"Haven"t you so?" said Mrs. Sterling, greatly pleased to be the first in one of Polly"s pleasures.
"Oh!" cried Polly again, "twenty-five dollars!" And she threw herself down before the lounge, and dropped a kiss upon the hand that had made all this happiness for the brakeman"s poor children.
"Well now, Polly, tell me all about it," said Mrs. Sterling, with a glow at her heart warm enough to brighten many a long invalid day. "Gibbons, get a cricket for Miss Mary."
"Oh, may I sit here?" begged Polly eagerly, as Gibbons, placing the little writing-case back into position, now approached with the cricket; "it"s so cosey on the floor."
"Why, yes, if you don"t wish the cricket," said Mrs. Sterling with a little laugh, "and I remember when I was your age it was my greatest delight to sit on the floor."
"It is mine," said Polly, snuggling up to the sofa-blankets.
Mrs. Sterling put out her thin hand, and took Polly"s rosy palm. "Now begin, dear," she said, with an air of content, and looking down into the bright face.
So Polly, realizing that here perhaps was need for help, quite as much as in the poor brakeman"s home, though in a different way, told the whole story, how the two clubs, the Salisbury School Club and the boys"
club, had joined together to help Jim Corcoran"s children; how they had had a big meeting at Jasper"s house, and promised each other to take hold faithfully and work for that object.
"We were going to have a little play," observed Polly, a bit sorrowfully, "but it was thought best not, so it will be recitations and music."
"Those will be very nice, I am quite sure, Polly," said Mrs. Sterling; "how I should love to hear some of them!" It was her turn to look sad now.
"Why--" Polly sat up quite straight now, and her cheeks turned rosy.
"What is it, my child?" asked Mrs. Sterling.
"Would you--I mean, do you want--oh, Mrs. Sterling, would you like us to come here some time to recite something to you?"
Mrs. Sterling turned an eager face on her pillow.
"Are you sure, Polly," a light coming into her tired eyes, "that you young people would be willing to come to entertain a dull, sick, old woman?"
"Oh, I am sure they would," cried Polly, "if you would like it, dear Mrs. Sterling."
"_Like it!_" Mrs. Sterling turned her thin face to the wall for a moment. When she looked again at Polly, there were tears trickling down the wasted cheeks. "Polly, you don"t know," she said brokenly, "how I just long to hear young voices here in this dreary old house. To lie here day after day, child--"
"Oh!" cried Polly suddenly, "it must be so very dreadful, Mrs.
Sterling."
"Well, don"t let us speak of that," said Mrs. Sterling, breaking off quickly her train of thought, "for the worst isn"t the pain and the weakness, Polly. It"s the loneliness, child."
"Oh!" said Polly. Then it all rushed over her how she might have run in before, and taken the other girls if she had only known. "But we will come now, dear Mrs. Sterling," she said aloud.
"Do," cried Mrs. Sterling, and a faint color began to show itself on her thin face, "but not unless you are quite sure that the young people will like it, Polly."
"Yes, I am sure," said Polly, with a decided nod of her brown head.
"Then why couldn"t you hold some of your rehearsals here?" proposed Mrs.
Sterling.
"Shouldn"t we tire you?" asked Polly.
"No, indeed!" declared Mrs. Sterling, with sudden energy, "I could bear a menagerie up here, Polly," and she laughed outright.
Gibbons, at this unwonted sound, popped her head in from the adjoining room where she was busy with her sewing, to gaze in astonishment at her mistress.
"I am not surprised at your face, Gibbons," said Mrs. Sterling cheerily, "for you have not heard me laugh for many a day."
"No, madam, I haven"t," said Gibbons, "but I can"t help saying I"m rejoiced to hear it now," with a glance of approval on Polly Pepper.
"So, Polly, you see there is no danger of your bringing me any fatigue, and I should be only too happy to see you at your next rehearsal."
"We can come, I am almost sure," said Polly, "those of us who want to rehea.r.s.e at all. Some of us, you see, are quite sure of our pieces: Pickering Dodge is, for one; he spoke at his last school exhibition. But I"ll tell the others. Oh, thank you for asking us, Mrs. Sterling."
"Thank you for giving your time, dear, to a dull old woman," said Mrs.
Sterling. "Oh, must you go?" She clung to her hand. "I suppose you ought, child."
"Yes," said Polly, "I really ought to go, Mrs. Sterling. And you are not dull, one single bit, and I like you very much," she added as simply as Phronsie would have said it.
"Kiss me good-bye, Polly," said Mrs. Sterling. So Polly laid her fresh young cheek against the poor, tired, wasted one; hopped into her jacket, and was off on happy feet.
And the others said "Yes," when they saw Polly"s enthusiasm over the plan of holding a rehearsal at Mrs. Sterling"s; and Jasper proposed, "Why couldn"t we repeat the whole thing after our grand performance, for her sometime?" and, before any one could quite tell how, a warm sympathy had been set in motion for the rich, lonely old lady in the big, gloomy stone mansion most of them pa.s.sed daily on their way to school.
Well, the grand affair was over now, and a greater success than was ever hoped for. Now came the enjoyment of presenting the money!
"Grandpapa," said Polly, "we are all here."
"So I perceive," looking out on the delegation in the hall. For of course all the two clubs couldn"t go to the presentation, so committees were chosen to represent them--Polly, Clem, Alexia, and Silvia, for the Salisbury Club, and Jasper, Clare, Pickering, and Richard Burnett for the boys" club; while old Mr. King on his own account had invited Joel, Percy and Van, and, of course, Tom Beresford.
"My! What shall we do with such a lot of boys?" exclaimed Alexia, as they all met in the hall.
"You don"t have to do anything at all with us, Alexia," retorted Joel, who liked her the best of any of Polly"s friends, and always showed it by sparring with her on every occasion, "only let us alone."
"Which I shall proceed to do with the greatest pleasure," said Alexia.
"Goodness me! Joe, as if I"d be bothered with you tagging on. You"re much worse than before you went away to school."
"Come, you two, stop your quarrelling," said Jasper, laughing. "A pretty example you"d make to those poor Corcoran children."
"Oh, we sha"n"t fight there," said Alexia sweetly; "we"ll have quite enough to do to see all that is going on. Oh, Polly, when do you suppose we can ever start?"
"Father has the bank-book," announced Jasper; "I saw him put it in his pocket, Polly."
Polly gave a little wriggle under her coat. "Oh, Jasper, isn"t it just too splendid for anything!" she cried.
"I"m going to walk with Polly," announced Clem, seizing Polly"s arm, "so, Alexia Rhys, I give you fair warning this time."
"Indeed, you"re not," declared Alexia stoutly. "Why, I always walk with Polly Pepper."
"And that"s just the reason why I"m going to to-day," said Clem, hanging to Polly"s arm for dear life.