"Ugh!" cried Van, with a warning dig in his ribs.
"Let me alone," cried Joel, squaring around on him savagely.
"Look at Phronsie"s face," said Percy, with a superior manner, as if no one needed to tell him when to speak.
Polly was on her knees cuddling up Phronsie"s toes, and begging to feed her, when she felt her give a shiver, and try to hide her face on her neck.
"Don"t, Joey," begged Polly. But Joel, not hearing her, and hating to be dictated to by Percy, cried out persistently:
"Say, Phron, what were you doing all the morning?"
Phronsie at this gave a loud sob. "Take me, Polly," was all she said. So Polly sat down on the floor, and Phronsie snuggled up closer into her neck, and was rocked back and forth to her heart"s content, while Joel, perfectly aghast at the mischief he had done, was taken in tow by Mother Fisher, to sob out, his head in her lap, that he "didn"t mean to, he didn"t mean to."
"Oh, dear me!" exclaimed old Mr. King, in dismay, "this is a pretty state of things! Polly, my child"--he leaned over her--"can"t you think up something to get us out of it?"
"I"m going to talk about the garden party," cried Polly, an inspiration seizing her. "Oh, Phronsie, now you must sit up; you can"t think what plans we have for it." But Phronsie burrowed deeper in her nest.
"If you don"t sit up, Phronsie," said Polly quite decidedly, "I shall have to put you off from my lap, and go out of the room."
"Oh, no, no, Polly!" cried Phronsie, clutching her around the neck.
"Yes, I shall, Phronsie," declared Polly, in her most decided fashion, "so you must sit right up, and hear all about it. Now, Jasper, you begin."
So Phronsie sat up and let Polly wipe her face; and then she folded her hands in her lap, while Jasper began:
"You see that we thought that we"d take the Wistaria arbor, Father, if you"d let us, for our post office. May we?"
"Yes, yes, certainly," said the old gentleman, who would have been quite willing to promise anything just then.
"Oh, that"s no end jolly!" cried Jasper, throwing back his dark hair from his forehead with a quick thrust. "Now we can do splendidly. Polly, only think!" His eyes shone, and Polly screamed out, "Oh, Grandpapa, how lovely!" and the others joined in, not quite knowing what they were so happy about, until Joel popped up his head from his mother"s lap to hear what all the noise was about over there.
"I"m going to be postmaster," he announced, wiping the tears off with the back of his hand, and plunging across the room.
"No, sir-ee!" declared Ben, seizing his jacket-end, "don"t think it, Joe.
Jasper is going to fill that important office."
"Yes, Jasper is," shouted Percy and Van together, delighted at anything that could keep Joel out. Davie stood perfectly still in the midst of the uproar.
"Why couldn"t Joey be a letter carrier, to help give out the letters?" he said at last, in the midst of the noise. "Couldn"t he, Ben?" and he ran to twitch that individual"s sleeve.
"Hey--what?"
"Couldn"t he be the one to give out some of the letters, and help Jasper?"
asked David anxiously.
"I don"t know--yes, maybe"--as he saw David"s face fall. "You best ask Jasper, he"s to be the postmaster."
So David ran over and precipitated himself into the middle of the group, with his question; when immediately the rest began to clamor to help Jasper give out the letters, so the babel was worse than at first.
Phronsie by this time was begging with the others, while she sat straight in Polly"s lap, with very red cheeks and wide eyes. Now she slipped out, and rushed up to Jasper.
"And I, too, j.a.pser; I want to give out letters, too," she cried, dreadfully excited.
"So you shall, Pet," he cried, seizing her to toss her up in the air, the others all circling around them, Phronsie"s happy little crows going up high above the general din.
"Well, I think if we are going to have such a fine post office, we"ll have to work pretty hard to write the letters," said Polly, after they had sobered down a bit.
"Ugh!" cried Joel with a grimace, "I"m not going to write a single sc.r.a.p of one."
"Indeed you are," retorted Polly; "everybody has absolutely got to write some letters. Why, we must have a bushel of them."
"Oh, Polly Pepper!" cried the others, "a bushel of letters!"
"And no one can have a letter who doesn"t write some," announced Polly firmly--"the very idea! So we must all work like everything to get ready for the post office."
III
CLEM FORSYTHE
Phronsie sat on the stairs, halfway down the long flight. It was the same staircase on which Jasper had found her, with Polly waiting patiently on the lower step, when she first came to Grandpapa King"s. Now she held Clorinda in her arms, tightly pressed to her bosom.
"I do wish," she said softly, "that I could see my poor little girl, I do."
Clorinda not replying, Phronsie smoothed down the pink gown.
"It wasn"t very nice at that little girl"s house"--and a troubled expression swept over her face--"but the little girl was nice, and she hadn"t any child."
Clorinda"s countenance expressed no sorrow, but stared up at her mother unblinkingly. Phronsie bent over and dropped a kiss on the red lips.
"Maybe she"ll come again some day, if I watch by the big gate."
"My goodness me!" Polly, running along the upper hall, peered over the railing. "What are you doing, Phronsie, sitting down in the middle of the stairs?"
"I"m thinking," said Phronsie, looking up.
"Well, I should say!" cried Polly, running down to sit beside her. "Oh, Pet, I"ve an invite for you." She seized Phronsie"s hand and cuddled it in both of her own. "It"s perfectly splendid."
"What"s an "invite"?" asked Phronsie, coming slowly out of her thoughts, to peer into Polly"s face.
"Oh, I forgot, Mamsie didn"t want me to say that," said Polly, with a little blush. "Well, it"s an invitation, Pet, and to Miss Mary Taylor"s, to go with us girls this afternoon to work on our fancy things for the fair.
Only think of that, Phronsie Pepper!" And Polly threw her arms around the small figure, and hugged her, to the imminent danger of both falling down the rest of the flight.
"Oh, dear me!" exclaimed Polly, "we almost went over."
"Can I really go, Polly?" cried Phronsie, as soon as she could get her breath, "when you all take your bags and work on things?" She set Clorinda carefully down on the stair above, and stood up to look into Polly"s face.