Five Little Peppers Abroad.
by Margaret Sidney.
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.
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 rea.s.suring 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 f.a.n.n.y 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 gla.s.ses, 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 pa.s.sion, 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."