leaving her own footprints by the side of Eb’s and when she was within
a little distance of the row of willows, she saw that Eb was sitting
on Polly’s head, and was, as Adele said, whispering in her ear. Jessie
stood still for a moment to watch him, and while she was looking
suddenly he disappeared. Jessie was astonished. “Where in the world has
he gone?” she exclaimed. “I saw him and then I didn’t see him. I must
go right there and ask Polly about it.” She went on toward the tree and
presently discovered that which had the appearance of a hood when she
saw it from her window had now changed into a wreath upon Polly’s head.
“I think that is very funny,” said Jessie.
She went close to the tree and looked up, and while she was looking,
out popped Eb’s black head from the centre of the wreath of snow. At
sight of Jessie he began to scold and repeat his “Hallo” a great many
times. “I do believe there is a hole there,” said Jessie. “I never knew
that before, but then I am not tall enough to see over the top of your
head, Polly. That is why you have a wreath instead of a hood. I wish I
could see in.” She looked at Eb who was strutting uneasily about, and
an idea came to her. “I do believe, Ebony Loomis,” she exclaimed, “that
is where you hide things!”
Full of this discovery, she ran up to the barn where she saw Sam. “I
wish you would bring a ladder, Sam,” she said. “I want to see if there
is a hole in that little tree. I believe it is where Eb hides his
treasures.”
“You don’t say so,” said Sam. “What makes you think that?”
“I saw his tracks on the way down. First he would walk a little and
then he would fly, for there were spaces between the tracks. When I
got down there I saw him sitting on the tree, and I believe he had
something in his beak, though I couldn’t see exactly. All of a sudden
he wasn’t there, but in a minute I saw his head pop up from the top
of the tree.” Not for the world would she have divulged to Sam that
Playmate Polly was really a person. He would never understand how such
a thing could be.
“I shouldn’t wonder if you was right,” said Sam. “I can’t go down just
this minute, but after a while I will go and look.”
“I wish you could go now,” said Jessie, “for I have got to go to
school.”
“Wish I could,” Sam answered, “but I will go before you get back. I
reckon if there is anything there it will stay. He ain’t likely to move
it.” Jessie was obliged to be satisfied with this, and knowing it was
high time she was off to her lessons, she went up to the house for her
books, stopping to tell her mother of what she suspected Eb. But there
was not much time to discuss it then, for it was getting late and she
must hurry away.
She found Adele in a high state of excitement over the arrival of the
big dog her father had promised her. He was a beautiful collie, and
already had attached himself to his little mistress. It is safe to say
that lessons did not receive the attention they should that morning.
Moreover even Eb’s tricks were lost sight of in the presence of the new
pet. So Adele was not told of what Jessie had seen that morning.
Indeed it was not till after dinner that Jessie remembered that Sam was
going to investigate the top of Playmate Polly’s snow-wreathed head;
and she hunted him up to find out what he had discovered. He was not at
the barn where she first looked for him, but as she turned from there
she heard a chop-chopping from the direction of the brook. What was Sam
doing? She hurried toward the spot, and saw him with axe uplifted. She
uttered one cry of dismay and the next minute Polly toppled over and
lay prostrate on the ground. She ran toward the fallen figure of her
late companion. “Oh, poor Polly,” she whispered under her breath, her
eyes full of tears.
When she reached the place where Playmate Polly had stood Sam was
bending over a hollow stump. He looked up with a laugh. “You was
right,” he said. “Here’s that little black thief’s treasure.” He put
his hand into the stump and drew forth the three spoons, a brass
thimble, some shining bits of glass, several bright buttons, and, last
of all, Adele’s lost Peter Pan. “Well, I never!” exclaimed Sam.
Jessie drew a long sigh. “Oh, Sam,” she said tremulously, “why did you
have to cut it down?”
“It wasn’t no good,” said Sam. “Hollow all through. Your father said
it had best come down, and then we could see what that rascal had hid
there.”
“But I liked her,” said Jessie sadly, feeling that she had been the
cause of Playmate Polly’s downfall.
Sam looked at her curiously. “First time I ever heard a tree called
_her_,” he said.
Jessie looked at the chips scattered around, at Polly’s head from which
her wreath had fallen. “Oh, dear! oh, dear!” she sighed.
“What’s the matter?” asked Sam. “Ain’t you glad to get your doll baby
back?”
“It isn’t mine; it’s Adele’s,” said Jessie. “Yes, I am very glad to
get that. Oh, Sam!” she cried in alarm as she saw him with axe again
uplifted, “you’re not going to chop her to pieces!”
Sam lowered the axe. “I thought I might as well,” he said. “Make a
little fire-wood.”
“Please don’t! Please don’t!” she cried.
“Well, you’re a funny one all right,” said Sam shouldering his axe.
“Settle it with your father; ’tain’t no odds to me.”
Jessie stood for a moment looking at the prostrate Polly and then she
turned and walked slowly to the house, carrying with her the three
spoons and the little scarlet-coated Peter Pan. She went into the
sitting-room and laid the things on the table. “Mother,” she said
solemnly, “Playmate Polly is dead.”
Mrs. Loomis looked up from her sewing. “What on earth do you mean,
daughter?” she said.
Jessie picked up the things she had laid on the table. “Sam has felled
her to the earth,” she said, “and he found these.”
Mrs. Loomis tried to hide a smile at Jessie’s tragic manner. “What did
he find?” she asked.
Jessie handed her the spoons and the doll.
“Then the crow did hide them, and it was you who found him out.”
“Yes, I did it,” returned Jessie. “Poor Polly! I did it.”
“My dear little girl,” said Mrs. Loomis, “you mustn’t feel badly about
an old hollow tree. I suppose Sam had to cut it down in order to get at
the things.”
“Yes, I suppose so,” returned Jessie, “but I did like her so much. Will
she have to be chopped up for fire-wood, mother? Sam was going to do
it, but I stopped him, and he said I must settle it with father. Do you
suppose he will care if she isn’t?”
“I don’t imagine he will care at all, for a little old tree like that
would be small loss.”
“Will you ask him not to?”
“Why, yes, if you like; but why not ask him yourself?”
“I don’t like to talk to any one but you about Polly,” said Jessie
after a pause. “Even Adele never could understand.”
Mrs. Loomis kissed the rather woe-be-gone little face. “Then, my
darling,” she said, “I am very sorry you have lost your Polly, and you
may rest assured that she shall stay just as she lies as long as you
wish. I am very glad to get back the spoons, though I am sorry they
could not have been discovered in another place.”
“I am glad to get back Adele’s doll, too. Here she comes now, mother,
and she has her lovely dog with her.”
Adele came in with a rush, her dog, which she had named Rob, frisking
after her. “Go out, Rob,” cried Adele. “Aunt Betty said I could bring
him if I promised he shouldn’t come in the house. His feet are all
wet.” She closed the door after Rob, shutting him out on the porch,
where he lay down to wait for her. “Why, where did you find my Peter
Pan?” asked Adele whose quick eyes spied the doll first thing.
“Sam found it and the spoons in a hollow tree. It was Eb who took it
and the spoons, too. He hid them with some other things.”
“I knew it was Polly,” said Adele with a laugh. “I always said she had
them.”
“Oh, Adele, don’t talk that way,” returned Jessie in a distressed
voice. “Polly is dead.”
Adele looked at her for a minute to see if she really were in earnest.
“What do you mean?” she said.
“Sam had to chop her down to get at the things. They were down so deep
he couldn’t reach them.”
“Oh,” said Adele, “I am sorry, Jessie, I truly am, and I wish I had
never said mean things about her. I shall never, never, never, be so
horrid again.”
Playmate Polly was allowed to lie where she had fallen, and in time the
green grass and flowering weeds grew up all around her and quite hid
her from view. And the next year there was no thievish crow to hide
away his spoils in hollow trees. For with the spring came visitors of
his own kind, among them such a charming young lady crow as caused
Eb to forsake his old friends, and he flew away with the flock to
live a wild life. Once Jessie passing along through the orchard heard
something above her head cry out: “Hallo!” and she believed the black
wings which she saw among the branches must belong to her old pet, and
the next winter a pair of crows came often, when the snow was on the
ground, to feed with the chickens. Minerva never drove them away, for
she believed it was Eb and his mate who had returned to his familiar
haunts, counting upon receiving hospitality.
Thus Jessie lost two of her companions, but as time went on she and
Adele became closer friends, who were happy with Rob, Cloudy and the
dolls. Before it was time to open the grotto again, Adele had renamed
her doll of the scarlet coat. “I shall call him Reddy,” she said to
Jessie, who understood that on account of Playmate Polly and the old
quarrel, Adele wanted to be generous.
So Peter Pan had it all his own way, though he often went to see Reddy
in a fine cave that Jessie helped Adele make for him.
Early in June Miss Eloise left the yellow house to be married, and one
day, a couple of weeks after, there was a great stir and bustle at
“The Beeches.” Mrs. Loomis, Miss Betty, Dr. and Mrs. Sadtler were all
on hand to welcome home the bride and groom. Jessie and Adele were on
the watch for the carriage as it drove from the station. Adele was the
first to spy it coming up the road. “There they are!” she cried.
“There they are,” echoed Jessie. “Let’s run and get the dears.”
The two stood on the porch as Mr. and Mrs. Davis alighted. Adele was
the first to rush forward and thrust something into Mr. Davis’s arms.
“This is for you,” she cried.
“And this is for you.” Jessie turned to Mrs. Davis and deposited in her
arms a small black kitten.
Mr. Davis accepted the roly-poly puppy that Adele had given him and
turning to his wife, he said, “You know all along, Eloise, I have
declared we must have a dog.”
“And I said no home could be complete without a cat,” returned his wife
laughing. “You are two dear children to supply our wants so soon,” she
said to the little girls.
“We think it is going to be lovely here,” said Adele eagerly.
“Max and Walter are coming here to school,” Jessie announced. “Are you
glad to be our neighbors, Miss Eloise?”
“My dear, I am delighted. I didn’t realize what a charming old place
this really was. What have you all been doing to it?” She looked around
upon a well ordered garden, upon a smoothly cut lawn, upon a freshly
painted porch where boxes of flowers stood, and then she caught sight
of the group within doors who were standing to welcome her. “You dear
people,” she said holding out her hands. “How good you are to us, and
how the whole place is changed. What fairy work is this?”
“You must ask these little girls,” said Mrs. Loomis, smiling down at
Jessie and Adele. “They put it into our heads, and said it was a shame
for you to come home to a dingy old house, to a neglected lawn and a
flowerless garden, and so we thought, too. Therefore we have all taken
turns in seeing that things were done as they should be. And now come
in to supper.”
“Supper?” Mrs. Davis looked at her husband. “And we looked forward to
an empty house with a still emptier larder. We said we should have to
picnic for days till we could get the house in running order.” Still
holding the kitten, she put her free arm around both little girls, and
they wondered why her eyes should be full of tears. “We shall never
feel like strangers here, Fred,” she said to Mr. Davis.
“Indeed, I should say not,” he replied. “This is a true home-coming.”
All summer long work went on in the big white house till fall found
it ready with classrooms, with a new gymnasium, with pretty sleeping
rooms for the boarding pupils. And every room was filled, while the day
scholars were not a few.
Jessie and Adele started off together. Max and Walter had already gone
on ahead. Adele was unusually thoughtful on the way. “What are you
thinking of?” Jessie asked her. “You are so quiet.”
“I was thinking about a lot of things,” was the reply. “I was thinking
suppose papa had not found the yellow house for us to live in, then I
should never have known you, Miss Eloise would never have found ‘The
Beeches,’ and I might have been far away somewhere, just as lonely as I
was before.”
“But you did come to the yellow house, you see,” said Jessie, “and now
we are friends and are always going to the same school.”
“And after we grow up we shall still be friends. Say we shall, Jessie.”
“Of course,” returned Jessie.
Max ahead of them called over his shoulder, “You two had better hurry
up. We don’t want to be late the first day.”
The two girls increased their lagging pace. “We’re coming,” Jessie
called.
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TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES:
Italicized text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_.
Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.
Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized.
Archaic or variant spelling has been retained.