"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 st.i.tches 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," e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed 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 att.i.tude. 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," e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed 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 compa.s.s 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.