"Well, now, the fact of it is," continued old Mr. King, still keeping to the main point with wonderful directness, "I think the time has come for us to act, which is much better than talking, in my opinion; and I want to do something for those boys."
A pin could have been heard to drop. Polly leaned over his chair and hung on his words, while Mrs. Fisher never took her eyes from his face.
"In short," continued old Mr. King, well pleased with the attention of his audience, "I propose that we send a box of good things of various descriptions to Ben and Joel and David."
A small howl of delight from Polly broke the silence. When she heard that, Phronsie gave a little crow. "Oh, Grandpapa!" exclaimed Polly, "do you really mean it?" and she threw her arms around his neck.
Phronsie immediately clambered up and did the same thing.
"That"s just as your mother shall decide," said Mr. King, immensely pleased with the way his news was received. "She hasn"t said a word yet whether she likes the idea or not."
"It"s just because I couldn"t speak at first," said Mrs. Fisher, wiping her eyes; and her voice trembled. "But it"s the very thing; and oh!
thank you, sir, for thinking of it. The boys won"t be so homesick for us when they get the box. And it will be the best thing in the world for us to keep busy, so we can"t worry about them."
"Mamsie _has_ said "yes"!" exclaimed Polly, flying off to dance around and around in the middle of the room. "Oh, I wish Jasper was here!" she cried regretfully, breaking short off.
"Go and call him, then,--he"s down in the reading room, writing to the boys,--and bring him up here," said old Mr. King. "No, no, Phronsie, you want to stay and take care of me," as Phronsie showed signs of slipping down from his lap to go too.
"I"ll stay and take care of you," said Phronsie, obediently; "just let me lay Araminta down, Grandpapa, on the sofa, and then I"ll come back and rub your head."
So she got down and set Araminta up straight against the sofa back, and then came and clambered up again into his lap. By this time Polly and Jasper, racing along the hall, had reached Mother Fisher"s room.
"That"s regularly splendid, father." Jasper tossed his dark hair back from his forehead, and his eyes sparkled. "Oh, can"t we go out right away and begin to buy the presents?"
"I shouldn"t think that idea was a half-bad one," said old Mr. King.
"What do you say, Mrs. Fisher? If we are going to send the box, why isn"t it best to begin the work at once? There"s never so good a time as now, in my opinion. I"m sure you agree with me."
On Mother Fisher saying "yes," all three of the young people took hold of hands, and danced around the room in glee. For old Mr. King set Phronsie down, with, "There, go, child, and spin with the others; then all hurry and get your hats on, and we"ll be off."
And in less time than it takes to write it, old Mr. King and Mother Fisher and Jasper and Polly and Phronsie all hurried out of the hotel, and began a round of the shops to get the things together for the wonderful box to go home to the boys. And though Polly didn"t know it, several other things, that boys wouldn"t be supposed to care for in the least, were slyly added to the purchases, when she wasn"t looking, to be sent home to the hotel in separate parcels to Mr. King. For Polly was going to have a birthday before very long; though she had quite forgotten it in the excitement over this box for Ben and Joel and David.
"It"s just like buying things for Christmas, isn"t it, Jasper?" said Polly, as they hung over the show-cases and peered into windows; "only everything is so funny here. Oh, no, Phronsie, that won"t do; it"s too big," as Phronsie protested that nothing was so nice as a huge Delft plate hanging on the wall. There was a big windmill and several little windmills in the distance along a Dutch ca.n.a.l, and two or three cows in the foreground, and a peasant girl with a basket in her hand. Phronsie stood and gazed at it all the time they were in this particular shop.
"I like that little girl," she said, "and those cows; and they are like Deacon Blodgett"s cows at home in Badgertown. And Ben would like it, and Joel, and David." And all Polly could do, she would still say, "I like it, Polly, and I want Grandpapa to send it."
At last Polly turned in despair to Jasper. "Oh, what can we do?" she cried; "she is just as determined as she was when she would send the gingerbread boy to Grandpapa."
"Well, I think we would better not try to get her away from the idea,"
said Jasper, with a look at the rapt little face. Phronsie was now kneeling on a Flemish oak chair, and studying the Delft plate with absorbed attention.
"No," said Polly, with a sigh, "I suppose it isn"t any use to try when she looks like that." Just then old Mr. King, who had been busy in a farther corner with the proprietor of the shop, picking out some small articles that struck his fancy, turned and called Phronsie. She didn"t hear him, being too absorbed. And so he laid down the little silver paper-cutter he was looking at, and came over to see what was the matter.
"Well, child," he said, looking over her shoulder. "And so you like that, hey?"
Phronsie drew a long breath. "I do, Grandpapa, like it very much indeed," she said.
"Well, then, I don"t see but what you must have it. And it shall hang in your own little room at home, Phronsie."
"But I don"t want it for my very own, Grandpapa," said Phronsie; "it must go in the box for Ben and Joel and David."
"Dear me! You think they would like it, Phronsie?" he asked doubtfully, and just on the point of saying, like Polly, "it"s too big, child,"
when he stopped himself and finished up--"and so it pleases you, Phronsie?"
"Yes, it does," said Phronsie, with an emphatic little nod; "I love that nice cow, and that little girl. Grandpapa, I think I should like to live in a windmill."
"Bless me! I think you wouldn"t want to live there very long, child.
Well, the plate shall go to the boys, and I only hope they will like it," he said to himself, dubiously.
"He is going to send it," Jasper and Polly said to each other, peering round an angle in the shop at the two. "Well, it"s a mercy it"s got a cow on it instead of a cat," said Jasper. "How Joel would howl if Phronsie sent him the picture of a cat!"
"She would if there were a cat to be found," said Polly; "don"t you believe, Jasper, but what she would?"
X
DANGER
Well, the box that went home across the seas to the Pepper boys was a marvel, stuffed in every nook and cranny where there was a possibility that the tiniest parcel could be tucked, until Phronsie, who kept bringing up more bundles, had to be told by Polly and Jasper, who did the packing, that no more could go in.
"They are very small," sighed Phronsie, curling up on the floor by the side of the big box, almost overflowing with billows of the soft white paper on top, and holding up two pudgy little bundles.
"So you"ve said for the last hour, Phronsie," exclaimed Polly, in despair, and sitting quite straight, her hands in her lap. "Jasper, what _shall_ we do?" He was over by the window laying out the long nails that were to fasten the cover on; for no one must touch this precious box, but the loving hands that got it ready.
"Oh, we can"t," began Jasper. Then he turned and saw Phronsie"s face.
"Perhaps one might be crowded in," he added, with a look at Polly.
"Which one would you rather have Polly make a try at, Phronsie?"
"This one," she said, holding up the pudgiest bundle, "because this is the china cat, and I want Joel to have that."
Down went Polly"s head on the edge of the box. Jasper dropped the long nails and hurried over to her.
"I can"t help it." Polly"s shoulders were shaking, and she added gustily, "O dear me--and Joel does so hate cats!"
"Phronsie, I think I can tuck in that parcel," Jasper made haste to say. "There, give it to me, child," and he took it out of her hand.
"For Joel" was written across it in unsteady letters.
"Is Polly sick?" asked Phronsie, wonderingly, as she resigned her cat into his hands.
"No, only a bit tired, I think," answered Jasper. "Well, now, Phronsie, I think there is just room enough to tuck that parcel in this corner,"
said Jasper, crowding his fingers down in between the various bundles to make a s.p.a.ce. "There, in it pops!" suiting the action to the word.
"I am so very glad," said Phronsie, smoothing her brown gown in great satisfaction; "for then Joel will know that I sent it all by myself."
"He"ll know that n.o.body else sent it," said Polly to herself. "And I know it"s a perfectly awful cat, for Phronsie always picks out the very ugliest she can find."
Well, the box was off, at last, the Pepper children and Jasper seeing it till the very last minute. And old Mr. King was nearly as excited as the young folks, and the Parson and Mrs. Henderson said it reminded them of Christmas times over again, and Mother Fisher and the little doctor were in a great state of happiness.