GWEN CALLS UPON POLLY
Polly's return was hailed with delight, and it seemed as if every child
in the neighborhood turned its steps to ward Sherwood Hall to greet her,
and to hear all about her visit.
Lena Lindsey, with her brother Rob, Leslie Grafton, and Harry, Vivian
Osborne, and, indeed, all of her little friends and playmates hastened
to see her, to hear from Rose, and to tell all of the small neighborhood
happenings that had occurred while she had been away.
"I've three white rabbits," said Rob, "and I want to show them to you,
Polly."
"And mama has bought the dearest angora kitten for me. I wish you'd come
down soon and see it," urged Leslie; "it's just a baby cat and you can't
help loving her, she's so cunning."
"I haven't anything new to show you," said Vivian, laughing merrily. "I
mean I've nothing of my own, but there's SOMETHING I'll show you, and I
guess it's different from anything you ever saw!"
"Why, Vivian Osborne! What ARE you going to show Polly?" Harry Grafton
asked.
Vivian's eyes were dancing as she whispered something in Harry's ear.
"Oh, THAT'S it, is it? Well, I guess Polly WILL look when you show it to
her!"
"You just tell me this minute!" said Polly. "I'm wild to know what IT
is!"
"IT," said Vivian, "is a girl, a very pretty little girl!"
"Then why is she a sight to see, and why DO you laugh?" Polly asked,
completely puzzled.
"She LOOKS well enough," Vivian replied, "but she ACTS like--"
"The old SCRATCH!" said Rob.
"Oh, Rob!" cried Lena, "Mama told you not to say that!"
"I know it," Rob admitted, "but I couldn't think of any other name that
would give Princess Polly an idea what she was like."
"But who is she? Where is she?" questioned Polly.
"Oh, she lives in the next house to us," said Vivian. "Her papa has
bought that fine large house that has the big lawn, and the lovely
garden at the back. She's very, VERY pretty, and if she didn't ACT so--"
"HOW does she act?" said Polly. "I tell you all truly, I'm wild to see
her!"
"Rob told you how she acted," said Harry, with a laugh, "and old Scratch
isn't half bad 'nough. Say! She wanted to have a wedding for her best
doll the other day, and she cut a lace curtain off a yard from the floor
to make a wedding veil for it!"
"'Twas a parlor curtain and I guess her mama didn't think that was
cunning," said Lena.
"She tells lies--"
"Oh, Harry!" interrupted Leslie, "you mustn't."
"Well, she DOES, and they're too big to be called fibs," Harry said,
stoutly.
"And the queerest thing is that Inez Varney plays with her all the time,
and she doesn't ever play with any of us now. She hasn't been to my
house since that new little girl came here to live," said Leslie.
"And Leslie don't care," declared Harry, "because Inez was getting
queerer and queerer, and she wasn't the pleasantest playmate, but now
she's so gay you'd hardly think she was Inez Varney."
Polly was greatly interested.
"What's the new little girl's name?" she asked.
"Gwen Harcourt, and mama says that Mrs. Harcourt is lovely, and I must
be kind to Gwen," said Lena, "and it would be hard, only I don't often
see her. She's always with Inez."
Polly had been away but two weeks. She had gone to visit Rose Atherton,
intending to remain but a single week. Then when she was at "The Cliffs"
she had written for permission to stay "just a little longer," and Mrs.
Sherwood had extended the time an extra week.
During that time the house next to the Osborne's had been purchased, the
family had moved in and the little daughter of the family had become
very intimate with Inez, her near neighbor.
A short time surely for so much to have been accomplished.
Perhaps the "new little girl," as the other children called her, found
it easier to capture Inez, and hold her for her BEST friend, because
Inez was very eager for a little "chum."
She had hoped to be chosen by Princess Polly, to take the place of Rose.
Disappointed, and angry because Polly Sherwood did not prefer her, she
would not try to choose a mate from her other playmates. Instead, she
gave all of her time to the "new little girl," and never were two small
girls more intimate.
A few days after Polly's return she was sitting on the stone wall near
the entrance to the driveway.
A bright hued Japanese parasol kept the sun from her head and shoulders,
and she sang a cheery melody, hitting her little heels against the wall
to mark the time.
"Sunshine and showers,
Bees in the flowers,
Blue sky and floating clouds,
Soft Summer air;
Bright yellow butterfly,
His gauzy wings to try,
Floats like the thistledown,
Without a care.
"Now, to the velvet rose,
Off and away he goes,
Far from all other blooms
Roving so free;
Flighty, and light of heart,
Having of care no part,
Gay yellow butterfly,
Happy is he."
Inez Varney, with her new playmate, ran along the avenue. Inez was the
only one of Polly's friends who had not been up to see her since her
visit to Rose.
Now, in great haste, she clasped the hand of her little friend and ran
to where Polly was sitting.
"This is Gwen Harcourt," said Inez, "and Gwen, this is Polly Sherwood,
that all the children call 'Princess Polly.'"
"_I_ won't!" said little Miss Harcourt, stoutly.
"You NEEDN'T," said Polly, coolly.
The new little girl was surprised. She had believed that Polly would be
very angry. Indeed, she was quite disappointed that Polly seemed not in
the least to care.
"Is that your house up there between the trees?" she asked.
"Yes," said Polly, but she did not say: "'Will you come in?'"
That did not trouble Gwen, however. She needed no invitation. She could
invite herself, and she did.
"I'm coming over to see you some day," she said.
Inez giggled. She thought her new friend's pertness very smart.
"You don't say you'll be glad to see me, but I'm coming just the same,"
said Gwen; "and p'raps I'll come to-morrow, and p'raps it'll be next
week, but I'm truly coming."
Polly felt that she had never seen a prettier child, nor could she think
of another as rude as Gwen Harcourt.
She was always kind and polite, but what could she say to this rude
little girl that would be courteous and at the same time truthful?
"I can't tell her I'll be glad to have her come, for I just KNOW I don't
want her. She's very pretty, but, someway, I'm sure I'd be happier
without her," thought Polly.
Gwen Harcourt, vexed that Polly Sherwood had not been at all excited at
the thought of receiving a call from her little self, turned toward
Inez. "Come," she said, "let's go out in the sunshine and have a run.
It's awful dull here!"
"I guess we'll be going," said Inez. "Gwen is so very gay that most
places seem dull to her. Come!"
She held out her hand, Gwen grasped it, and together they ran down the
avenue.
They did not even say "Good-bye," but raced off as if every moment spent
with Polly were too dull to be endured.
"I said I shouldn't call her 'Princess Polly' and I shan't," said Gwen,
to which Inez replied:
"Well, you don't HAVE to, and I guess she didn't care much."
Polly, looking after them, spoke softly to herself.
"What pretty eyes she had, and her hair was fine, too." Then, after a
moment's hesitation, she spoke again.
"She was lovely to look at, but she wasn't very polite.
"She said she was coming over here some day, but I do hope that she
won't hurry about it. I'm sure I don't need her as much as Inez does. I
don't mind how long it is before I see Gwen Harcourt!"
Gwen Harcourt had a most unlovely disposition and no one could guess
what she at any time might do. If Princess Polly had urged her to come
very soon to Sherwood Hall she would have waited a week at least before
appearing there.
As she had received no urging, she decided to go on the following day.
Very early the next morning Polly sat in a big chair in the library,
reading her favorite fairy book. A slight sound caused her to look up
from the page.
"Why, there she is!" she whispered.
There, indeed, was Gwen Harcourt, perched upon the fence that enclosed
the piazza. She was looking straight in at the window, her bold little
eyes noting every object in the room.
"Come out! Come out!" she cried, beckoning so frantically that she
nearly lost her balance.
Polly was annoyed. She was in the midst of an enchanting tale, and she
so wished to finish reading it. Truly, she was not glad to see Gwen
Harcourt.
She never treated anyone rudely, however, so she closed her book and
went out to greet her early visitor.
"I guess you'd think I wanted to come up here if you knew HOW I came,"
said Gwen.
"How did you come?" Polly asked, not because she cared but in order to
say SOMETHING. She could not say that she was glad to see her.
"Through the window and over our hedge," said Gwen. "Mama said that as
I'd been horrid at the breakfast table I must stay in all the forenoon.
I didn't think that was fair, because I wasn't VERY horrid. I put my
foot on the table so I could tie my shoe ribbons. Papa said,
'Gwendolen!' and I took it down quick. Then I took some peanut shells
from my pocket and sailed them in my cup of chocolate. They looked like
little boats. My piece of melon had the stem on it and I said it was a
music box. I wound the stem round and round, and sung 'Yankee Doodle.'
Mama made the waitress take me away from the table and I just howled all
the way! I don't think I need have stayed in for such little things as
that! I DIDN'T stay in. I jumped out of the window, it's near the
ground, and then, because it was the shortest way, I scrambled right
over the hedge. Horrid old thing! It had thorns on it, and it scratched
my knee."
Polly thought her a handsome little savage.
Gwen thought that she had made an impression upon Polly.
"There was just one reason why I acted so. Mama had guests, and she had
just been telling them what a good child I was, and I thought it would
be a joke to do some queer things at the table.
"I thought because she had company she wouldn't send me away, but she
did," she concluded.
Her next remark was even more surprising than those that she had already
made.
"Let's catch bugs!" she said.
"Oh, horrid!" cried Polly, "I couldn't do that!"
"I do," said Gwen, "and it's fun. I caught two big old beetles and tied
threads on them for harnesses. Then I hitched them to a wee little paper
box about an inch long and they made a good span. They dragged it all
right 'til I dumped an old fuzzy caterpillar into the box, and then they
tumbled over on their backs and squirmed and kicked like everything! If
I could find one now I could show you how they kick."
"Oh, please don't," said Polly quickly, "I wouldn't like to see them
wiggle."
"Then let's slide down your front steps," said Gwen. "Come on! Slide the
way I do. I sit down on the top step and commence to slip. When I've
slid over three steps I turn over and slide three that way. I get
excited wondering whether I'll tear my frock, or only bump my knees.
Sometimes it's both, and sometimes it's neither!"
Polly could not imagine why such antics could be amusing, and she knew
that her mama would not like any such rough play.
"You don't seem to want to," said Gwen; "are you afraid of your clothes,
or don't you dare to risk the bumps?"
"I don't think mama would like it," Polly said, gently, "but I'll play
'Hide-and-Seek' with you, or any game you like."
"Oh, I don't care for those old games," said Gwen, "so I'll tell you
what we'll do. Come over to the stable and you get your coachman to let
us have the horse and the cow. You ride the horse barebacked and I'll
ride the cow. Come on! Don't be a fraidie cat!"
"Oh, dear," said Polly, "I know you won't like it, but I don't want to
do that."
She saw Gwen's eyes snap, and knew that she was angry.
"I'll get my boat, and I'll let you sail it if you'd like to, in the
brook," she said.
She did not enjoy her little guest, but she wished to be kind.
"I WOULDN'T like to," Gwen said, rudely, "sailing boats isn't lively. I
guess as long as you don't want to play any jolly things I'll go home. I
meant to shingle the cat's fur this morning, and I'll do that. I'm going
to wet it sopping wet, part it in the middle from his head to his tail,
and then shingle it all but his tail!"