"I"d give some back, but mine"s et up," said Joel, miserably, under the table.
"It"s too bad, David," said Polly; "here now, you may have some of mine," and she broke off a generous bit.
"I told him he might have a bite," meekly said David, who never could bear to have Joel blamed. "I wanted him to have it," he added cheerfully.
"O dear-dear-dear," boohooed Joel.
Davie dropped his cake in a worried way.
"Don"t, Joey," he said, leaning over to look at him.
"I"m sorry. I"m sorry," blubbered Joel. "O dear me!"
David, unable to bear it any longer, slipped out of his chair, and crept under the table to comfort Joel. But it wasn"t till Polly said, "Come, Joey," that he would show his face. Then he twisted his knuckles into his eyes, and hung his head.
Mother Pepper said never a word, only held out her arms, and Joel walked straight into them, bursting into the loud sob he had held back so long; and then she took his hand and led him into the bedroom, and the rest of the children sat still and very uncomfortable, and Davie wouldn"t look at his cake. When they came out again, Joel marched straight to David, and said, "You may have my knife."
Joel"s knife, with the tip of one blade broken, and the other all gone, was his dearest treasure.
It had been given to him by Deacon Brown, and its possession had made him very proud and boastful. It was the one thing Davie longed for, above all others.
"Oh, no, Joe, not your knife!" he cried, aghast, and shrinking back.
"Yes, you may have it," said Joel, decidedly, and running out into the entry to hurry into the woodshed to the wooden box where he kept his treasures.
"Yes, Davie, I would take it," said Mrs. Pepper. "Joel feels very sorry he"s taken any of your cake, and he"d rather you had the knife."
"But it"s Joel"s knife," said Davie, "and he loves it."
"Not so much as he does to grow up a good boy," said Mother Pepper, proudly, as Joel came running in and laid the knife on the table in front of David. "It"s yours, and I"m sorry I et your cake," he said in one burst.
Polly hopped out of her seat, and ran around the table to take Joel"s black stubby head in her two hands. "Oh, Joel! I"m so glad!" she cried, in a happy little gust.
"Good for you, Joe!" cried Ben, approvingly.
"Pooh!" exclaimed Joel, twisting off, his face getting redder and redder. "Mamsie, stop "em--do;" yet he liked it very much.
"Oh, Ben," cried Polly, after the last sc.r.a.p of the wonderful cake had disappeared, the dishes were cleared away, and Phronsie put to bed, and everything was spick-span once more, "I"ve just thought of something perfectly splendid!"
"What is it?" cried Joel, who, despite all his efforts, was just beginning to think of the circus again. "Do tell, Polly! Now you"re goin" to whisper with Ben, and you won"t tell us."
"No, I shan"t--and yes, I will," said Polly, all in the same breath.
"It"s this, Mamsie. Mayn"t we have a little play out in the orchard next Wednesday, and can"t Joel and David sit up a little longer to-night to talk it over? I"ve just thought of something splendid to act."
"Oh, may we, may we?" cried the two boys, in a tumult.
"Instead of the circus," Polly"s brown eyes were saying. "Do, Mammy."
"Yes, you may," said Mrs. Pepper, indulgently, "sit up half an hour longer."
"We"ve had a cake to-night, and now Mamsie"s going to let you two boys sit up. I think n.o.body ever had such a perfectly beautiful time," declared Polly, as they dragged their chairs around the table again, and Mamsie got out her big mending basket, "did you, Ben Pepper?"
"No, I never did, Polly," said Ben, happy in seeing her face bright and rosy once more, with the little smiles running all over it.
"Now begin," cried Joel, drumming impatiently on the table; "what"s the play to be, Polly? I"m going to be a bear," he announced.
"Oh, Joel, you were a bear last time," said Polly, with a little frown between her eyebrows.
"I don"t care, I"m going to be a bear," repeated Joel, obstinately.
"See here, now, Polly makes this play, and you"ve got to be just what she says," said Ben.
"I"m so tired making plays with bears in "em," said Polly, pushing off the little rings of brown hair with an impatient hand. Then she caught her mother"s eye. "Never mind, Joey," she said with a gay little laugh, "I"ll make the bear."
"Yes, you must be tired," declared Ben. "Joe, you oughtn"t to tease Polly so. It"s bad enough to have to make the plays, I think."
"Oh, I don"t care," laughed Polly. "Well, now here"s the play.
You see, we want something quite fine and extra," and she looked at Ben meaningly. He nodded, so she rushed ahead, well pleased.
"Well, the name is Mr. Primrose and his Cat."
"And the bear," shouted Joel. "And I know what I"m going to do, Polly, I"m going to eat the cat up."
"Oh, no, you mustn"t, Joe," said Polly, "for the cat is going to be Phronsie. Now you must be good and not scare her."
"I"ll tell her I"m nothing but Joel, and I ain"t a bear," said Joel.
"Hush about your old bear, Joe," said Ben. "Polly can"t get on at all if you don"t keep still."
"I"ll fix it, Joey," said Polly, kindly, "so you can be a bear, only you must promise not to roar too much and scare Phronsie."
"I won"t scare her a single bit, Polly," promised Joel, eagerly.
So then Joel and his bear being settled, Polly launched forth on the wonderful play, and Mother Pepper glanced up now and then from her mending, and a smile began to come on the face that had been soberly bent on her work.
"Poor things!" she said to herself. "And bless "em, for the comforts they are!" But she sighed as she glanced around the bare old kitchen.
IX
THE BAG OF RYE FLOUR
All that week Mother Pepper kept Joel and David away from the Store, and Polly or Ben had to go, whenever the errands made it necessary. Polly, when it was her turn, did not trust herself to look at the flaming yellow sheets of paper with the big staring letters across them, stuck up in the dirty store windows, or hung from the beams in among the kitchen utensils, or breadths of calico and gingham, wherever they would attract the most attention.
One, in particular, was nailed up just inside the door. It was pretty hard to avoid this, but Polly turned her head away, and tried not to think of it, but keep her mind on what Mamsie said just before starting. "Don"t keep looking at what you want and can"t have, but keep busy over what you can have;" so she set her brain hard to work over the play, trying to decide whether she would have Mr. Primrose, who was to be Ben, rescue from the bear the white cat, who was to be Phronsie, in the remains of the old white fuzzy mat that Mrs. Henderson had given them to play with, or whether she (Polly), who was to be the fairy, should change her back into the small damsel she was at first, or whether--
"Well, Polly, my girl," said Mr. Atkins, with a hearty laugh, "I"ve spoke to you three times, and you seem deef to-day."