Ben Pepper Part 34

Ben laughed, then put out his hand and gathered up the thin nervous fingers.

"You can grin," said Pickering, as he moved off, "but I tell you it's no laughing matter, Ben Pepper. You'd much better shake off that leech while you can."

Meantime Joel had been making little runs around the group of which Ben was the centre; each step that he took nearer Pip he would dart off again in the opposite direction, only to think better of it and plunge up once more. On one such occasion he caught Ben's blue eyes fixed upon him reproachfully.

"Oh, I say, Pip," screamed Joel, prancing up, "come with me, I've lots to show you."

For answer he got a grimace done in Pip's best style, who crowded closer to Ben than before.

"You needn't then," said Joel, in a small pa.s.sion. "Hoh! I don't really want you, only--"

"Joel!" said Ben.

"Well, he's a--a--"

"Joel!" Ben said it again. "Come, Pip, with me," and the two turned off.

"Ben," screamed Joel, in a dreadful voice, and dashing after him to seize his jacket-end. "Oh, I won't--I will, Ben, I'll be good."

"See that you are, then," said Ben, good-naturedly turning around. When he saw the others were not looking, "Now then, and you too, Pip, for I'm talking to you as much as to Joel, I expect you chaps to act like sensible beings, and be good friends. Shake hands now, and say you will."

Out flew Joel's st.u.r.dy brown paw. Pip drew his back, and glanced up at Ben to see if he really meant it.

"Any boy who isn't willing to do what I asked, can't be my friend," said Ben, coolly, and Pip felt his fingers shaken off from the big warm hand.

"Oh, Ben, I will be good, I will, Ben," cried the little fellow, in great distress. He threw up both his hands and flung himself against Ben.

"No, sir," said Ben, st.u.r.dily; "unless you shake hands with Joel, and promise to be a good friend to him, you can't stay with me."

"Come on," said Joel, a light dancing in his black eyes, and he stuck his little brown hand out more sociably yet. So Pip put his thin one within it, and then he drew a long breath, as if a terrible ordeal had just been pa.s.sed.

"Well, he didn't bite you," said Ben, with a laugh, and taking possession of the thin little fingers once more, "eh, Pip?"

"No, I didn't bite you, did I, Pip?" chuckled Joel, dancing on Ben's other side. "Oh, Ben, now we can have our Christmas!"

"Yes, now we can have our Christmas!" The others racing after them took up the cry.

"And we're going to have it to-morrow," piped Phronsie, standing on her tiptoes. "Because j.a.pser will be rested then, Grandpapa says."

"Oh, no, Phronsie," corrected Polly, dancing up, "not till day after to-morrow. Jasper has to rest to-morrow, you know, after the journey."

Then she ran off to see if there was really nothing she could do to make him comfortable. But little Doctor Fisher, who had come up in the carriage with Jasper from the station, already had whisked him off to his room, with injunctions for no one to see him again that day. So Polly flew back again to hang over Ben and try to get acquainted with Pip.

"He can draw. Oh, you just ought to see him, Polly," confided Ben over Pip's tow-colored head.

"Really, Ben?" said Polly.

"Really?--well, I should say!" Then Ben laughed. "I wish I could do half as well."

"Oh, Ben!" exclaimed Polly, incredulously. "Perhaps he can do something, but he couldn't draw like you. He couldn't."

"Well," said Ben, with a long breath, "I only wish I could make my things seem as if they moved, Polly. Now his do, and mine look stiff as sticks."

"They don't either," contradicted Polly, with an uncomfortable little twist. And she looked down at Pip not quite so pleasantly.

"What are you two chaffing about?" cried Alexia, rushing up with her "whirlwind air" on, as Pickering always called it.

"Oh, something," said Ben, with twinkling eyes.

"Now tell me," said Alexia, greedily. "What was it, Ben?"

"Something," said Ben.

"You said that before," retorted Alexia.

"Well, and so I say it again," said Ben, coolly.

"What was it, Polly?" begged Alexia, seizing Polly's arm. "You've some piece of news, I just know; do tell me what it is!"

"Oh, ask Ben," said Polly, catching his spirit of mischief.

"Oh, I never saw such perfectly dreadful creatures," cried Alexia, tossing back her long light braids impatiently. "Nip--Flip--whatever your name is,"--glancing down at Pip, "you tell me, that's a good boy.

What is it?"

"I shan't," said Pip, with a snap that brought his white teeth together smartly.

"Well, you needn't take my head off," said Alexia, tumbling back.

"Pip, now you must beg her pardon," said Ben, coming out of his laugh.

"She told me to tell on you, and I'm not going to," said Pip, his pale eyes flashing.

"Well, you needn't have refused in just such a way; so beg her pardon at once, like a man," said Ben, decidedly.

"And I'm sure I didn't suppose that Mr. King had brought home a snapping turtle," said Alexia, airily.

"There now, you see, Pip," said Ben, gravely, "how you will make trouble for all of us unless you behave."

Thereupon, Pip's thin lip trembling, he put out his hand to Alexia. "I'm sorry, and I never will tell you in all this world, never, never, never!"

"And I'm sure I don't care whether you do or not," said Alexia, as they all laughed, "only I'm not going to have my head eaten off, I can tell you that."

"Well, come on," said Polly, briskly, "and let's talk over Christmas.

Oh, you can't think, Ben, what elegant things we are going to do!"

"Let's call all the others and get down on the library rug," proposed Ben.

"O dear me!" Polly's face fell. "Without Jasper?" she said.

"Now see here, Polly," said Ben, whirling around to get a good look at her face, "I promised Jasper I'd do my best to go on with everything the minute we got home, the same as if he were able to be in it all. I thought you'd help me, Polly, for I can't do anything without you." He looked so disapprovingly at her that she made haste to say, "Oh, I will, I will, Ben."