"I should think likely," laughed Ben. "No, indeed, Polly Pepper! but if we should pop a lot, oh! a bushel, and then we should string "em, we could wind it all in and out among the branches, and--"
"Why, wouldn"t that be pretty?" cried Polly, "real pretty--and we can do that, I"m sure."
"Yes," continued Ben; "and then, don"t you know, there"s some little candle ends in that box in the Provision Room, maybe mammy"d give us them."
"I don"t believe but she would," cried Polly; "twould be just like j.a.ppy"s if she would! Let"s ask her now--this very same minute!"
And they scampered hurriedly to Mrs. Pepper, who to their extreme astonishment, after all, said "yes," and smiled encouragingly on the plan.
"Isn"t mammy good?" said Polly, with loving grat.i.tude, as they seated themselves again.
"Now we"re all right," exclaimed Ben, "and I tell you we can make the tree look perfectly splendid, Polly Pepper!"
"And I"ll tell you another thing, Ben," Polly said, "oh! something elegant! You must get ever so many hickory nuts; and you know those bits of bright paper I"ve got in the bureau drawer? Well, we can paste them on to the nuts and hang "em on for the b.a.l.l.s j.a.ppy tells of."
"Polly," cried Ben, "it"ll be such a tree as never was, won"t it?"
"Yes; but dear me," cried Polly, springing up, "the children are coming!
Wasn"t it good, grandma wanted "em to come over this afternoon, so"s we could talk! Now hush!" as the door opened to admit the noisy little troop.
"If you think of any new plan," whispered Ben, behind his hand, while Mrs. Pepper engaged their attention, "you"ll have to come out into the wood-shed to talk after this."
"I know it," whispered Polly back again; "oh! we"ve got just heaps of things to think of, Bensie!"
Such a contriving and racking of brains as Polly and Ben set up after this! They would bob over at each other, and smile with significant gesture as a new idea would strike one of them, in the most mysterious way that, if observed, would drive the others almost wild. And then, frightened lest in some hilarious moment the secret should pop out, the two conspirators would betake themselves to the wood-shed as before agreed on. But Joel, finding this out, followed them one day--or, as Polly said, tagged--so that was no good.
"Let"s go behind the wood-pile," she said to Ben, in desperation; "he can"t hear there, if we whisper real soft."
"Yes, he will," said Ben, who knew Joel"s hearing faculties much better.
"We"ll have to wait till they"re a-bed."
So after that, when nightfall first began to make its appearance, Polly would hint mildly about bedtime.
"You hustle us so!" said Joel, after he had been sent off to bed for two or three nights unusually early.
"Oh, Joey, it"s good for you to get to bed," said Polly, coaxingly; "it"ll make you grow, you know, real fast."
"Well, I don"t grow a-bed," grumbled Joel, who thought something was in the wind. "You and Ben are going to talk, I know, and wink your eyes, as soon as we"re gone."
"Well, go along, Joe, that"s a good boy," said Polly, laughing, "and you"ll know some day."
"What"ll you give me?" asked Joel, seeing a bargain, his foot on the lowest stair leading to the loft, "say, Polly?"
"Oh, I haven"t got much to give," she said, cheerily; "but I"ll tell you what, Joey--I"ll tell you a story every day that you go to bed."
"Will you?" cried Joe, hopping back into the room. "Begin now, Polly, begin now!"
"Why, you haven"t been to bed yet," said Polly, "so I can"t till to-morrow."
"Yes, I have--you"ve made us go for three--no, I guess fourteen nights,"
said Joel, indignantly.
"Well, you were made to go," laughed Polly. "I said if you"d go good, you know; so run along, Joe, and I"ll tell you a nice one to-morrow."
"It"s got to be long," shouted Joel, when he saw he could get no more, making good time up to the loft.
To say that Polly, in the following days, was Master Joel"s slave, was stating the case lightly. However, she thought by her story-telling she got off easily, as each evening saw the boys drag their unwilling feet to-bedward, and leave Ben and herself in peace to plan and work undisturbed. There they would sit by the little old table, around the one tallow candle, while Mrs. Pepper sewed away busily, looking up to smile or to give some bits of advice; keeping her own secret meanwhile, which made her blood leap fast, as the happy thoughts nestled in her heart of her little ones and their coming glee. And Polly made the loveliest of paper dolls for Phronsie out of the rest of the bits of bright paper; and Ben made windmills and whistles for the boys; and a funny little carved basket with a handle, for Phronsie, out of a hickory nut sh.e.l.l; and a new pink calico dress for Seraphina peered out from the top drawer of the old bureau in the bedroom, whenever anyone opened it--for Mrs. Pepper kindly let the children lock up their treasures there as fast as completed.
"I"ll make Seraphina a bonnet," said Mrs. Pepper, "for there"s that old bonnet-string in the bag, you know, Polly, that"ll make it beautiful."
"Oh, do, mother," cried Polly, "she"s been wanting a new one awfully."
"And I"m going to knit some mittens for Joel and David," continued Mrs.
Pepper; "cause I can get the yarn cheap now. I saw some down at the store yesterday I could have at half price."
"I don"t believe anybody"ll have as good a Christmas as we shall," cried Polly, pasting on a bit of tr.i.m.m.i.n.g to the gayest doll"s dress; "no, not even j.a.ppy."
An odd little smile played around Mrs. Pepper"s mouth, but she said not a word, and so the fun and the work went on.
The tree was to be set up in the Provision Room; that was finally decided, as Mrs. Pepper showed the children how utterly useless it would be to try having it in the kitchen.
"I"ll find the key, children," she said, "I think I know where "tis, and then we can keep them out."
"Well, but it looks so," said Polly, demurring at the prospect.
"Oh, no, Polly," said her mother; "at any rate it"s clean."
"Polly," said Ben, "we can put evergreen around, you know."
"So we can," said Polly, brightly; "oh, Ben, you do think of the best things; we couldn"t have had them in the kitchen."
"And don"t let"s hang the presents on the tree," continued Ben; "let"s have the children hang up their stockings; they want to, awfully--for I heard David tell Joel this morning before we got up--they thought I was asleep, but I wasn"t--that he did so wish they could, but, says he, "Don"t tell mammy, "cause that"ll make her feel bad."
"The little dears!" said Mrs. Pepper, impulsively; "they shall have their stockings, too."
"And we"ll make the tree pretty enough," said Polly, enthusiastically; "we shan"t want the presents to hang on; we"ve got so many things. And then we"ll have hickory nuts to eat; and perhaps mammy"ll let us make some mola.s.ses candy the day before," she said, with a sly look at her mother.
"You may," said Mrs. Pepper, smiling.
"Oh, goody!" they both cried, hugging each other ecstatically.
"And we"ll have a frolic in the Provision Room afterwards," finished Polly; "oh! ooh!"
And so the weeks flew by--one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight! till only the three days remained, and to think the fun that Polly and Ben had had already!
"It"s better"n a Christmas," they told their mother, "to get ready for it!"
"It"s too bad you can"t hang up your stockings," said Mrs. Pepper, looking keenly at their flushed faces and bright eyes; "you"ve never hung "em up."