
+professor that Herr Bauricke has engaged for me, glad that he teaches
+me, oh, won't I!"
+
+"Well, I'm sorry the summer is going," said Adela, "because then I've
+got to leave you at Paris, and go into school."
+
+"But you like your school," said Polly, brightly, "you've said so a
+dozen times, Adela."
+
+"Yes, I do," said Adela, "and I've got some sketches to take back, and
+Mademoiselle will be glad of that."
+
+"And you'll go on drawing and painting until you get to be a great
+artist," ran on Polly, enthusiastically, "and then we'll see something
+you've done, in the Louvre, maybe."
+
+"The Louvre!" cried Adela; "O dear me, Polly Pepper."
+
+"I don't care," said Polly, recklessly, pushing back the little rings
+of brown hair from her brow, "they'll be good enough, the pictures you
+are going to do, to put into the Louvre, anyway, Adela Gray."
+
+Tom Selwyn had been very sober during all this merry chatter; and now
+in his seat across the narrow aisle, he drummed his heels impatiently
+on the floor. His mother looked over at him, and slipping out of her
+seat, went over to him. "Any room here, Tom, for mother?" she said.
+
+"Oh,--ah,--I should say so!" Tom slipped out, gave her the window seat,
+then flew back.
+
+"Now, this is comfy," observed Mrs. Selwyn, as the train sped on. "Tom,
+see here!"
+
+"What's up, little mother?" asked Tom, in surprise, at her unusual
+manner.
+
+"It's just this, Tom. You know we are going to Chamonix and up the
+_Mer de Glace_ with Mr. King's party."
+
+Tom bobbed his head, not allowing himself to exclaim, "But that will be
+only a short journey, now, and we must soon say 'good-by.'"
+
+"Well, I've been thinking that I should like to go on to Geneva, and to
+Paris," continued Mrs. Selwyn, "only you dislike Paris so much, Tom,"
+she added.
+
+"Oh, you're the bulliest--I mean--excuse me--you're no end a brick--oh,
+I mean--I can't say what I mean," brought up Tom, in despair. And he
+ran one long arm around her neck very much to the detriment of her neat
+collar.
+
+"Then you can overcome your dislike to Paris enough to go there?" asked
+his mother, with a little twinkle in her eye.
+
+"My dislike!" roared Tom, "O dear me!" as everybody looked around.
+"Why, I just love Paris!" he finished in an awful whisper, close to the
+plain, black bonnet.
+
+When the news was circulated, as it was pretty soon, that the party was
+not to be broken into at all till Paris was a completed story, the
+jubilation was such as to satisfy even Tom. And as this particular
+party had the car entirely to themselves, it wasn't so very dreadful as
+it seems, and the elder members allowed indulgent smiles at it all.
+
+That night in the market-place at Martigny, Jasper, who was ahead with
+his father, ran back to Polly, and the others lingering behind. "Oh, do
+hurry," he begged, "it's the prettiest sight!"
+
+"Oh, what is it?" cried Polly, as they scampered off.
+
+There, in the centre of the market-place, was a ring of little girls,
+hand-in-hand, singing a little French song, and going round and round
+in a circle. They were of all ages and sizes, the littlest one in a
+blue pinafore, being about three years of age, and so chubby she had to
+be helped along continually by a big girl, evidently her sister. This
+big sister stopped the ring game, every now and then, to kiss the round
+face by the side of her gown; an example that was followed by so many
+of the other girls, that the game seemed to be never quite finished.
+And once in a while, big sister would pick up the chubby, little,
+blue-pinafored maiden and carry her through a considerable portion of
+the game, then down she would put her on her two chubby feet, and away
+they all circled without any break in the proceedings at all.
+
+"Oh! isn't it 'Oats, Peas, Beans, and Barley grow'?" cried Polly, as
+they watched them intently.
+
+"Ever so much like it," said Tom. "See those boys; now they are going
+to make trouble."
+
+"Oh, they sha'n't!" declared Polly. "O dear me!" as one boy drew near,
+on the side next to the travellers, and watching his chance, picked at
+a flying apron or two. But the ring of girls paid no more attention to
+him, than they had to any other outside matters, being wholly absorbed
+in the game. So Polly and the others breathed freely again.
+
+But up came another boy. "O dear me!" cried Polly, aghast. When number
+three put in an appearance, she gave up all hope at once.
+
+"They're jealous chaps," cried Tom, "and are vexed because they can't
+get into the game! Hear them jeer!" And his long arm went out and
+picked a jacket-end of an urchin, who, incautiously regarding such
+quiet travellers as not worth minding, had hovered too near, while
+trying to tease the girls.
+
+"Here, you, sir," cried Tom, with a bit of a shake, and a torrent of
+remarkably good French not to be disregarded; then he burst into a
+laugh. And the urchin laughed too, thinking this much better fun to
+tussle with the tall lad, than to hang around a parcel of girls. And
+presently a woman came and took little blue pinafore off, and then the
+rest of the girls unclasped their hands, and the ring melted away, and
+the game was over.
+
+"I'm glad the girls over here have fun," said Polly, as Grandpapa and
+his party moved off. "Isn't it nice to think they do?"
+
+"It isn't much matter where you live, there's a good deal to be gotten
+out of life; if you only know how," said the parson, thinking busily of
+the little brown house.
+
+Two or three days of rest at Martigny put everybody in good shape, and
+gave them all a bit of time to pick up on many little things that were
+behindhand. Tom looked over all his floral treasures, with their last
+additions made at the Riffelalp, and discarded such as hadn't pressed
+well. And Jasper and Polly rushed up to date with their journals, and
+wrote letters home; and Adela worked up her studies and sketches.
+
+Tom looked on silently when Polly and Jasper were scraping their pens
+in a lively fashion in the little writing room of the hotel. "That's my
+third letter, Polly," announced Jasper, on the other side of the table.
+"Now, I am going to begin on Joel's."
+
+"One, two," said Polly, counting, "why, I thought I'd written three;
+well, this one is most finished, Jasper."
+
+"Yes," said Jasper, glancing over at her, "is that your last page,
+Polly?"
+
+"Yes," said Polly, hurrying away. Then she thought of what Mamsie had
+said, and slackened her speed.
+
+Tom cleared his throat, and tried to speak, but the words wouldn't come
+nicely, so he burst out, "I say, I wish you'd write to my granddaddy,
+both of you," and then he stood quite still, and very red in the face.
+
+Polly looked up quickly, her pen dropping from her fingers, and Jasper
+deserted his fourth letter and stared.
+
+"Why," said Polly, finding her tongue, "we wouldn't dare, Tom Selwyn."
+
+"Dare!" said Tom, delighted to think that no terrible result had really
+ensued from his words, that after they were out, had scared him
+mightily. "Oh, if you knew granddaddy!" And he sank into a chair by the
+table, and played with the heap of picture postal cards that Polly was
+going to address next.
+
+"We might," said Polly, slowly, "write a letter, all of us. A kind of a
+Round Robin thing, you know, and send that."
+
+"So we could," cried Jasper; "how would that do, Tom?"
+
+"The very thing!" exclaimed Tom, striking his hand so heavily on the
+table, that for a minute it looked as if the ink-bottle hopped.
+
+"Take care, there's no reason you should knock things over because you
+are overjoyed," cried Jasper, gaily. "Well, let's leave our letters
+to-day, Polly, and set to on the Round Robin."
+
+"All right," said Polly, glad to think there was anything she could
+really do to please the little old earl, "but would your mother like
+it, Tom?" She stopped slowly in putting her unfinished letter into the
+little writing-case, and looked at him.
+
+"If you think there's a shadow of doubt on that score, I'd best run and
+ask her now." Tom got himself out of the chair, and himself from the
+room, and in an incredibly short space of time, back there he was. "My
+mother says, 'Thank Polly for thinking of it; it will do father more
+good than anything else could possibly do.'"
+
+"I don't suppose you want any more answer," said Tom, quite radiant,
+and looking down at Polly.
+
+"No, only I didn't think first of it," said Polly, in a distressed
+little tone.
+
+"Why, Polly Pepper!" exclaimed Tom, "I certainly heard you say 'Round
+Robin,' when I'll venture to say not a soul of us had even thought of
+it; we certainly hadn't said so."
+
+"Well, you spoke of the letter first," said Polly, unwilling to take
+the credit for all the comfort going to the little old earl, "and I
+shall tell your mother so, Tom."
+
+"But I didn't say 'Round Robin,'" persisted Tom, "wasn't smart enough
+to think of it."
+
+"And let's get to work," cried Jasper, huddling up his three letters.
+"I'll post yours, too, Polly; give them here."
+
+"O dear, my stamps are all gone," said Polly, peering into the little
+box in one corner of her writing-case.
+
+"I've plenty," said Jasper, hurrying off; "I'll stick on two for you."
+
+"Oh, no, Jasper," cried Polly, after him, "you know Mamsie would not
+allow me to borrow."
+
+"It isn't borrowing," said Jasper, turning back slowly. "I'll give them
+to you, Polly."
+
+"But Mamsie said when we started I should get my stamps when I needed
+them," said Polly. "You know she did, Jasper."
+
+"Yes, she did," said Jasper, uncomfortably. Then his face brightened,
+and he said, "And she's right, Polly," while Polly fished a franc out
+of Joel's little money-bag that hung at her belt. "Do get the stamps,
+please, Jasper, and put them on," as he took up her two letters. And
+she gave the bag a little pat for Joel's sake, wishing it was his
+stubby black hair that her fingers could touch.
+
+"Dear me, you are dreadfully particular about taking two postage
+stamps, seems to me," said Adela, who had taken that time, as she
+hadn't any letters to write, to work up one of her studies from memory
+of the Visp.
+
+Tom's blue eyes flashed dangerously, then he cleared his throat,
+whistled, and walked to the window.
+
+"I don't know where we are going to get nice white paper for our 'Round
+Robin,'" said Polly, leaning her elbows on the table, and her chin in
+her hands.
+
+"I know!" ejaculated Tom, whirling on his heel, and dashing out. In he
+came, swinging three or four goodly sheets. "Filched 'em out of the old
+woman's room," he said.
+
+"Oh, Tom!" began Polly.
+
+"I mean, the housekeeper--matron--conciergerie--whatever you call the
+gentle lady who runs this house--was fortunately at our desk where she
+has the pleasure of making up our bills, and I worked on her feelings
+till she parted with 'em," explained Tom.
+
+"Oh!" said Polly; "well, I'm glad she gave them."
+
+"Never you fear but what they'll be in our bills, Polly," said Tom, who
+couldn't believe by this time that he hadn't always known Polly Pepper.
+
+"It's dreadfully thin paper," said Adela, critically, getting off from
+the sofa to pick at one corner of the sheet Polly was beginning to
+divide.
+
+"I'm glad we have any," hummed Polly, happily.
+
+"Thank your stars you have," said Tom, as gaily. And Jasper running in,
+the table was soon surrounded by the makers of the Round Robin, Adela
+deserting her sketch-book and pulling up a chair.
+
+"And Phronsie must come," said Polly, snipping away to get the paper
+the right width. "O dear me, I can't cut it straight. Do you please
+finish it, Jasper."
+
+"That's all right," said Jasper, squinting at it critically, "only
+--just this edge wants a little bit of trimming, Polly." And he snipped
+off the offending points.
+
+"I'll fetch Phronsie," cried Tom, springing off.
+
+"And hurry," cried Polly and Jasper, together, after him.
+
+"Polly," said Phronsie, as Tom came careering in with her on his
+shoulder. "I want to write, too, I do," she cried, very much excited.
+
+"Of course, you shall, Pet. That's just what we want you for," cried
+Polly, clearing a place on the table; "there, do pull up a chair,
+Jasper."
+
+"Now, Phronsie, I think you would better begin, for you are the
+littlest," and she flapped the long strip down in front of her.
+
+"Oh, Polly, you begin," begged Tom.
+
+"No, I think Phronsie ought to," said Polly, shaking her head.
+
+"I want Polly to," said Phronsie, wriggling away from the pen that
+Polly held out alluringly.
+
+"But Polly wants you to," said Jasper. "I really would, Phronsie dear,
+to please her."
+
+To please Polly, being what Phronsie longed for next to pleasing
+Mamsie, she gave a small sigh and took the pen in unsteady fingers.
+
+"Wait a minute, Phronsie!" exclaimed Polly, in dismay, "I believe we've
+made a mistake, Jasper, and got the wrong sheet." And Polly turned off
+with him to examine the rest of the paper.
+
+Phronsie, who hadn't heard what Polly said, her small head being full
+of the responsibility of beginning the important letter, and
+considering, since it was to be done, it was best to have it over with
+as soon as possible, fell to scribbling the letters as fast as she
+could, all of them running down hill.
+
+"Well, I'm glad to see that we haven't made any mistake," cried Polly,
+turning back in relief. "Oh, Phronsie, you haven't begun!"
+
+She spoke so sharply that Phronsie started, and a little drop of ink
+trembling on the point of her pen concluded to hop off. So it did and
+jumped down on the clean white paper to stare up at them all like a
+very bad black eye.
+
+"Oh, see what she's written!" cried Polly, quite aghast, and tumbling
+into her chair, she pointed at the top.
+
+"Deer Mister Erl," scrawled clear across the top.
+
+"I didn't--mean--oh, you said do it, Polly." Phronsie threw herself out
+of her chair, and over into Polly's lap, burrowing and wailing
+piteously.
+
+"O dear me, how could I say anything?" cried Polly, overcome with
+remorse and patting Phronsie's yellow hair; "but it is so very
+dreadful. O dear me! Phronsie, there, there, don't cry. O dear me!"
+
+Tom's mouth trembled. "It's all right. Granddaddy'll like it," he said.
+
+"Oh, Tom Selwyn," gasped Polly, looking up over Phronsie's head, "you
+don't suppose we'd let that letter go."
+
+"I would," said Tom, coolly, running his hands in his pockets. "I tell
+you, you don't know my granddaddy. He's got lots of fun in him," he
+added.
+
+"Phronsie," said Jasper, rushing around the table, "you are making
+Polly sick. Just look at her face."
+
+Phronsie lifted her head where she had burrowed it under Polly's arm.
+When she saw that Polly's round cheeks were really quite pale, she
+stopped crying at once. "Are you sick, Polly?" she asked, in great
+concern.
+
+"I sha'n't be," said Polly, "if you won't cry any more, Phronsie."
+
+"I won't cry any more," declared Phronsie, wiping off the last tear
+trailing down her nose. "Then you will be all well, Polly?"
+
+"Then I shall be all as well as ever," said Polly, kissing the wet
+little face.
+
+When they got ready to begin on the letter again, it was nowhere to be
+found, and Tom had disappeared as well.
+
+"He took it out," said Adela, for the first time finding her tongue. "I
+saw him while you were all talking."
+
+While they were wondering over this and were plunged further yet in
+dismay, Tom came dancing in, waving the unlucky sheet of the Round
+Robin over his head. "My mother says," he announced in triumph, "that
+father will get no end of fun over that if you let it go. It will cheer
+him up."
+
+So that ended the matter, although Polly, who dearly loved to be
+elegant, had many a twinge whenever her eye fell on the letter at which
+Phronsie was now labouring afresh.
+
+"We must put in little pictures," said Polly, trying to make herself
+cheery as the work went busily on.
+
+"Polly, you always do think of the best things!" exclaimed Jasper,
+beaming at her, which made her try harder than ever to smile. "I
+wouldn't feel so badly, Polly," he managed to whisper, when Phronsie
+was absorbed with her work; "he'll like it probably just as father did
+the gingerbread boy."
+
+"But that was different," groaned Polly.
+
+"Pictures!" Tom Selwyn was saying, "oh, there's where I can come in
+fine with assistance. I'm no good in a letter." And again he rushed
+from the room.
+
+"That's three times that boy has gone out," announced Adela, "and he
+joggles the table awfully when he starts. And he made me cut clear into
+that edge. See, Polly." She was trimming the third strip of paper, for
+the Round Robin was to be pasted together and rolled up when it was all
+done.
+
+"He seems to accomplish something every time he goes," observed Jasper,
+drily. "Halloo, just look at him now!"
+
+In came Tom with a rush, and turned a small box he held in his hand
+upside down on the table.
+
+"O dear me!" exclaimed Adela, as her scissors slipped, "now you've
+joggled the table again!" Then she caught Polly's eye. "Aren't those
+pictures pretty?" she burst out awkwardly.
+
+"Aren't they so!" cried Tom, in satisfaction, while Polly oh-ed and
+ah-ed, and Phronsie dropped her pen suddenly making a second blot; only as
+good fortune would have it, it was so near the edge that they all on
+anxious examination decided to trim the paper down, and thus get rid of
+it.
+
+"I don't see how you got so many," said Jasper, in admiration, his
+fingers busy with the heap.
+
+"Oh, I've picked 'em up here and there," said Tom. "I began because I
+thought the kids at home might like 'em. And then it struck me I'd make
+a book like yours."
+
+"Well, do save them now," said Jasper, "and we'll give some of our
+pictures, though the prettiest ones are in our books," he added
+regretfully.
+
+"Rather not--much obliged," Tom bobbed his thanks. "I want to donate
+something to granddaddy, and I tell you I'm something awful at a
+letter."
+
+"All right, seeing you wish it so," said Jasper, with a keen look at
+him, "and these are beauties and no mistake; we couldn't begin to equal
+them."
+
+When the letter was finally unrolled and read to Grandpapa, who strayed
+into the reading room to see what Phronsie was doing, it certainly was
+a beauty. Picture after picture, cut from railroad guide books,
+illustrated papers, and it seemed to Jasper gathered as if by magic,
+with cunning little photographs, broke up the letter, and wound in and
+out with funny and charming detail of some of their journey.
+
+"I wrote that all myself," hummed Phronsie, smoothing her gown, in
+great satisfaction, pointing to the opening of the letter.
+
+"O dear me!" exclaimed Polly, softly, for she couldn't even yet get
+over that dreadful beginning.
+
+"The rest of it is nice," whispered Jasper, "and I venture to say,
+he'll like that the best of all."
+
+Mr. King thought so, too, and he beamed at Phronsie. "So you did," he
+cried; "now that's fine. I wish you'd write me a letter sometime."
+
+"I'm going to write you one now," declared Phronsie. Since Grandpapa
+wanted anything, it was never too soon to begin work on it.
+
+"Do," cried old Mr. King, in great satisfaction. So he put down the
+Round Robin, Adela crying out that she wanted her grandmother to see
+it; and Polly saying that Mamsie, and Papa-Doctor, and the Parson and
+Mrs. Henderson must see it; "and most important of all," said Jasper,
+breaking into the conversation, "Mrs. Selwyn must say if it is all
+right to go."
+
+At that Polly began to have little "creeps" as she always called the
+shivers. "O dear me!" she exclaimed again, and turned quite pale.
+
+"You don't know my mother," exclaimed Tom, "if you think she won't like
+that. She's got lots of fun in her, and she always sees the sense of a
+thing."
+
+"But she's so nice," breathed Polly, who greatly admired Mrs. Selwyn,
+"and so elegant."
+
+Tom bobbed his head and accepted this as a matter of course. "That's
+the very reason she understands things like a shot--and knows how to
+take 'em," he said; "and I tell you, Polly," he declared with a burst
+of confidence that utterly surprised him, "I'd rather have my mother
+than any other company I know of; she's awful good fun!"
+
+"I know it," said Polly, brightly, with a little answering smile.
+"Well, I hope she'll like it."
+
+"Never you fear," cried Tom, seizing the Round Robin; and waving it
+over his head, it trailed off back of him like a very long and broad
+ribbon. "Come on, now, all fall into line!"
+
+"Take care!" cried Jasper, as he ran after with Polly and Adela, "if
+you dare to tear that, sir!" while Phronsie at the big table laboured
+away on her letter, Grandpapa sitting by to watch the proceedings, with
+the greatest interest.
+
+And one look at Mrs. Selwyn's face, as she read that Round Robin, was
+enough for Polly! And then to post it.
+
+"Dear me," said Polly, when that important matter was concluded,
+"suppose anything should happen to it now, before it gets there!"
+
+
+
+
+XXV
+
+ON THE _MER DE GLACE_
+
+
+"Well, we can't all get into one carriage," said Polly, on the little
+brick-paved veranda of the hotel, "so what is the use of fussing,
+Adela?"
+
+"I don't care," said Adela, "I'm going to ride in the same carriage
+with you, Polly Pepper, so there!" and she ran her arm in Polly's, and
+held it fast.
+
+Jasper kicked his heel impatiently against one of the pillars where the
+sweetbrier ran; then he remembered, and stopped suddenly, hoping nobody
+had heard. "The best way to fix it is to go where we are put," he said
+at last, trying to speak pleasantly.
+
+"No, I'm going with Polly," declared Adela, perversely, holding Polly
+tighter than ever.
+
+"I'm going with you, Polly," cried Phronsie, running up gleefully,
+"Grandpapa says I may."
+
+"Well, so am I," announced Adela, loudly.
+
+Tom Selwyn gave a low whistle, and thrust his hands in his pockets, his
+great and only comfort on times like these.
+
+"Anything but a greedy girl," he sniffed in lofty contempt.
+
+Meanwhile the horses were being put in the carriages, the stable men
+were running hither and thither to look to buckle and strap, and a lot
+of bustle was going on that at any other time would have claimed the
+boys. Now it fell flat, as a matter of interest.
+
+"Halloo--k-lup!" The drivers gave the queer call clear down in their
+throats, and hopped to their places on the three conveyances, and with
+a rattle and a flourish the horses now spun around the fountain in the
+little courtyard to come up with a swing to the veranda.
+
+"Now, then," said Grandpapa, who had been overseeing every detail,
+"here we are," running his eyes over his party; "that's right," in
+great satisfaction. "I never saw such a family as I have for being
+prompt on all occasions. Well then, the first thing I have to do is to
+get you settled in these carriages the right way."
+
+Adela, at that, snuggled up closer than ever to Polly, and gripped her
+fast.
+
+"Now, Mrs. Fisher," said old Mr. King, "you'll ride with Mrs. Selwyn in
+the first carriage, and you must take two of the young folks in with
+you."
+
+"Oh, let Polly and me go in there!" cried Adela, forgetting her
+wholesome fear of the stately old gentleman in her anxiety to get her
+own way.
+
+"Polly is going with me and Phronsie," said Mr. King. "Hop in, Adela,
+child, and one of you boys."
+
+Tom ducked off the veranda, while Adela, not daring to say another
+syllable, slowly withdrew her arm from Polly's and mounted the carriage
+step, with a miserable face.
+
+"Come on, one of you boys," cried Mr. King, impatiently. "We should
+have started a quarter of an hour ago--I don't care which one, only
+hurry."
+
+"I can't!" declared Tom, flatly, grinding his heel into the pebbles,
+and looking into Jasper's face.
+
+"Very well,"--Jasper drew a long breath,--"I must, then." And without
+more ado, he got into the first carriage and they rattled off to wait
+outside the big gate till the procession was ready to start.
+
+Old Mrs. Gray, the parson's wife and the parson, and little Dr. Fisher
+made the next load, and then Grandpapa, perfectly delighted that he had
+arranged it all so nicely, with Polly and Phronsie, climbed into the
+third and last carriage, while Tom swung himself up as a fourth.
+
+"They say it is a difficult thing to arrange carriage parties with
+success," observed Mr. King. "I don't find it so in the least," he
+added, complacently, just on the point of telling the driver to give
+the horses their heads. "But that is because I've such a fine party on
+my hands, where each one is willing to oblige, and--"
+
+"Ugh!" exclaimed Tom Selwyn, with a snort that made the old gentleman
+start. "I'm going to get out a minute--excuse me--can't explain." And
+he vaulted over the wheel.
+
+"Bless me, what's come to the boy!" exclaimed Mr. King; "now he's
+forgotten something. I hope he won't be long."
+
+But Tom didn't go into the hotel. Instead, he dashed up to carriage
+number one. "Get out," he was saying to Jasper, and presenting a very
+red face to view. "I'm going in here."
+
+"Oh, no," said Jasper; "it's all fixed, and I'm going to stay here."
+And despite all Tom could say, this was the sole reply he got. So back
+he went, and climbed into old Mr. King's carriage again, with a very
+rueful face.
+
+Old Mr. King viewed him with cold displeasure as the driver smacked his
+whip and off they went to join the rest of the party.
+
+"You must go first," sang out the little doctor, as Grandpapa's
+carriage drove up; "you are the leader, and we'll all follow you."
+
+"Yes, yes," shouted the parson, like a boy.
+
+And the occupants of carriage number one saying the same thing,
+Grandpapa's conveyance bowled ahead; and he, well pleased to head the
+procession, felt some of his displeasure at the boy sitting opposite to
+him dropping off with each revolution of the wheels.
+
+But Tom couldn't keep still. "I didn't want to come in this carriage,
+sir!" he burst out.
+
+"Eh! what?" Old Mr. King brought his gaze again to bear upon Tom's
+face.
+
+"Well, you are here now," he said, only half comprehending.
+
+"Because Jasper won't take the place," cried Tom, setting his teeth
+together in distress. "That's what I got out for."
+
+"Oh, I see," said Mr. King, a light beginning to break through.
+
+Tom wilted miserably under the gaze that still seemed to go through and
+through him, and Polly looked off at her side of the carriage, wishing
+the drive over the _Tête Noire_ was all ended. Old Mr. King turned
+to Phronsie at his side.
+
+"Well, now," he said, taking her hand, "we are in a predicament,
+Phronsie, for it evidently isn't going to be such an overwhelming
+success as I thought."
+
+"What is a predicament?" asked Phronsie, wrenching her gaze from the
+lovely vine-clad hills, which she had been viewing with great
+satisfaction, to look at once into his face.
+
+"Oh, a mix-up; a mess generally," answered Grandpapa, not pausing to
+choose words. "Well, what's to be done, now,--that is the question?"
+
+Tom groaned at sight of the face under the white hair, from which all
+prospect of pleasure had fled. "I was a beastly cad," he muttered to
+himself.
+
+Phronsie leaned over Mr. King's knee. "Tell me," she begged, "what is
+it, Grandpapa?"
+
+"Oh, nothing, child," said Grandpapa, with a glance at Polly's face,
+"that you can help, at least."
+
+Polly drew a long breath. "Something must be done," she decided. "Oh, I
+know. Why, Grandpapa, we can change before we get to the halfway
+place," she cried suddenly, glad to think of something to say. "Can't
+we? And then we can all have different places."
+
+"The very thing!" exclaimed Mr. King, his countenance lightening.
+"Come, Tom, my boy, cheer up. I'll put Jasper and every one else in the
+right place soon. Here you, stop a bit, will you?"--to the driver.
+
+"K-lup!" cried the driver, thinking it a call to increase speed; so the
+horses bounded on smartly for several paces, and no one could speak to
+advantage.
+
+"Make him hold up, Tom!" commanded Mr. King, sharply. And Tom knowing
+quite well how to accomplish this, Grandpapa soon stood up in the
+carriage and announced, "In half an hour, or thereabout, if we come to
+a good stopping-place, I shall change some of you twelve people about
+in the carriages. Pass the word along."
+
+But Adela didn't ride with Polly. For rushing and pushing as the change
+about was effected, to get her way and be with Polly, she felt her arm
+taken in a very light but firm grasp.
+
+"No, no, my dear,"--it was old Mr. King,--"not that way. Here is your
+place. When a little girl pushes, she doesn't get as much as if she
+waits to be asked."
+
+"It had to be done," he said to himself, "for the poor child has had no
+mother to teach her, and it will do her good." But he felt sorry for
+himself to be the one to teach the lesson. And so they went over the
+_Tête Noire_ to catch the first sight of Mont Blanc.
+
+      *      *      *      *      *
+
+"I'm going to have a donkey for my very own," confided Phronsie,
+excitedly, the next morning, to Jasper, whom she met in the little
+sun-parlour.
+
+"No!" cried Jasper, pretending to be much amazed, "you don't say so,
+Phronsie!"
+
+"Yes, I am," she cried, bobbing her yellow head. "Grandpapa said so; he
+really did, Jasper. And I'm going to ride up that long, big mountain on
+my donkey." She pointed up and off, but in the wrong direction.
+
+"Oh, no, Phronsie, that isn't the way we are going. The Montanvert is
+over here, child," corrected Jasper.
+
+"And I'm going to ride my donkey," repeated Phronsie, caring little
+which way she was going, since all roads must of course lead to
+fairy-land, "and we're going to see the water that's frozen, and
+Grandpapa says we are to walk over it; but I'd rather ride my donkey,
+Jasper," confided Phronsie, in a burst of confidence.
+
+"I guess you'll be glad enough to get off from your donkey by the time
+you reach the top of Montanvert," observed Jasper, wisely.
+
+"Well, now, Phronsie, we are not going for a day or two, you know, for
+father doesn't wish us to be tired."
+
+"I'm not a bit tired, Jasper," said Phronsie, "and I do so very much
+wish we could go to-day."
+
+"O dear me!" exclaimed Jasper, with a little laugh, "why, we've only
+just come, Phronsie! It won't be so very long before we'll be off.
+Goodness! the time flies so here, it seems to me we sha'n't hardly turn
+around before those donkeys will be coming into this yard after us to
+get on their backs."
+
+But Phronsie thought the time had never dragged so in all her small
+life; and, although she went about hanging to Grandpapa's hand as sweet
+and patient as ever, all her mind was on the donkeys; and whenever she
+saw one,--and the street was full, especially at morning and in the
+late afternoon, of the little beasts of burden, clattering up the stony
+roads,--she would beg to just go and pat one of the noses, if by chance
+one of the beasts should stand still long enough to admit of such
+attention.
+
+"Oh, no, Phronsie," expostulated old Mr. King, when this pleasing
+little performance had been indulged in for a half a dozen times. "You
+can't pat them all; goodness me, child, the woods are full of them," he
+brought up in dismay.
+
+"Do they live in the woods?" asked Phronsie, in astonishment.
+
+"I mean, the place--this whole valley of Chamonix is full of donkeys,"
+said Grandpapa, "so you see, child, it's next to impossible to pat all
+their noses."
+
+"I hope I'm going to have that dear, sweet little one," cried Phronsie,
+giving up all her mind, since the soft noses couldn't be patted, to
+happy thoughts of to-morrow's bliss. "See, Grandpapa," she pulled his
+hand gently, "to ride up the mountain on."
+
+"Well, you'll have a good one, that is, as good as can be obtained,"
+said the old gentleman; "but as for any particular one, why, they're
+all alike to me as two peas, Phronsie."
+
+But Phronsie had her own ideas on the subject, and though on every
+other occasion agreeing with Grandpapa, she saw good and sufficient
+reason why every donkey should be entirely different from every other
+donkey. And when, on the next morning, their procession of donkeys
+filed solemnly into the hotel yard, she screamed out, "Oh, Grandpapa,
+here he is, the very one I wanted! Oh, may I have him? Put me up, do!"
+
+"He's the worst one of the whole lot," groaned Grandpapa, his eye
+running over the file, "I know by the way he puts his vicious old feet
+down. Phronsie, here is a cunning little fellow," he added, artfully
+trying to lead her to one a few degrees better, he fondly hoped. But
+Phronsie already had her arms up by her particular donkey's neck, and
+her cheek laid against his nose, and she was telling him that he was
+her donkey, for she thought Grandpapa would say "Yes." So what else
+could he do, pray tell, but say "Yes"? And she mounted the steps, and
+was seated, her little brown gown pulled out straight, and the saddle
+girth tightened, and all the other delightful and important details
+attended to, and then the reins were put in her overjoyed hands.
+
+She never knew how it was all done, seeing nothing, hearing nothing of
+the confusion and chatter, of the mounting of the others, her gaze
+fixed on the long ears before her, and only conscious that her very own
+donkey was really there, and that she was on his back. And it was not
+until they started and the guide who held her bridle loped off into an
+easy pace, by the animal's head, that she aroused from her dream of
+bliss as a sudden thought struck her. "What is my donkey's name?" she
+asked softly.
+
+The man loped on, not hearing, and he wouldn't have understood had he
+heard.
+
+"I don't believe he has any name," said old Mr. King just behind.
+"Phronsie, is your saddle all right? Do you like it, child?" all in one
+breath.
+
+"I like it very much," answered Phronsie, trying to turn around.
+
+"Don't do that, child," said Grandpapa, hastily. "Sit perfectly still,
+and on no account turn around or move in the saddle."
+
+"I won't, Grandpapa," she promised, obediently, and presently she began
+again, "I want to know his name, Grandpapa, so that I can tell my pony
+when I get home."
+
+"Oh, well, we'll find out," said Grandpapa. "Here you, can't you tell
+the name of that donkey?" he cried to the guide holding Phronsie's
+bridle. "Oh, I forgot, he doesn't understand English," and he tried it
+in French.
+
+But this was not much better, for old Mr. King, preferring to use none
+but the best of French when he employed any, was only succeeding in
+mystifying the poor man so that he couldn't find his tongue at all, but
+stared like a clod till the old gentleman's patience was exhausted.
+
+At last Jasper, hearing what the trouble was, shouted out something
+from his position in the rear, that carried the meaning along with it,
+and Phronsie the next minute was delighted to hear "Boolah," as the
+guide turned and smiled and showed all his teeth at her, his pleasure
+was so great at discovering that he could really understand.
+
+"Why, that's the name of my donkey," said Polly, patting the beast's
+rough neck. "He told me so when he helped me to mount."
+
+"So it is mine," announced Jasper, bursting into a laugh. "I guess they
+only have one name for the whole lot."
+
+"Well, don't let us tell Phronsie so," said Polly, "and I shall call
+mine 'Greybeard' because he's got such a funny old stiff beard and it
+is grey."
+
+"And I shall christen mine 'Boneyard,'" declared Jasper, "for he's got
+such a very big lot of bones, and they aren't funny, I can tell you."
+
+And so with fun and nonsense and laughter, as soon as they wound around
+by the little English church and across the meadows, and struck into
+the pine wood, the whole party of twelve, Grandpapa and all, began to
+sing snatches from the newest operas down to college songs. For
+Grandpapa hadn't forgotten his college days when he had sung with the
+best, and he had the parson on this occasion to keep him company, and
+the young people, of course, knew all the songs by heart, as what young
+person doesn't, pray tell! So the bits and snatches rolled out with a
+gusto, and seemed to echo along the whole mountain side as the
+procession of sure-footed animals climbed the steep curves.
+
+"Oh, Polly, your donkey is going over," exclaimed Adela, who rode the
+second in the rear after Polly; "he flirts his hind legs right over the
+precipice every time you go round a curve."
+
+"Well, he brings them round all right," said Polly, composedly; and,
+with a little laugh, "Oh, isn't this too lovely for anything!" she
+cried, with sparkling eyes.
+
+"Well, don't let him," cried Adela, huddling up on her donkey, and
+pulling at the rein to make him creep closer to the protecting earth
+wall.
+
+"Na--na," one of the guides ran up to her, shaking his head. Adela,
+fresh from her Paris school had all her French, of the best kind too,
+at her tongue's end, but she seemed to get on no better than Mr. King.
+
+"My French is just bad enough to be useful," laughed Jasper. So he
+untangled the trouble again, and made Adela see that she really must
+not pull at her bridle, but allow the donkey to go his own gait, for
+they were all trained to it.
+
+"Your French is just beautiful," cried Polly. "Oh, Jasper, you know
+Monsieur always says--"
+
+"Don't, Polly," begged Jasper, in great distress.
+
+"No, I won't," promised Polly, "and I didn't mean to. But I couldn't
+help it, Jasper, when you spoke against your beautiful French."
+
+"We've all heard you talk French, Jasper, so you needn't feel so cut up
+if Polly should quote your Monsieur," cried Tom, who, strange to say,
+no matter how far he chanced to ride in the rear, always managed to
+hear everything.
+
+"That's because we are everlastingly turning a corner," he explained,
+when they twitted him for it, "and as I'm near the end of the line I
+get the benefit of the doubling and twisting, for the front is always
+just above me. So don't say anything you don't want me to hear, old
+fellow," he sang out to Jasper on the bridle path "just above," as Tom
+had said.
+
+"Now, don't you want to get off?" cried Jasper, deserting his donkey,
+and running up to Phronsie, as they reached the summit and drew up
+before the hotel.
+
+"Oh, somebody take that child off," groaned old Mr. King, accepting the
+arm of the guide to help him dismount, "for I can't. Every separate and
+distinct bone in my body protests against donkeys from this time forth
+and forevermore. And yet I've got to go down on one," he added
+ruefully.
+
+"No, I don't want to get down," declared Phronsie, still holding fast
+to the reins; "can't I sit on my donkey, Jasper, while you all walk
+over on the frozen water?"
+
+"Oh, my goodness, no!" gasped Jasper. "Why, Phronsie, you'd be tired to
+death--the very idea, child!"
+
+"No," said Phronsie, shaking her yellow hair obstinately, "I wouldn't
+be tired one single bit, Jasper. And I don't want to get down from my
+donkey."
+
+"Well, if you didn't go over the _Mer de Glace_, why, we couldn't
+any of us go," said Jasper, at his wits' end how to manage it without
+worrying his father, already extremely tired, he could see, "and that's
+what we've come up for--"
+
+Phronsie dropped the reins. "Take me down, please, Jasper," she said,
+putting out her arms.
+
+"How are you now, father?" cried Jasper, running over to him when he
+had set Phronsie on the ground.
+
+"It's astonishing," said old Mr. King, stretching his shapely limbs,
+"but all that dreadful sensation I always have after riding on one of
+those atrocious animals is disappearing fast."
+
+"That's good," cried Jasper, in delight. "Well, I suppose we are all
+going to wait a bit?" he asked, and longing to begin the tramp over the
+_Mer de Glace_.
+
+"Wait? Yes, indeed, every blessed one of us," declared his father.
+"Goodness me, Jasper, what are you thinking of to ask such a question,
+after this pull up here? Why, we sha'n't stir from this place for an
+hour."
+
+"I supposed we'd have to wait," said Jasper, rushing off over the
+rocks, feeling how good it was to get down on one's feet again, and run
+and race. And getting Polly and Tom and Adela, they ran down where the
+donkeys were tethered and saw them fed, and did a lot of exploring; and
+it didn't seem any time before an Alpine horn sounded above their
+heads, and there was Grandpapa, tooting away and calling them to come
+up and buy their woollen socks; for they were going to start.
+
+So they scrambled up, and picked out their socks, and, each seizing a
+pair in one hand and an alpenstock with a long, sharp spike on the end
+in the other, they ran off down the zigzag path to the glacier, two or
+three guides helping the others along. At the foot of the rocky path
+the four drew up.
+
+"O dear, it's time to put on these horrible old stockings," grumbled
+Adela, shaking hers discontentedly.
+
+"'Good old stockings,' you'd much better say," broke in Jasper.
+
+"They're better than a broken neck," observed Tom, just meaning to ask
+Polly if he could put hers on for her. But he was too slow in getting
+at it, and Jasper was already kneeling on the rocks and doing that very
+thing.
+
+"Now I'm all ready," announced Polly, stamping her feet, arrayed in
+marvellous red-and-white striped affairs. "Thank you, Jasper. Oh, how
+funny they feel!"
+
+"Shall I help you?" asked Tom, awkwardly enough, of Adela.
+
+"Oh, I don't want them on, and I don't mean to wear them," said Adela,
+with a sudden twist. "I'm going to throw them away."
+
+"Then you'll just have to stay back," said Jasper, decidedly, "for no
+one is to be allowed on that glacier who doesn't put on a pair."
+
+"I won't slip--the idea!" grumbled Adela. Yet she stuck out her foot,
+and Tom, getting down on his knees, suppressed a whistle as he securely
+tied them on. Then the boys flew into theirs instanter.
+
+"Mine are blue," said Phronsie, as the others filed slowly down the
+winding path between the rocks, and she pointed to the pair dangling
+across her arm. "I am so very glad they are blue, Grandpapa."
+
+"So am I, Pet," he cried, delighted to find that he was apparently as
+agile as the parson. No one could hope to equal little Dr. Fisher, who
+was here, there, and everywhere, skipping about among the rocks like a
+boy let loose from school.
+
+"Well, well, the children are all ready," exclaimed old Mr. King,
+coming upon the four, impatient to begin their icy walk.
+
+"Didn't you expect it?" cried little Dr. Fisher, skipping up.
+
+"Well, to say the truth, I did," answered old Mr. King, with a laugh.
+"Now, Phronsie, sit down on that rock, and let the guide tie on your
+stockings." So Phronsie's little blue stockings were tied on, and after
+Grandpapa had gallantly seen that everybody else was served, he had his
+pulled on over his boots and fastened securely, and the line of march
+was taken up.
+
+"You go ahead, father," begged Jasper, "and we'll all follow."
+
+So old Mr. King, with Phronsie and a guide on her farther side, led the
+way, and the red stockings and the brown and the black, and some of
+indescribable hue, moved off upon the _Mer de Glace_.
+
+"It's dreadfully dirty," said Adela, turning up her nose. "I thought a
+glacier was white when you got up to it."
+
+"Oh, I think it is lovely!" cried Polly; "and that green down in the
+crevasse--look, Adela!"
+
+"It's a dirty green," persisted Adela, whose artistic sense wouldn't be
+satisfied. "O dear me!" as her foot slipped and she clutched Mrs.
+Henderson, who happened to be next.
+
+"Now, how about the woollen stockings?" asked Tom, while Polly and
+Jasper both sang out, "Take care," and "Go slowly."
+
+Adela didn't answer, but stuck the sharp end of her alpenstock smartly
+into the ice.
+
+"Something is the matter with my stocking," at last said the parson's
+wife, stopping and holding out her right foot.
+
+The guide nearest her stopped, too, and kneeling down on the ice, he
+pulled it into place, for it had slipped half off.
+
+"Now be very careful," warned Grandpapa, "and don't venture too near
+the edge," as he paused with Phronsie and the guide. The others, coming
+up, looked down into a round, green pool of water that seemed to stare
+up at them, as if to say, "I am of unknown depth, so beware of me."
+
+"That gives me the 'creeps,' Polly, as you say," Mrs. Henderson
+observed. "Dear me, I shall never forget how that green water looks;"
+and she shivered and edged off farther yet. "Supposing any one
+_should_ fall in!"
+
+"Well, he'd go down right straight through the globe, seems to me,"
+said Tom, with a last look at the pool as they turned off, "It looks as
+if it had no end, till one would fetch up on the other side."
+
+"I love to hop over these little crevasses," said Polly, and suiting
+the action to the word.
+
+"Something is the matter with my stocking again," announced Mrs.
+Henderson to the guide, presently. "I am sorry to trouble you, but it
+needs to be fixed."
+
+He didn't understand the words, but there was no mistaking the foot
+thrust out with the woollen sock, now wet and sodden, half off again.
+So he kneeled down and pulled it on once more.
+
+Before they reached the other side, the parson's wife had had that
+stocking pulled on six times, until at last, the guide, finding no more
+pleasure in a repetition of the performance, took a string from his
+pocket, and bunching up in his fist a good portion of the stocking
+heel, he wound the string around it and tied it fast, cut off the
+string, and returned the rest to his pocket.
+
+"Why do you tie up the heel?" queried Mrs. Henderson. "I should think
+it much better to secure it in front." But he didn't understand, and
+the rest were quite a good bit in advance, and hating to give trouble,
+she went on, the stocking heel sticking out a few inches. But she kept
+it on her foot, so that might be called a success.
+
+The little Widow Gray was not going over the _Mauvais Pas_,
+neither was Mrs. Selwyn, as she had traversed it twice before. So, on
+reaching the other side, they were just about bidding good-by to the
+others, when, without a bit of warning, the parson's wife, in turning
+around, fell flat, and disappeared to the view of some of them behind a
+boulder of ice.
+
+All was confusion in an instant. The guides rushed--everybody rushed
+--pellmell to the rescue; Tom's long legs, as usual, getting him there
+first. There she was in a heap, in a depression of ice and snow and
+water.
+
+"I'm all right, except"--and she couldn't help a grimace of pain--"my
+foot."
+
+The little doctor swept them all to one side, as they seated her on one
+of the boulders of ice. "Humph! I should think likely," at sight of the
+tied-up stocking heel. "You stepped on that, and it flung you straight
+as a die and turned your foot completely over."
+
+"Yes," said Mrs. Henderson. Then she saw the guide who had tied the
+stocking looking on with a face of great concern. "Oh, don't say
+anything, it makes him feel badly," she mumbled, wishing her foot
+wouldn't ache so.
+
+Little Dr. Fisher was rapidly untying the unlucky stocking; and,
+whipping off the boot, he soon made sure that no ligaments were broken.
+Then he put on the boot and the woollen sock, being careful to tie it
+in front over the instep, and whipping out his big handkerchief he
+proceeded to bandage the ankle in a truly scientific way. "Now, then,
+Mrs. Henderson, you are all right to take the walk slowly back to the
+hotel."
+
+Parson Henderson took his wife's hand. "Come, Sarah," he said, gently
+helping her up.
+
+"Oh, you are going over the _Mauvais Pas_," she cried in distress
+at the thought of his missing it.
+
+"Come, Sarah," he said gently, keeping her hand in his.
+
+"I'll go back with her too," said little Dr. Fisher.
+
+"Oh, Adoniram!" exclaimed his wife, but it was under her breath, and no
+one heard the exclamation.
+
+"I think Dr. Fisher ought to go with the other party; he will be needed
+there," Mrs. Selwyn was saying, in her quiet way. "And I will bathe
+Mrs. Henderson's foot just as he says it should be done, so good-by,"
+and any one looking down with a field glass from the Montanvert hotel,
+could have seen at this point, two parties, one proceeding to the
+_Mauvais Pas_ and the _Chapeau_, and the other of three ladies,
+the parson and a guide, wending their way slowly on the return across
+the crevasses.
+
+
+
+
+XXVI
+
+"WELL, HERE WE ARE IN PARIS!"
+
+
+Notwithstanding all the glory of the shops, and the tempting array of
+the jewellery and trinkets of every description therein displayed,
+after a few days of sailing on the exquisite lake, and some walks and
+drives, Polly, down deep in her heart, was quite ready to move on from
+Geneva. And, although she didn't say anything, old Mr. King guessed as
+much, and broke out suddenly, "Well, are you ready to start, Polly?"
+
+"Yes, Grandpapa," she answered. "I have the presents for the girls. I'm
+all ready."
+
+"Why, Polly, you haven't anything for yourself," Mother Fisher
+exclaimed, as Polly ran into her room and told the news--how Grandpapa
+said they were to pack up and leave in the morning. "You haven't bought
+a single thing."
+
+"Oh, I don't want anything," said Polly. "I've so many things at home
+that Grandpapa has given me. Mamsie, isn't this pin for Alexia just too
+lovely for anything?"
+
+She curled up on the end of the bed, and drew it out of its little box.
+"I think she'll like it," with anxious eyes on Mother Fisher's face.
+
+"Like it?" repeated her mother. "How can she help it, Polly?"
+
+"I think so too," said Polly, happily, replacing it on the bed of
+cotton, and putting on the cover to look over another gift.
+
+Mrs. Fisher regarded her keenly. "Well, now, Polly," she said,
+decidedly, "I shall go down and get that chain we were looking at. For
+you do need that, and your father and I are going to give it to you."
+
+"Oh, Mamsie," protested Polly, "I don't need it; really, I don't."
+
+"Well, we shall give it to you," said Mother Fisher. Then she went over
+to the bed and dropped a kiss on Polly's brown hair.
+
+"Mamsie," exclaimed Polly, springing off the bed, and throwing her arms
+around her mother's neck, "I shall love that chain, and I shall wear it
+just all the time because you and Papa-Doctor gave it to me."
+
+When they neared Paris, Adela drew herself up in her corner of the
+compartment. "I expect you'll stare some when you get to Paris, Polly
+Pepper."
+
+"I've been staring all the time since we started on our journey, Adela,
+as hard as I could," said Polly, laughing.
+
+"Well, you'll stare worse than ever now," said Adela, in an important
+way. "There isn't anything in all this world that isn't in Paris," she
+brought up, not very elegantly.
+
+"I don't like Paris." Tom let the words out before he thought.
+
+"That's just because you are a boy," sniffed Adela. "Oh, Polly, you
+ought to see the shops! When Mademoiselle has taken us into some, I
+declare I could stay all day in one. Such dreams of clothes and
+bonnets! You never saw such bonnets, Polly Pepper, in all your life!"
+She lifted her hands, unable to find words enough.
+
+"And the parks and gardens, I suppose, are perfectly lovely," cried
+Polly, feeling as if she must get away from the bonnets and clothes.
+
+"Yes, and the Bois de Boulogne to drive in, that's elegant. Only
+Mademoiselle won't take us there very often. I wish I was rich, and I'd
+have a span of long-tailed, grey horses, and drive up and down there
+every day."
+
+Polly laughed. "Well, I should like the tram-ways and the stages," said
+Polly.
+
+"Oh, those don't go into the Bois de Boulogne," cried Adela, in a tone
+of horror. "Why, Polly Pepper, what are you thinking of?" she
+exclaimed.
+
+This nettled Tom. "Of something besides clothes and bonnets," he broke
+out. Then he was sorry he had spoken.
+
+"Well, there's the Louvre," said Polly, after an uncomfortable little
+pause.
+
+"Yes," said Adela, "that's best of all, and it doesn't cost anything;
+so Mademoiselle takes us there very often."
+
+"I should think it would be," cried Polly, beaming at her, and
+answering the first part of Adela's sentence. "Oh, Adela, I do so long
+to see it."
+
+"And you can't go there too often, Polly," said Jasper.
+
+"It's the only decent thing in Paris," said Tom, "that I like, I mean;
+that, and to sail up and down on the Seine."
+
+"We'll go there the first day, Polly," said Jasper, "the Louvre, I
+mean. Well, here we are in Paris!" And then it was all confusion, for
+the guards were throwing open the doors to the compartments, and
+streams of people were meeting on the platform, in what seemed to be
+inextricable confusion amid a babel of sounds. And it wasn't until
+Polly was driving up in the big cab with her part of Mr. King's
+"family," as he called it, through the broad avenues and boulevards,
+interspersed with occasional squares and gardens, and the beautiful
+bridges here and there across the Seine, gleaming in the sunshine, that
+she could realise that they were actually in Paris.
+
+And the next day they did go to the Louvre. And Adela, who was to stay
+a day or two at the hotel with them before going back into her school,
+was very important, indeed. And she piloted them about, the parson and
+Mrs. Henderson joining their group; the others, with the exception of
+the little Widow Gray, who stayed at home to look over Adela's clothes,
+and take any last stitches, going off by themselves.
+
+"I do want to see the Venus de Milo," said Polly, quite gone with
+impatience. "Oh, Adela, these paintings will wait."
+
+"Well, that old statue will wait, too," cried Adela, pulling her off
+into another gallery. "Now, Polly, Mademoiselle says, in point of art,
+the pictures in here are quite important."
+
+"Are they?" said poor Polly, listlessly.
+
+"Yes, they are," said Adela, twitching her sleeve, "and Mademoiselle
+brings us in this room every single time we come to the Louvre."
+
+"It's the early French school, you know," she brought up glibly.
+
+"Well, it's too early for us to take it in," said Tom. "Come, I'm for
+the Venus de Milo. It's this way;" and Adela was forced to follow,
+which she did in a discontented fashion.
+
+"Oh!" cried Polly, catching her breath, and standing quite still as she
+caught sight of the wonderful marble, instinct with life, at the end of
+the long corridor below stairs. "Why, she's smiling at us," as the
+afternoon sunshine streamed across the lovely face, to lose itself in
+the folds of the crimson curtain in the background.
+
+The parson folded his arms and drew in long breaths of delight. "It's
+worth fifty journeys over the ocean to once see that, Sarah," he said.
+
+"Do come back and look at the pictures," begged Adela, pulling Polly's
+arm again after a minute or two.
+
+"Oh, don't!" exclaimed Polly, under her breath. "Oh, she's _so_
+beautiful, Adela!"
+
+"Well, it's much better to see the pictures," said Adela. "And then we
+can come here again to-morrow."
+
+"Oh, I haven't seen this half enough," began Polly, "and I've wanted to
+for so long." Then she glanced at Adela's face. "Well, all right," she
+said, and turned off, to come directly into the path of Grandpapa, with
+Phronsie clinging to his hand, and the rest of his part of the "family"
+standing in silent admiration.
+
+"We thought we'd come here first," said old Mr. King. "I don't mean to
+see anything else to-day. The Venus de Milo is quite enough for me.
+To-morrow, now, we'll drop in again, and look at some of the pictures."
+
+"There is beauty enough in that statue," said a lady, who just passed
+them, to the gentleman with her, "to satisfy any one; but living beauty
+after all is most appealing. Just look at that child's face, Edward."
+
+They were guilty of standing in a niche at a little remove, and
+studying Phronsie with keen, critical eyes.
+
+"It's a wonderful type of beauty," said Edward; "yellow hair and brown
+eyes,--and such features."
+
+"I don't care about the features," said the lady, "it's the expression;
+the child hasn't a thought of herself, and that's wonderful to begin
+with."
+
+"That's about it," replied Edward, "and I suppose that's largely where
+the beauty lies, Evelyn."
+
+"Let us walk slowly down the corridor again," said Evelyn, "and then
+come up; otherwise we shall attract attention to be standing here and
+gazing at them."
+
+"And I'd like to see that little beauty again," remarked Edward, "I'll
+confess, Evelyn."
+
+So Evelyn and Edward continued to gaze at intervals at the living
+beauty, and Mr. King and his party were absorbed in the marble beauty;
+and Adela was running over in her mind how she meant to have Polly
+Pepper all to herself at the visit to the Louvre the next afternoon,
+when she would show her the pictures she specially liked.
+
+But they didn't any of them go to the Louvre that next day, as it
+happened. It was so beautifully bright and sunshiny, that Grandpapa
+said it would be wicked to pass the day indoors; so they had all the
+morning in a walk, and a sail on the Seine,--and that pleased Tom,--and
+all the afternoon, or nearly all, sitting up in state in carriages,
+driving up and down the Bois de Boulogne. And _that_ pleased
+Adela.
+
+And when they tired of driving, old Mr. King gave orders for the
+drivers to rest their horses. And then they all got out of the
+carriages, and walked about among the beautiful trees, and on the
+winding, sheltered paths.
+
+"It's perfectly lovely off there," said Polly, "and almost like the
+country," with a longing glance off into the green, cool shade beyond.
+So they strolled off there, separating into little groups; Polly and
+Jasper in front, and wishing for nothing so much as a race.
+
+"I should think we might try it," said Jasper; "there is no one near to
+see. Come on, Polly, do."
+
+"I suppose we ought not to," said Polly, with a sigh, as Adela overtook
+them.
+
+"Ought not to what?" she asked eagerly.
+
+"Jasper and I were wanting to run a race," said Polly.
+
+"Why, Polly Pepper! You are in Paris!" exclaimed Adela, quite shocked.
+
+"I know it," said Polly, "and I wish we weren't. O dear! this seems
+just like the country, and--"
+
+Just then a child screamed. "That's Phronsie!" exclaimed Polly, her
+cheek turning quite white. And she sped back over the path.
+
+"Oh, no, Polly," Jasper tried to reassure her, as he ran after her.
+They were having their race, after all, but in a different way from
+what they had planned.
+
+"Dear me! you are running!" said Adela, who hadn't got it into her head
+what for, as she didn't connect the scream with any of their party. And
+she walked just as fast as she could to catch up with them. As that was
+impossible, she gave a hasty glance around the shrubbery, and seeing no
+one to notice her, she broke out into a lively run.
+
+"Yes, Phronsie," Grandpapa was saying, as the young people had left
+them, and the others had wandered off to enjoy the quiet, shady paths,
+"this place was the old Fôret de Rouvray. It wasn't a very pretty place
+to come to in those days, what with the robbers and other bad people
+who infested it. And now let us go and find a seat, child, and I'll
+show you one or two little pictures I picked up in the shop this
+morning; and you can send them in your next letter, to Joel and David,
+if you like."
+
+Old Mr. King took out his pocket-book, and had just opened it, when a
+man darted out from the thick shrubbery behind him, cast a long,
+searching glance around, and quick as lightning, threw himself against
+the stately old gentleman, and seized the pocket-book.
+
+It was then that Phronsie screamed long and loud.
+
+"What ho!" exclaimed Mr. King, starting around to do battle; but the
+man was just disappearing around the clump of shrubbery.
+
+"Which way?" Tom Selwyn dashed up. It didn't seem as if Phronsie's cry
+had died on her lips.
+
+Old Mr. King pointed without a word. And Polly and Jasper were close at
+hand. Polly flew to Phronsie, who was clinging to Grandpapa's hand, and
+wailing bitterly. "What is it? Oh! what is it?" cried Polly.
+
+"My pocket-book," said Grandpapa; "some fellow has seized it, and
+frightened this poor child almost to death." He seemed to care a great
+deal more about that than any loss of the money.
+
+"Which way?" cried Jasper, in his turn, and was off like a shot on
+getting his answer.
+
+Tom saw the fellow slink with the manner of one who knew the ins and
+outs of the place well,--now gliding, and ducking low in the sparser
+growth, now making a bold run around some exposed curve, now dashing
+into a dense part of the wood.
+
+"I'll have you yet!" said Tom, through set teeth; "I haven't trained at
+school for nothing!"
+
+A thud of fast-flying feet in his rear didn't divert him an instant
+from his game, although it might be a rescue party for the thief, in
+the shape of a partner,--who could tell? And realising, if he caught
+the man at all, he must do one of his sprints, he covered the ground by
+a series of flying leaps,--dashed in where he saw his prey rush; one
+more leap with all his might, and--"I have you!" cried Tom.
+
+The man under him, thrown to the ground by the suddenness of Tom's leap
+on him, was wriggling and squirming with all the desperation of a
+trapped creature, when the individual with the flying footsteps hove in
+sight. It was Jasper. And they had just persuaded the robber that it
+would be useless to struggle longer against his fate, when the parson,
+running as he hadn't run for years, appeared to their view. And after
+him, at such a gait that would have been his fortune, in a professional
+way, was the little doctor. His hat was gone, and his toes scarcely
+seemed to touch the ground. He was last at the scene, simply because
+the news had only just reached him as he sauntered leisurely up to meet
+Mr. King in his promenade.
+
+When the thief saw him, he looked to see if any more were coming, and
+resigned himself at once and closed his eyes instinctively.
+
+He was a miserable-looking man--tall, thin, and stoop shouldered--they
+saw, when they got him on his feet. Unkempt and unwashed, his long,
+black hair hung around a face sallow in the extreme. And he shook so,
+as Tom and Jasper marched him back, escorted by the body-guard of the
+parson and the little doctor, that the two boys put their hands under
+his arms to help him along.
+
+"Well--well--well!" ejaculated Mr. King, as he saw this array. Polly
+gathered Phronsie's other hand in hers, while she clung closer than
+ever to Grandpapa.
+
+"Here's your pocket-book," said Tom, handing the article over; "he
+hasn't spent much."
+
+"Don't, Tom," said Jasper, "joke about it."
+
+"Can't help it," said Tom. "Well, now, shall we turn him over to the
+_sergents de ville?"_
+
+"Turn him over?" repeated Mr. King. "I should say so," he added drily,
+"and give him the best recommendation for a long term, too. What else
+is there to do, pray tell?"
+
+"Grandpapa," suddenly cried Phronsie, who hadn't taken her eyes from
+the man's face, "what are you going to do--where is he going?"
+
+"We are going to hand him over to the police, child," answered old Mr.
+King, harshly. "And as soon as possible, too."
+
+"Grandpapa, perhaps he's got some little children at home; ask him,
+Grandpapa, do."
+
+"No, no, Phronsie," said Mr. King, hastily. "Say no more, child; you
+don't understand. We must call the _sergents de ville."_
+
+At the words _sergents de ville_ the man shivered from head to
+foot, and wrenched his hands free from the boys' grasp to tear open his
+poor coat, and show a bare breast, covered with little, apparently, but
+the skin drawn over the bones. He didn't attempt to say anything.
+
+"Oh, my goodness!" exclaimed old Mr. King, starting backward and
+putting up his hands to his face to shut out the sight. "Cover it up,
+man--bless me--no need to ask him a question. Why, the fellow is
+starving."
+
+His little children--four of them--his wife--all starving--hadn't a bit
+to eat since, he could scarcely say when, it seemed so very long ago
+since he had eaten last--it all came out in a torrent of words that
+choked him, and like the true Frenchman that he was, he gestured in a
+way that told the story with his face and his fingers, as well as with
+his tongue.
+
+A _sergent de ville_ strolled by and looked curiously at the
+group, but as Mr. King met his eye coolly, and the party seemed
+intelligent and well able to take care of themselves, it wasn't
+necessary to tender his services--if they were talking to a worthless
+vagabond.
+
+"Hum--hum--very bad case; very bad case, indeed!" Mr. King was
+exploding at intervals, while the torrent was rushing on in execrable
+French as far as accent went. No one else of the spellbound group could
+have spoken if there had been occasion for a word. Then he pulled out
+the pocket-book again, and taking out several franc notes of a good
+size, he pressed them between the man's dirty fingers. "Go and get
+something to eat," was all he said, "and take care of the children."
+
+
+
+
+XVII
+
+"I'VE FOUND HIM!" EXCLAIMED JASPER
+
+
+And for the next few days Phronsie talked about the poor man, and
+wished they could see his children, and hoped he had bought them some
+nice things to eat, and worried over him because he was all skin and
+bones.
+
+"Ah! the bones were real, even if the children aren't," Grandpapa would
+say to himself. "Well, I suppose I have been taken in, but at least the
+fellow hasn't starved to death."
+
+And then off they would go sight-seeing as fast as possible, to take up
+the mind of Phronsie, who watched for Grandpapa's poor man in every
+wretched creature she saw. And there were plenty of them.
+
+And then Adela went back to school, happy in the thought of the little
+pile of sketches she had to show as her summer's work, and with ever so
+many studies and bits to finish up under Mademoiselle's direction; and
+little old Mrs. Gray, breathing blessings on Mr. King's head, departed
+for her English country home.
+
+"Now, then, I have ever so much shopping to do," announced old Mr.
+King, briskly, "and I shall want you to help me, Phronsie."
+
+"I'll help you, Grandpapa," promised Phronsie, well pleased, and
+gravely set herself to the task.
+
+So they wandered away by themselves, having the most blissful of times,
+and coming home to the hotel, they would gaily relate their adventures;
+and Phronsie would often carry a little parcel or two, which it was her
+greatest delight to do; and then the trail of big boxes would follow
+them as they were sent home to the hotel to tell of their experiences
+in the shops.
+
+"And Grandpapa is going to get me a new doll," announced Phronsie, on
+one of these days.
+
+"Do you mean a peasant doll to add to the collection?" asked Polly; for
+old Mr. King had bought a doll in the national costume in every country
+in which they had travelled, and they had been packed away, together
+with the other things as fast as purchased, and sent off home across
+the sea.
+
+"Yes," said Phronsie. "I do, Polly, and it's to be a most beautiful
+French doll--oh!"
+
+And sure enough, Mr. King, who knew exactly what kind of a doll he
+meant to purchase, and had kept his eyes open for it, stumbled upon it
+by a piece of rare good luck in a shop where he least expected to find
+it.
+
+"Oh, may I carry her home, Grandpapa?" begged Phronsie, hanging over
+the doll in a transport. "Please don't have her shut up in a box--but
+do let me carry her in my arms."
+
+"Oh, Phronsie, she's too big," objected Mr. King, "and very heavy."
+
+"Oh, Grandpapa, she's not heavy," cried Phronsie, not meaning to
+contradict, but so anxious not to have her child sent home shut up in a
+box, that she forgot herself.
+
+"Well, I don't know but what you may," said Grandpapa, relenting. "I
+will call a cab after we get through with this next shop," he
+reflected, "and it won't hurt her to carry the doll that short
+distance." So they came out of the shop, and deciding to take a short
+cut, they started across the boulevard, he taking the usual precaution
+to gather Phronsie's hand in his.
+
+As they were halfway across the street, with its constant stream of
+pedestrians and vehicles, a sudden gust of wind flapped the doll's pink
+silk cape up against Phronsie's eyes, and taking her hand away from
+Grandpapa's a second to pull down the cape, for she couldn't see, she
+slipped, and before she knew it, had fallen on top of the doll in the
+middle of the street.
+
+A reckless cabby, driving as only a French cabman can, came dashing
+down the boulevard directly in her path, while a heavily loaded omnibus
+going in the opposite direction was trying to get out of his way. Ever
+so many people screamed; and some one pulled Mr. King back as he
+started to pick her up. It was all done in an instant, and every person
+expected to see her killed, when a long, gaunt individual in a shabby
+coat dashed in among the plunging horses, knocked up the head of the
+one belonging to the reckless cabby, swung an arm at the other pair to
+divert their course, and before any one could quite tell how, he picked
+up Phronsie and bore her to the curbstone. Some one got Mr. King to the
+same point, too exhausted with fright to utter a word.
+
+When he came out of his shock, the shabby man was standing by Phronsie,
+the crowd that saw nothing in the incident to promise further
+diversion, having melted away, and she was holding his hand, her
+little, mud-stained face radiant with happiness. "Oh, Grandpapa," she
+piped out, "it's your poor man!"
+
+"The dickens it is!" exploded Mr. King. "Well, I'm glad to find you.
+Here, call a cab, will you? I must get this child home; that's the
+first thing to be done."
+
+The shabby man hailed a cab, but the cabman jeered at him and whirled
+by. So the old gentleman held up his hand; Phronsie all this time,
+strange to say, not mentioning her doll, and Mr. King, who wouldn't
+have cared if a hundred dolls had been left behind, not giving it a
+thought. Now she looked anxiously on all sides. "Oh, where is she,
+Grandpapa dear?" she wailed, "my child; where is she?"
+
+"Never mind, Phronsie," cried Mr. King, "I'll get you another one
+to-morrow. There, get in the cab, child."
+
+"But I want her--I can't go home without my child!" And Phronsie's lip
+began to quiver. "Oh, there she is, Grandpapa!" and she darted off a
+few steps, where somebody had set the poor thing on the pavement,
+propped up against a lamp-post.
+
+"Oh, you can't carry her home," said Mr. King, in dismay at the muddy
+object splashed from head to foot, with the smart pink cape that had
+been the cause of the disaster, now torn clear through the middle, by
+the hoof of a passing horse. He shuddered at the sight of it. "Do leave
+it, Phronsie, child."
+
+"But she's sick now and hurt; oh, Grandpapa, I can't leave my child,"
+sobbed Phronsie, trying with all her might to keep the tears back. All
+this time the shabby man stood silently by, looking on.
+
+A bright thought struck the old gentleman. "I'll tell you, Phronsie,"
+he said quickly. "Give the doll to this man for one of his little
+children; they'll take care of it, and like it."
+
+"Oh, Grandpapa!" screamed Phronsie, skipping up and down and clapping
+her muddy little hands, then she picked up the doll and lifted it
+toward him. "Give my child to your little girl, and tell her to take
+good care of it," she said.
+
+As Phronsie's French had long been one of Grandpapa's special
+responsibilities in the morning hours, she spoke it nearly as well as
+Polly herself, so the man grasped the doll as he had seized the money
+before.
+
+"And now," said Mr. King, "you are not going to run away this time
+without telling me--oh, bless me!"
+
+This last was brought out by an excited individual rushing up over the
+curbstone to get out of the way of a passing dray, and the walking-stick
+which he swung aloft as a protection, coming into collision with
+Mr. King's hat, knocked it over his eyes.
+
+"A thousand pardons, Monsieur!" exclaimed the Frenchman, bowing and
+scraping.
+
+"You may well beg a thousand pardons," cried Mr. King, angrily, "to go
+about in this rude fashion through the street."
+
+"A thousand pardons," repeated the Frenchman, with more
+_empressement_ than before, and tripping airily on his way.
+
+When old Mr. King had settled his hat, he turned back to the man. "Now
+tell me--why--" The man was nowhere to be seen.
+
+"It surely does look bad," said the old gentleman to himself as he
+stepped into the cab with Phronsie; "that man's children are a myth.
+And I wanted to do something for them, for he saved Phronsie's life!"
+
+This being the only idea he could possibly retain all the way home to
+the hotel, he held her closely within his arm, Phronsie chattering
+happily all the way, how the little girl she guessed was just receiving
+the doll, and wondering what name she would give it, and would she wash
+its face clean at once, and fix the torn and muddy clothes?
+
+"Oh, yes, yes, I hope so," answered Grandpapa, when she paused for an
+answer. Jasper came running out as the cab drove into the court. "Oh!"
+he exclaimed, at sight of Phronsie's face, then drove the words on his
+tongue back again, as he lifted her out.
+
+"Give her to Polly to fix up a bit," said his father. "She's all right,
+Jasper, my boy, I can't talk of it now. Hurry and take her to Polly."
+
+And for the following days, Mr. King never let Phronsie out of his
+sight. A new and more splendid doll, if possible, was bought, and all
+sorts and styles of clothes for it, which Phronsie took the greatest
+delight in caring for, humming happily to herself at the pleasure the
+poor man's little girl was taking at the same time with her other
+child.
+
+"Grandpapa," she said, laying down the doll carefully on the sofa, and
+going over to the table where Mr. King had just put aside the
+newspaper, "I do wish we could go and see that poor man and all his
+children--why didn't he tell us where he lived?"
+
+"The dickens!" exclaimed old Mr. King, unguardedly, "because the fellow
+is an impostor, Phronsie. He saved your life," and he seized Phronsie
+and drew her to his knee, "but he lied about those children. O dear
+me!" And he pulled himself up.
+
+"Then he hasn't any little children?" said Phronsie, opening her eyes
+very wide, and speaking very slowly.
+
+"Er-oh-I don't know," stammered Grandpapa; "it's impossible to tell,
+Phronsie."
+
+"But you don't believe he has any," said Phronsie, with grave
+persistence, fastening her brown eyes on his face.
+
+"No, Phronsie, I don't," replied old Mr. King, in desperation. "If he
+had, why should he run in this fashion when I was just asking him where
+he lived?"
+
+"But he didn't hear you, Grandpapa," said Phronsie, "when the man
+knocked your hat off."
+
+"Oh, well, he knew enough what I wanted," said Mr. King, who, now that
+he had let out his belief, was going to support it by all the reasons
+in his power. "No, no, Phronsie, it won't do; the fellow was an
+impostor, and we must just accept the fact, and make the best of it, my
+child."
+
+"But he told a lie," said Phronsie, in horror, unable to think of
+anything else.
+
+"Well." Mr. King had no words to say on that score, so he wisely said
+nothing.
+
+"That poor man told a lie," repeated Phronsie, as if producing a wholly
+fresh statement.
+
+"There, child, I wouldn't think anything more of it," said Grandpapa,
+soothingly, patting her little hand.
+
+"Grandpapa," said Phronsie, "I've given away my child, and she's sick
+because she fell and hurt her, and there isn't any little girl, and--and
+--that poor man told a lie!" And she flung herself up against Grandpapa's
+waistcoat, and sobbed as if her heart would break.
+
+Old Mr. King looked wildly around for Polly. And as good fortune would
+have it, in she ran. This wasn't very strange, for Polly kept nearly as
+close to Phronsie in these days, as Grandpapa himself.
+
+"Here, Polly," he called brokenly, "this is something beyond me. You
+must fix it, child."
+
+"Why, Phronsie!" exclaimed Polly, in dismay, and her tone was a bit
+reproachful. "Crying? Don't you know that you will make Grandpapa very
+sick unless you stop?"
+
+Phronsie's little hand stole out from over her mouth where she had been
+trying to hold the sobs back, and up to give a trembling pat on old Mr.
+King's cheek.
+
+"Bless you, my child," cried Grandpapa, quite overcome, so that Polly
+said more reproachfully, "Yes, very sick indeed, Phronsie, unless you
+stop this minute. You ought to see his face, Phronsie."
+
+Phronsie gathered herself up out of his arms, and through a rain of
+tears looked up at him.
+
+"Are you sick, Grandpapa?" she managed to ask.
+
+"Yes, dear; or I shall be if you don't stop crying, Phronsie," said Mr.
+King, pursuing all the advantage so finely gained.
+
+"I'll stop," said Phronsie, her small bosom heaving. "I really will,
+Grandpapa."
+
+"Now, you are the very goodest child," exclaimed Polly, down on her
+knees by Grandpapa's side, cuddling Phronsie's toes, "the very most
+splendid one in all this world, Phronsie Pepper."
+
+"And you'll be all well, Grandpapa?" asked Phronsie, anxiously.
+
+"Yes, child," said old Mr. King, kissing her wet face; "just as well as
+I can be, since you are all right."
+
+"And, oh, Grandpapa, can't we go to Fontainebleau to-day?" begged
+Polly.
+
+"Phronsie, just think--it will be precisely like the country, and we
+can get out of the carriages, and can run and race in the forest. Can't
+we, Grandpapa?"
+
+"All you want to," promised Grandpapa, recklessly, and only too
+thankful to have something proposed for a diversion. "The very thing,"
+he added enthusiastically. "Now, Polly and Phronsie, run and tell all
+the others to get ready, just as fast as they can, and we'll be off.
+Goodness me, Jasper, what makes you run into a room in this fashion?"
+
+"I've found him!" exclaimed Jasper, dashing in, and tossing his cap on
+the table, and his dark hair back from his forehead. "And he's all
+right--as straight as a die," he panted.
+
+"Now what in the world are you talking of?" demanded his father, in
+extreme irritation. "Can't you make a plain statement, and enlighten us
+without all this noise and confusion, pray tell?"
+
+Polly, who had Phronsie's hand in hers, just ready to run off, stood
+quite still with glowing cheek.
+
+"Oh, I do believe--Grandpapa--it is--it is!"--she screamed suddenly--"your
+poor man! Isn't it, Jasper--isn't it?" she cried, turning to him.
+
+"Yes, Polly," said Jasper, still panting from his run up the stairs;
+"and do hurry, father, and see for yourself; and we'll all go to him.
+I'll tell you all about it on the way."
+
+When Mr. King comprehended that the man was found, and that he was "all
+right," as Jasper vehemently repeated over and over, he communicated
+that fact to Phronsie, whose delight knew no bounds, and in less time
+than it takes to write it, Tom, who was the only one of the party to be
+collected on such short notice, had joined them, and they were bowling
+along in a big carriage, Jasper as guide, to the spot where the man was
+waiting.
+
+"You see it was just this way," Jasper was rapidly telling off. "I was
+going down by the Madeleine, and I thought I would bring Phronsie some
+flowers; so I stopped at the market, and I couldn't find a little pot
+of primroses I wanted, though I went the whole length; and at last,
+when I had given up, I saw just one in front of a woman who sat at the
+very end."
+
+"Do hurry, Jasper, and get to the conclusion," said his father,
+impatiently.
+
+Polly dearly loved to have the story go on in just this way, as she
+leaned forward, her eyes on Jasper's face, but she said nothing, only
+sighed.
+
+"Well," said Jasper, "I'll tell it as quickly as I can, father. And
+there were a lot of children, father, all round the woman where she sat
+on a box, and she was tying in a bunch some flowers that were huddled
+in her lap, and the children were picking out the good ones for her;
+and just then a man, who was bending over back of them all, breaking
+off some little branches from a big green one, straightened up
+suddenly, and, father, as true as you live," cried Jasper, in intense
+excitement, "it was your poor man!"
+
+"The children?" asked Mr. King, as soon as he could be heard for the
+excitement.
+
+"Are all his," cried Jasper, "and he took the money you gave him, and
+set his wife up in the flower business down in front of the Madeleine.
+Oh! and Phronsie, the doll you gave him was sitting up on another box,
+and every once in a while the littlest girl would stop picking out the
+flowers in her mother's lap, and would run over and wipe its face with
+her apron."
+
+
+
+
+XXVIII
+
+"WELL, I GOT HIM HERE," SAID THE LITTLE EARL
+
+
+They were really on their way to see the little old earl, after all!
+How it came about, Mr. King, even days after it had all been decided,
+couldn't exactly remember. He recalled several conversations in Paris
+with Tom's mother, who showed him bits of letters, and one in
+particular that somehow seemed to be a very potent factor in the plan
+that, almost before he knew it, came to be made. And when he held out,
+as hold out he did against the acceptance of the invitation, he found
+to his utmost surprise that every one, Mother Fisher and all, was
+decidedly against him.
+
+"Oh, well," he had declared when that came out, "I might as well give
+in gracefully first as last." And he sat down at once and wrote a very
+handsome note to the little old earl, and that clinched the whole
+business.
+
+And after the week of this visit should be over, for old Mr. King was
+firmness itself on not accepting a day more, they were to bid good-by
+to Mrs. Selwyn and Tom, and jaunt about a bit to show a little of Old
+England to the Hendersons, and then run down to Liverpool to see them
+off, and at last turn their faces toward Dresden, their winter home--"and
+to my work!" said Polly to herself in delight.
+
+So now here they were, actually driving up to the entrance of the park,
+and stopping at the lodge-gate.
+
+An old woman, in an immaculate cap and a stiff white apron over her
+best linsey-woolsey gown which she had donned for the occasion, came
+out of the lodge and courtesied low to the madam, and held open the big
+gate.
+
+"How have you been, Mrs. Bell?" asked Mrs. Selwyn, with a kind smile,
+as the carriage paused a bit.
+
+"Very well, my lady," said Mrs. Bell, her round face glowing with
+pride. "And the earl is well, bless him! and we are glad to welcome you
+home again, and Master Tom."
+
+"And I'm glad enough to get here, Mrs. Bell," cried Tom. "Now drive on
+at your fastest, Hobson."
+
+Hobson, who knew very well what Master Tom's fastest gait was,
+preferred to drive through the park at what he considered the dignified
+pace. So they rolled on under the stately trees, going miles, it seemed
+to Polly, who sat on the back seat with Tom.
+
+He turned to her, unable to conceal his impatience. "Anybody would
+think this pair were worn out old cobs," he fumed. "Polly, you have no
+idea how they can go, when Hobson lets them out. What are you wasting
+all this time for, crawling along in this fashion, Hobson, when you
+know we want to get on?"
+
+Thus publicly addressed, Hobson let the handsome bays "go" as Tom
+expressed it, and they were bowled along in a way that made Polly turn
+in delight to Tom.
+
+"There--that's something like!" declared Tom. "Don't you like it,
+Polly?" looking into her rosy face.
+
+"Like it!" cried Polly, "why, Tom Selwyn, it's beautiful. And these
+splendid trees--" she looked up and around. "Oh, I never saw any so
+fine."
+
+"They're not half bad," assented Tom, "these oaks aren't, and we have
+some more, on the other end of the park, about five miles off, that--"
+
+"Five miles off!" cried Polly, with wide eyes. "Is the park as big as
+that, Tom?"
+
+He laughed. "That isn't much. But you'll see it all for yourself," he
+added. Then he rushed off into wondering how his dogs were. "And, oh,
+you'll ride with the hounds, Polly!"
+
+Just then some rabbits scurried across the wood, followed by several
+more pattering and leaping through the grass.
+
+"Oh, Tom, see those rabbits!" cried Polly, excitedly.
+
+"Yes, the warrens are over yonder," said Tom, bobbing his head in the
+right direction.
+
+"What?" asked Polly, in perplexity.
+
+"Rabbit-warrens; oh, I forgot, you haven't lived in England. You seem
+so much like an English girl, though," said Tom, paying the highest
+compliment he knew of.
+
+"Well, what are they?" asked Polly, quite overcome by the compliment
+coming from Tom.
+
+"Oh, they are preserves, you know, where the rabbits live, and they are
+not allowed to be hunted here."
+
+"Oh, do you ever hunt rabbits?" cried Polly, in horror, leaning out of
+her side of the big coach to see the scurrying little animals.
+
+"Not often," said Tom, "we mostly ride after the fox. You'll ride with
+the hounds, Polly," he cried with enthusiasm. "We'll have a hunt while
+you're here, and we always wind up with a breakfast, you know. Oh,
+we'll have no end of sport." He hugged his long arms in huge
+satisfaction.
+
+And away--and away over the winding road and underneath the stately
+trees, rolled the big coach, to be followed by the other carriages,
+like a dream it seemed to Polly, and more than ever, when at last they
+stopped in front of a massive pile of buildings with towers and arches
+and wings.
+
+And the little old earl was kissing her rosy cheek in the most courtly
+fashion, and saying while he shook her hand in his long fingers, "And
+how do you do, my dear?" And Mrs. Selwyn was by his other side. And Tom
+was screeching out, "How do you do, Granddaddy!" And then, "Oh, Elinor
+and Mary!" to two quiet, plain-looking girls standing in the
+background. And "Ah, how d'ye kids!" as the faces of his two small
+brothers appeared. And Polly forgot all about the fact that she was in
+an earl's house, and she laughed and chatted; and in two minutes one of
+Tom's sisters was on either side of her, and the small boys in front,
+and the little groups were moving in and out of the old hall, as
+Grandpapa and the rest came in, and the head housekeeper in a black
+silk gown that seemed quite able to stand alone, and a perfect relay of
+stiff figures in livery were drawn up underneath the armour hanging on
+the wall.
+
+And the little old earl worked his way up to her, and he had Grandpapa
+on his arm. "Well, I got him here," he said with twinkling eyes, and a
+chuckle.
+
+But the next morning--oh, the next morning!--when Polly tried to
+compass as much of the thronging attractions as she could, and Jasper
+was at his wits' end whenever he was appealed to, to decide what he
+wanted to do first--"cricket," or "punting on the river," that ran
+through the estate, or "riding through the park, and to the village
+owned by his grandfather"? "I always go see the tenantry as soon as I
+get home," said Tom, simply.
+
+"Oh, then, let us go there by all means," said Jasper, quickly.
+
+"I mean--oh, I'm no end awkward," exclaimed Tom, breaking off, his face
+covered with confusion. "It's not necessary to go at once; we can fetch
+up there to-morrow."
+
+"Oh, do let us go, Tom," begged Polly, clasping her hands. "I should
+dearly love most of all to see the tenantry and those dear little
+cottages." And so that was decided upon.
+
+And Tom had his beloved hunt, several of the gentry being asked. And
+Polly rode a special horse selected by the little old earl himself.
+
+"It's perfectly safe; he has an excellent disposition," he declared to
+old Mr. King, "and he'll carry her all right."
+
+"I'm not afraid," said Mr. King, "the child rides well."
+
+"So she must--so she must, I was sure of it," cried the little old
+earl, with a series of chuckles. And he busied himself especially with
+seeing her mounted properly when the party gathered on the lawn in
+front of the old hall. The hounds were baying and straining at the
+leashes, impatient to be off; the pink hunting-coats gave dashes of
+colour as their owners moved about over the broad green sward,--under
+the oaks,--and Polly felt her heart beat rapidly with the exhilarating
+sights and sounds. It was only when they were off, and Tom riding up by
+her side expatiated on the glory of running down the fox and "being in
+at the death," that the colour died down on her cheek.
+
+"Oh, Tom!" she said, reining in her horse. If he hadn't been the
+possessor of a good disposition, he certainly would have bolted in his
+disappointment at being pulled up so abruptly. "It's so cruel to kill
+the poor fox in that way."
+
+"Eh--what!" exclaimed Tom, not hearing the words, falling back to her
+side, consternation all over his face. "Why, I never knew Meteor to
+break in this way before."
+
+"Oh, it isn't his fault," said Polly, hastily, and patting her horse's
+neck. "I pulled him up. Oh, Tom, it's all so very cruel."
+
+"Eh?" said Tom, in a puzzled way.
+
+"To kill the fox in this way," said Polly, her heart sinking as she
+thought how dreadful it was for her to object, when visiting, to
+anything her host might plan. "O dear me!" and she looked so distressed
+that Tom turned comforter at once.
+
+"We all do it," he was saying, as Jasper rode up.
+
+"Anything the matter?" he asked in great concern. "What's happened?"
+
+"Nothing," said Tom, "only Polly doesn't like the fox-hunt."
+
+"It's so cruel," cried Polly, turning to Jasper, with a little pink
+spot coming in either cheek. "I ought to have thought of it before, but
+I didn't; it only seemed so very splendid to be rushing along with the
+horses and dogs. But to chase that poor fox to death--O dear me!"
+
+"We'll go back," suggested Tom, in distress; "don't be afraid, Polly,
+I'll make it all right with granddaddy." He concealed as best he might
+his awful disappointment as the echoes of the horn, the baying of the
+dogs, and now and then a scrap of chatter or a peal of laughter was
+borne to them on the wind.
+
+"Polly," said Jasper, in a low voice, "it isn't quite right, is it, to
+disturb the party now? Just think, Tom will go back with us."
+
+The pink spots died out on Polly's cheek. "No, Jasper," she said, "it
+isn't right. Tom, you needn't say one word about going back, for I am
+going on." She gave the rein to Meteor and dashed off.
+
+"We'll have a race through the park some day, Polly," called Tom, as he
+sped after her, "without any fox."
+
+"Too bad, Polly, you weren't in at the death," said the little old
+earl, sympathisingly, when at the hunt-breakfast following, the brush
+dangling to a victorious young lady's belt, had been admired as an
+extremely fine one. "Never mind; better luck next time, little girl."
+
+But the fête to the tenantry, oh! that was something like, and more to
+Polly's taste, when this annual affair, postponed while Tom's mother
+and Tom were away, took place. For days before, the preparations had
+been making, the stewards up to their eyes in responsibility to carry
+out the plans of the little old earl, who meant on this occasion to
+outdo all his former efforts, and show his American friends how an
+Englishman treats those under his care.
+
+Oh, the big joints of beef, the haunches of venison, the fowls, the
+meat pies and the gooseberry tarts, the beer and the ale, and the tea
+for the old women, with nuts and sweeties for the children! Oh, Polly
+knew about it all, as she went about with the little old earl while he
+gave his orders, her hand in his, just as if she were no older than
+Phronsie, and not such a tall, big girl.
+
+And Mrs. Selwyn was busy as a bee, and Mother Fisher was just in her
+element here, in helping her; for flannel petticoats were to be given
+out, and stuff frocks, and pieces of homespun, and boots and shoes, as
+prizes for diligent and faithful service; or an order for coals for the
+coming winter for some poor cottager, or packages of tea, or some other
+little comfort. And before any of them quite realised it, the days flew
+by, and in two more of them the King party would be off.
+
+"It's perfectly useless to mention it," said the little old earl, quite
+confident in his power to influence old Mr. King to remain when he saw
+how happily everything was running on. "My dear sir, you were asked for
+a fortnight."
+
+"And I accepted for a week," retorted Mr. King, "and I go when that
+time is up. We've had a visit--I can't express it to you, what a fine
+time--as near to perfection as it is possible for a visit to be; but
+day after to-morrow we surely must leave."
+
+Tom was so despondent, as well as the old earl, that it was necessary
+to cheer him up in some way. "Just think what a splendid thing for us
+to be in the midst of that fête for the peasantry," exclaimed Polly,
+with sparkling eyes. "It's quite too lovely for our last day."
+
+But Tom wasn't to be raised out of his gloom in this way. "We've had
+only one game of cricket," he said miserably.
+
+"And one afternoon at tennis, and we've been out punting on the river
+three times," said Polly.
+
+"What's that? only a bagatelle," sniffed Tom, "compared to what I meant
+to do."
+
+"Well, let's have the race on horseback this afternoon," proposed
+Polly, "down through the park, that you said you were going to have,
+Tom. Wouldn't that be nice?"
+
+"Do," urged Jasper. "It would be so capital, Tom."
+
+"All right," assented Tom, "if you'd really rather have that than
+anything else; but it seems as if I ought to think up something more
+for the last afternoon, but the fête; and that doesn't count."
+
+"Oh, nothing could be finer," declared Polly, and Jasper joined. So Tom
+rushed off to the stables to give the orders. And Polly on Meteor was
+soon flying up and down with the boys, and Elinor and Mary. And the two
+small lads trotted after on their Shetland ponies, in and out the
+winding roads of the park confines, without any haunting fear of a poor
+red fox to be done to death at the end.
+
+And on the morrow, the sun condescended to come out in all his glory,
+upon the groups of tenantry scattered over the broad lawns. There were
+games in abundance for the men and boys; and others for the children.
+There were chairs for the old women, and long benches for those who
+desired to sit under the spreading branches of the great oaks to look
+on. And there were cups of tea, and thin bread and butter passed around
+by the white-capped maids, superintended by the housekeeper and the
+butler, quite important in their several functions. This was done to
+appease the hunger before the grand collation should take place later.
+And there was music by the fiddlers on the upper terrace, and there
+was,--dear me, it would take quite too long to tell it all!
+
+And at last, the order was given to fall into line, and march around
+the long tables resplendent with their cold joints and hot joints;
+their pasties, and tarts, and cakes, and great flagons of ale. And over
+all was a wealth of bloom from the big old English gardens in the rear
+of the old hall. The posies filled Polly with delight, as she and Tom's
+sisters and Phronsie had gathered them under the direction of the
+gardeners in the early morning; and then--oh, best of all--Mrs. Selwyn
+had allowed her to give the finishing touches to them as they became
+the decoration for the feast.
+
+And the little old earl called the large assemblage to order, and the
+vicar asked the grace, and the feast was begun!
+
+And then one of the tenants found his feet, and leaning on his staff,
+he thanked the Earl of Cavendish for all his goodness, and he hoped
+there would be many blessings in store for 'im and 'is, and sank on his
+bench again, mopping his face with his big red handkerchief.
+
+And then the little old earl responded in as pretty a speech as could
+well be imagined, in which he forgot nothing that he ought to say. And
+there were many "God bless 'ims!" to follow it, and then there were
+cries of "Master Tom, Master Tom," who appeared to be an immense
+favourite; and the earl, well pleased, pulled him forward, saying, "Go
+ahead, youngster, and give it to them."
+
+And Tom, extremely red in the face, tried to duck away, but found
+himself instead in front of the longest table, with everybody looking
+at him. And he mumbled out a few words and bobbed his head. And every
+one was just as well pleased. And then they gave cheer on cheer for the
+earl, and as many more for his oldest grandson. And then the little old
+earl raised his hand and said, "And now, my men, give a rousing good
+one for my dear American friends!"
+
+And didn't they do it!
+
+And on the following morning, the old hall, with its towers and its
+wings, had only the memory of the happy week to sustain it.
+
+      *      *      *      *      *
+
+Jasper ran up to Polly on the deck. "We ought to go," he said, "the
+order has been given to leave the steamer."
+
+"Yes, Polly," said Mother Fisher, "we must go, child."
+
+"Give my love to dear Grandma Bascom," said Polly, for about the
+fiftieth time. "Oh, Mrs. Henderson, and don't forget to take over the
+new cap just as soon as you can, will you?"
+
+"I won't forget," promised the parson's wife.
+
+"And take mine to my dear Mrs. Beebe," begged Phronsie, twitching
+gently at Mrs. Henderson's sleeve, "and tell her I got pink ribbon
+because I know she loves that best."
+
+"I won't forget," said Mrs. Henderson, again.
+
+"Oh, and give the big handkerchief to my dear Mr. Beebe," said
+Phronsie, "please, Mrs. Henderson, to tie his throat up in, because,
+you know, he says it gets so cold when he goes out."
+
+"I'll remember every single thing," promised the parson's wife. "Don't
+you worry, children. Oh, how we hate to leave you, only we are going to
+see our boys. We really are, Polly!" And her eyes shone.
+
+"Polly! Polly!" called Jasper.
+
+"All off who aren't going!" roared the order out again.
+
+"Polly!" The little doctor seized one arm and Phronsie's hand. "There
+now, here you are!" and whisked them off, amid "good-by--good-by"--and
+a flutter of handkerchiefs.
+
+"And give my love to dear Grandma Bascom," piped Phronsie, on the wharf
+by old Mr. King's side, as the big steamer slowly pushed from its
+moorings.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Five Little Peppers Abroad, by Margaret Sidney
+
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