"If I could only go too," mourned Polly, having nothing to do but go slowly back and shut herself into Mamsie"s room, as bidden.
She threw herself down again on the old sofa, and buried her face in the pillows. It was Joel who bounded in and up to her side, calling, "Oh, Polly!" that sent her flying up to sit straight. "Ben wants you," he cried excitedly.
"Oh, Joel, what is it?" she exclaimed, flying off from the sofa; "what is the matter with Ben?"
"Nothing," said Joel, in high glee. As long as Ben wasn"t sick, and he had made matters right with him, the rest could wait. So downstairs Joel ran to Grandpapa, to tell him that he had made a grand mistake; that he did want Ben to go on the expedition, no more nor less than a visit to the Museum.
"I thought so, my boy," said old Mr. King, patting him on the shoulder.
"Now, if I were you, I wouldn"t go off half-c.o.c.ked again, especially with Ben. No doubt he was in the wrong, too. There are always two sides to a thing."
"Oh, no, he wasn"t," protested Joel, terribly alarmed lest Ben should be blamed. "I was cross, Grandpapa. "Twas all my fault." He was so distressed that the old gentleman hastened to add, "Yes, yes; well, there now, that"s quite enough. As I"ve never seen Ben treat you one-half as badly as you deserve, sir, I"ll believe you. Now be off with you, Joel!" and with a little laugh and another last pat he dismissed him.
Meantime Polly was having a perfectly dreadful time up in Ben"s room. It took Mrs. Fisher as well as Ben to comfort her in the least for her dreadful disappointment that Ben was not going to accept a long and thorough education at Mr. King"s hands.
But all this was as nothing to Grandpapa"s dismay when the truth came out. And it took more than the combined efforts of the whole household to restore him to equanimity when he saw that Ben was actually not to be moved from his resolution. It was little Doctor Fisher who finally achieved the first bit of resignation reached.
"Now, my good sir;" the little man put himself, unasked, beside the stately figure pacing with ill-concealed irritation down the "long path." It was several days since Ben had made his announcement, and Grandpapa had been hoping against all obstacles that the boy would give in at the last. But to-day even that hope slipped away.
"Let me speak a word for Ben," the little Doctor went on, raising his big spectacles just as cheerfully to the clouded face as if a warm invitation had been extended him.
"Ben needs no words from you, Doctor Fisher," said Mr. King, icily; "I really consider the least said on this subject the better, perhaps."
"Perhaps--and perhaps not," said the little man, just as cheerily. It was impossible to quarrel with him or to shake him off, and Mr. King, realizing this, kept on his walk with long strides, Doctor Fisher skipping by his side, telling off the points of what he had come to say, on his nervous fingers.
"Do you realize," he said at length, "that you would break down all Ben"s best powers if you had your way with him?"
"Hold on there, man," roared the old gentleman, coming to an abrupt pause in his walk, "do you mean to say, and do you take me for an idiot, which I should be if I believed it, that the more education a boy gets, the more he injures his chances for life?"
The little man squinted at the tips of the trees waving their skeleton branches in the crisp air, then brought a calm gaze to the excited old face: "Not exactly; but I do say when you make a boy like Ben turn from the path he has marked out for himself, all the education that culture would crowd on him is just so much to break down the boy. Ben wouldn"t be Ben after you got through with him. Now be sensible." He got up on his tiptoes and actually bestowed a pat on the stately shoulder. "Ben wants to go to work. Give him his head,--you can trust him; and let"s you and I keep our hands off from him."
And the little Doctor, having said his say, got down on his feet again and trotted off.
All the remainder of that day Grandpapa went around very much subdued.
He even smiled at Ben, a thing he hadn"t done ever since the dreadful announcement that gave a blow to all his plans for the boy. And at last it began to be understood that the skies were clear again, and that things after all were turning out for the best.
"But only to think of it," Grandpapa would go on to himself in the privacy of his own room, "mountain children can be brought down and set into schools, and the Van Ruypen money do the old lady some good,--and there is Pip,--see what she has got there,--and n.o.body to interfere with what she"ll spend on him. And I--I am balked the very first thing. And I did so mean to do well by Ben; dear, dear!"
But as the matter was now decided and out of his hands, the next thing to do was to get Ben a good place where he could begin on his business career, sure of good training. So the following day old Mr. King dropped into the office of Cabot and Van Meter, for a little private conversation.
They welcomed him heartily, as usual, dismissing other applicants for the time, and shut the door to the private office, drawing up their chairs to listen attentively.
"No business to-day," was Mr. King"s announcement, "that is, in the regular way. This that I have come to see you about is quite out of the ordinary. I want a place in your establishment for a young friend of mine."
The two gentlemen looked up in amazement. It wasn"t in the least like Mr. King to ask such a thing, knowing quite well that to secure such a place required much waiting for the required vacancy. It was Mr. Cabot who spoke first.
"I suppose he is experienced," he began slowly.
"Not in the least," replied old Mr. King, shortly.
"Well, er--on what do you recommend him?" ventured Mr. Van Meter.
"I don"t recommend him," the old gentleman answered in his crispest manner. "Bless you, I don"t go about recommending people; you know that." He looked into each face so fiercely that they both exclaimed together, "No, of course not. We quite understand."
"Well, what do you want your young friend to have with us--what kind of a position?" asked Mr. Cabot, patting one knee in perplexity.
"Anything," said Mr. King. "Give him anything to do; only get him in here. I tell you he must come, and you"ve got to take him." He leaned forward in his chair and struck his walking-stick smartly on the floor.
"Who is he?" demanded Mr. Van Meter, feeling that the exigency of the case demanded few words.
"Ben Pepper."
"_Ben Pepper!_" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Mr. Cabot. "Why, I thought he was in school."
"He was," said old Mr. King, turning on him with considerable venom, as if he were quite to blame for the whole thing, "but he has made up his mind to go into business. A very poor thing in my opinion; but since he"s decided it that way, there"s no more to be said," and he waved it off with a nonchalant hand.
"Not so very poor a thing to do after all." Mr. Van Meter got off from his chair, stalked up and down the office floor, bringing his hands every now and then smartly together, to emphasize his periods: "I was but a slip of a lad when I got into the business groove, and I"ve never been sorry I drudged it early. Now, Mr. King, it wouldn"t be well to give Ben any better chance than I had. He must begin at the bottom to amount to anything."
"He wouldn"t take the chance if you gave it to him," said Mr. King, dryly. "Why, there"s where Ben says he belongs--at the bottom."
BOOKS BY MARGARET SIDNEY
A LITTLE MAID OF CONCORD TOWN _Ill.u.s.trated by Frank T. Merrill_
A LITTLE MAID OF BOSTON TOWN _Ill.u.s.trated by Frank T. Merrill_
THE FAMOUS PEPPER BOOKS
IN ORDER OF PUBLICATION
_Twelve Volumes_ _Ill.u.s.trated_
FIVE LITTLE PEPPERS AND HOW THEY GREW FIVE LITTLE PEPPERS MIDWAY FIVE LITTLE PEPPERS GROWN UP PHRONSIE PEPPER THE STORIES POLLY PEPPER TOLD THE ADVENTURES OF JOEL PEPPER FIVE LITTLE PEPPERS ABROAD FIVE LITTLE PEPPERS AT SCHOOL FIVE LITTLE PEPPERS AND THEIR FRIENDS BEN PEPPER FIVE LITTLE PEPPERS IN THE LITTLE BROWN HOUSE OUR DAVIE PEPPER
THE FAMOUS PEPPER BOOKS
Five Little Peppers and How they Grew.
This was an instantaneous success; it has become a genuine child cla.s.sic.
Five Little Peppers Midway.