Five Little Peppers and How They Grew Part 13

"Oh, yes," said Ben; "I remember; 'twasn't a--"

"Oh, make it a bear, Ben!" cried Joel, terribly disappointed; "don't let it be not a bear."

"Why, I can't," said Ben; "twouldn't sound true."

"Never mind, make it sound true," insisted Joel; "you can make anything true."

"Very well," said Ben, laughing; "I suppose I must."

"Make it two bears, Ben," begged little Phronsie.

"Oh, no, Phronsie, that's too much," cried Joel; "that'll spoil it; but make it a big bear, do Ben, and have him bite him somewhere, and most kill him."

"Oh, Joel!" cried Polly, while David's eyes got bigger than ever.

So Ben drew upon his powers as story-teller, to suit his exacting audience, and was making his bear work havoc upon poor Tommy in a way captivating to all, even Joel, when, "Well, I declare," sounded Mrs.

Pepper's cheery voice coming in upon them, "if this isn't comfortable!"

"Oh, mammy!" cried Phronsie, jumping out of Polly's arms, whither she had taken refuge during the thrilling tale, and running to her mother who gathered her baby up, "we've had a bear! a real, live bear, we have!

Ben made him!"

"Have you!" said Mrs. Pepper, taking off her shawl, and laying her parcel of work down on the table, "now, that's nice!"

"Oh, mammy!" cried Polly, "it does seem so good to be all together again!"

"And I thank the Lord!" said Mrs. Pepper, looking down on her happy little group; and the tears were in her eyes--"and children, we ought to be very good and please Him, for He's been so good to us."

THE CLOUD OVER THE LITTLE BROWN HOUSE

When Phronsie, with many crows of delight, and much chattering, had gotten fairly started the following morning on her much-antic.i.p.ated drive with the doctor, the whole family excepting Polly drawn up around the door to see them off, Mrs. Pepper resolved to s.n.a.t.c.h the time and run down for an hour or two to one of her customers who had long been waiting for a little "tailoring" to be done for her boys.

"Now, Joel," she said, putting on her bonnet before the cracked looking-gla.s.s, "you stay along of Polly; Ben must go up to bed, the doctor said; and Davie's going to the store for some mola.s.ses; so you and Polly must keep house."

"Yes'm," said Joel; "may I have somethin' to eat, ma?"

"Yes," said Mrs. Pepper; "but don't you eat the new bread; you may have as much as you want of the old."

"Isn't there any mola.s.ses, mammy?" asked Joel, as she bade Polly good-bye! and gave her numberless charges "to be careful of your eyes,"

and "not to let a crack of light in through the curtain," as the old green paper shade was called.

"No; if you're very hungry, you can eat bread," said Mrs. Pepper, sensibly.

"Joel," said Polly, after the mother had gone, "I do wish you could read to me."

"Well, I can't," said Joel, glad he didn't know how; "I thought the minister was comin'."

"Well, he was," said Polly, "but mammy said he had to go out of town to a consequence."

"A what!" asked Joel, very much impressed.

"A con--" repeated Polly. "Well, it began with a con--and I am sure--yes, very sure it was consequence."

"That must be splendid," said Joel, coming up to her chair, and slowly drawing a string he held in his hand back and forth, "to go to consequences, and everything! When I'm a man, Polly Pepper, I'm going to be a minister, and have a nice time, and go--just everywhere!"

"Oh, Joel!" exclaimed Polly, quite shocked; "you couldn't be one; you aren't good enough."

"I don't care," said Joel, not at all dashed by her plainness, "I'll be good then--when I'm a big man; don't you suppose, Polly," as a new idea struck him, "that Mr. Henderson ever is naughty?"

"No," said Polly, very decidedly; "never, never, never!"

"Then, I don't want to be one," said Joel, veering round with a sigh of relief, "and besides I'd rather have a pair of horses like Mr. Sloc.u.m's, and then I could go everywheres, I guess!"

"And sell tin?" asked Polly, "just like Mr. Sloc.u.m?"

"Yes," said Joel; "this is the way I'd go--Gee-whop! gee-whoa!" and Joel pranced with his imaginary steeds all around the room, making about as much noise as any other four boys, as he brought up occasionally against the four-poster or the high old bureau.

"Well!" said a voice close up by Polly's chair, that made her skip with apprehension, it was so like Miss Jerusha Henderson's--Joel was whooping away behind the bedstead to his horses that had become seriously entangled, so he didn't hear anything. But when Polly said, bashfully, "I can't see anything, ma'am," he came up red and shining to the surface, and stared with all his might.

"I came to see you, little girl," said Miss Jerusha severely, seating herself stiffly by Polly's side.

"Thank you, ma'am," said Polly, faintly.

"Who's this boy?" asked the lady, turning around squarely on Joel, and eying him from head to foot.

"He's my brother Joel," said Polly.

Joel still stared.

"Which brother?" pursued Miss Jerusha, like a census-taker.

"He is next to me," said Polly, wishing her mother was home; "he's nine, Joel is."

"He's big enough to do something to help his mother," said Miss Jerusha, looking him through and through. "Don't you think you might do something, when the others are sick, and your poor mother is working so hard?" she continued, in a cold voice.

"I do something," blurted out Joel, st.u.r.dily, "lots and lots!"

"You shouldn't say 'lots," reproved Miss Jerusha, with a sharp look over her spectacles, "tisn't proper for boys to talk so; what do you do all day long?" she asked, turning back to Polly, after a withering glance at Joel, who still stared.

"I can't do anything, ma'am," replied Polly, sadly, "I can't see to do anything."

"Well, you might knit, I should think," said her visitor, "it's dreadful for a girl as big as you are to sit all day idle; I had sore eyes once when I was a little girl--how old are you?" she asked, abruptly.

"Eleven last month," said Polly.