Around Peter's house is a beautiful field. This is Mr. Howe's hayfield.
You can find it on the map in the front of this book.
The children like this field. All the year round, it is a pleasant
place.
In the spring they find blue violets here. In the summer they watch the
birds that make nests in the tall grass. In the winter they slide here
on the crust.
At the farther side of the field, there are some trees. These are
butternut trees. In front of the trees is a stone wall.
Peter and Polly like to play by this wall. Sometimes they play that it
is a post office.
The holes in the wall are the boxes. There is a box for every one in the
village. Peter has more than one box; so has Polly.
The children take turns being the postmaster. If Peter is the
postmaster, Polly calls for the mail.
The real post office is in their father's store. So they have often seen
Mr. Howe put the mail into the boxes.
They use little sticks for the post cards. Leaves are the letters.
Stones are the packages. Sometimes the boxes are full of
mail--especially Peter's and Polly's.
Often they play that it is Christmas time. Then the boxes are full of
packages. It is fun to guess what is in each package.
One day Peter said, "There is a knife in this package. I like it. There
is a hammer in this package. I will build a house with it.
"There is a game in this package. Will you play it with me, Polly? And,
O Polly! There is a pony in this package! That is what I wish for most
of all."
"But, Peter, a pony is too big to be in your post-office box. It would
not come by mail."
"Then Santa Claus will bring it," said Peter. "If I get it, I do not
care how it comes."
One day the children saw that the butternuts were falling.
Polly said, "Let's pick up all we can. We will put them in our
post-office boxes. When they are full, we will bring your cart. Then we
can take the nuts home. We will crack them next winter."
So they filled the boxes with nuts. The nuts were still green. The
children stained their hands with them.
While they were playing with the nuts, they saw two squirrels. These sat
in the trees above them. They watched Peter and Polly with their bright
eyes, and scolded them a great deal.
"They want our nuts," said Polly. "But we have put them into our
post-office boxes. We will keep them."
The next day the children went for their nuts. They took Peter's cart
with them. What do you think they found?
Why, they found their boxes empty! The nuts were all gone!
"Some one bad has been here," said Peter.
Polly laughed. "You always say that, Peter. I think it was those
squirrels. And I don't care, because they need the nuts to eat this
winter."
"I don't care, either," said Peter. "I think we forgot to lock our
boxes."
"Perhaps we did," said Polly. "But I guess the squirrels thought the
boxes were theirs. When they called for their mail, they found the boxes
full. How pleased they must have been! Let's pick up more nuts for
them."
So the children again filled the post-office boxes with nuts. Then they
went home and left them for the squirrels.