then hurrying to pick up the two potatoes on the floor, “it only came
this morning. Oh, Ben, don’t you see.” She ran up to throw her arms
around him. “It’s asleep, and the boys must have their dinner, and we
mustn’t make any noise, and--and--oh, I’ll tell you all about it as
soon as I cut the bread.” And off Polly ran to get the big bread-knife.
“There’s one thing I want to know,” said Ben, going after her with slow
but determined steps. “I’ll cut the bread, Polly; here, give me the
knife.” And he took it out of her hand. “Whose baby is it?”
“Oh, a poor woman’s; she tumbled over the stove, and Doctor Fisher took
us there, and we brought her home, the baby, I mean, at least Mamsie
did,” said Polly, jumbling up the words so fast that Ben wrinkled up
his brows trying to understand it all. “O dear me. Yes, yes, Joel, I’m
going to bring the bread as soon as I can; do let me cut it, Ben.”
“You two chaps will just wait until you can get this bread,” said Ben,
brandishing the big knife, and then cutting off the slices as neatly as
possible; “come along and get the plate, Joe,” as he piled them on.
“Whickets, I guess I will,” exclaimed Joel, tumbling out of his chair,
where he had been impatiently drumming on the table with his fork,
Polly never allowing the boys to begin to eat dinner till they were all
ready together.
“What did you say, Joel?” reproved Polly. “Oh, Mamsie wouldn’t like it
one single bit to hear you talk so.”
“I won’t,” began Joel, seizing the bread-plate so vehemently that a
slice immediately flew off to the floor.
“Now, just see that!” exclaimed Polly, in consternation, “and bread is
so dear, we can’t waste it.”
“I’ll eat it,” said Joel, picking it up with eager fingers.
“Take care,” warned Polly, “you’re spilling all the rest.” But little
Davie fortunately having followed Joel away from the table to see if he
couldn’t help too in getting dinner ready, caught the bread-plate just
in time and set it straight.
“Oh, I didn’t mean to,” began Joel, in distress.
“And you can’t eat that bread after it’s been on the floor,” said
Polly. “Dear me, Joe, what does make you act so!”
“I’ll scrape it!” said Joel, giving up the bread-plate to Davie, and
suiting the action to the word he set to work on the slice.
“What’s that!” he exclaimed suddenly, dropping the bread, knife, and
all. Little Davie jumped, too, and even Ben started, it was such a
funny little noise. It didn’t sound like a cat exactly, and as the
Pepper children didn’t have any pets, it couldn’t be one, of course.
“Oh, it’s the baby, and she’s awake!” Polly dashed off to the bedroom.
“Come, Ben, and boys!”
It wasn’t necessary to tell them to follow her, for all three were
close to her heels, as she opened the bedroom door and dashed in.
Mother Pepper was over by the four-poster turning down the old quilt,
and Phronsie was scrabbling up the other side of the big bed.
“Mamsie,” exclaimed Ben, after one look at the small face on the
pillow, and he got close to Mrs. Pepper. “Oh, how can you take it?”
pointing down at the bed, and he looked very grave.
“I know, Ben.” Mrs. Pepper turned to get a good look at his face. “I
know what you’re thinking of, but, my boy, it was best, and besides
it’s only for two days.”
“Oh, if it’s only for two days,” said Ben, drawing a long breath;
“only, Mamsie, you have to work so hard, and there’s Polly.” He
couldn’t get any further, and turned away to hide his face.
“Yes, there’s Polly,” said Mrs. Pepper, in her cheeriest fashion.
“Well, now, Bensie,” and she laid both hands on his shoulders to turn
him around again so that she could look into his blue eyes, “don’t feel
badly. I believe it won’t hurt Polly, nor any of us, to look after that
baby for a little while; trust mother.”
“If I could only do anything to help,” said Ben, looking helplessly
down into the baby’s little face, all wrinkled up as it began to yawn.
Then it rubbed its fists into its eyes, preparatory to being wide awake.
Meantime Joel and David were wild with delight, both boys scrabbling up
on the bed by the side of Phronsie, and clamoring to know where it came
from, and if it was really theirs, and how long it was going to stay,
Phronsie all the while declaring it was her very own baby, and she was
going to keep it always, till the bedroom was just a babel of sounds;
and no one had a good chance to hear anything; and so of course no one
did hear when the big green door opened, and somebody came in from the
kitchen, until--“What you doin’ with my baby?” struck into the general
din, in a sharp, high voice.
Joel and David slid off the big bed and stared at the intruder and
Phronsie screamed, for it was the ragged, dirty, bad boy that ran away
from the baby, to go fishing. Now, having had very poor luck, he went
home, and getting the news in a grateful burst from his poor mother,
sitting up with bandaged hands in her chair, he had bounded out and
somehow traced the baby to the Little Brown House.
“It’s my baby!” he declared, with eyes flashing from his dirty face,
and squaring up to them all, “and you’ve stole her.”
“Oh, how can you say so?” cried Polly, her brown eyes very stern; “and
you ran away and left her.”
“Well, you’d no business to take her,” said the boy, doggedly, but he
dropped his tousled head and dug one set of toes back and forth across
the braided rug. “She’s my sister and I want her back.”
“Don’t let him have her, Polly!” screamed Phronsie, frantically
clasping the little heap in the old quilt.
“Phronsie,” said Mother Pepper. At the sound of her voice, the dirty
boy lifted up his head and stared at her.
“And you ain’t coming in here,” declared Joel, in a loud, wrathful key.
“This is our Little Brown House, so there!” And he doubled up his small
fists.
“Joel,” said Mother Pepper.
“Well, you’ve got my baby,” said the boy, whirling round at him, but he
turned back to stare at Mother Pepper when she spoke again.
“Come over here,” she beckoned to him. So he shambled around the foot
of the four-poster, everybody making way for him, except Phronsie, and
she was up on the side of the bed crouched close to the baby under the
old quilt and trying to keep back the sobs since Mamsie had reproved
her.
“Now, isn’t it nice that your little sister has come to visit us for
two days?” said Mrs. Pepper, quite as if everything had all been
planned with the boy and his family a long while before, “and you’re
going to stay to dinner with us.” Here Mother Pepper looked over at Ben.
“Oh, I’ll help you,” his blue eyes said, though he had to swallow
pretty hard to keep the lump in his throat down.
“Hey?” said the boy.
“Yes, I said you were going to stay to dinner with us,” said Mother
Pepper, calmly, lifting the baby, old quilt and all, as she spoke.
“Dinner’s all ready, isn’t it, Polly? Oh, and, Ben, will you take him?
I don’t know what your name is.” And she paused for a reply.
“Ira,” said the boy, in a dazed way.
“Well, Ira, if you’ll go with Ben, he’ll show you where to wash your
hands and face and--”
“And I’m going to show him, too,” shouted Joel, his fists flying open,
and running over to seize the other boy’s hand, “and Davie’ll come,
too--” And off the four boys went.
“And, Phronsie, you may go and help Polly to get something for the
baby,” said Mrs. Pepper. “She can have your milk if you want to give it
to her,” with a sigh, to think how little there was in the cup, that
always had to be eked out with water, “and some bread crumbled in it.”
“Oh, I do, I do,” cried Phronsie, slipping down off the side of the bed
to fly after Polly. “I do want to give it to my own baby.”
“And now, says I, we’ll have our dinner,” said Mother Pepper, going out
into the kitchen with the baby.
THE FAMOUS PEPPER BOOKS
BY MARGARET SIDNEY
IN ORDER OF PUBLICATION
=Five Little Peppers and How they Grew.= Cloth, 12mo, illustrated,
$1.50, postpaid.
This was an instantaneous success; it has become a genuine child
classic.
=Five Little Peppers Midway.= Cloth, 12mo, illustrated, $1.50,
postpaid.
“A perfect Cheeryble of a book.”--_Boston Herald._
=Five Little Peppers Grown Up.= Cloth, 12mo, illustrated, $1.50,
postpaid.
This shows the Five Little Peppers as “grown up,” with all the
struggles and successes of young manhood and womanhood.
=Phronsie Pepper.= Cloth, 12mo, illustrated, $1.50, postpaid.
It is the story of Phronsie, the youngest and dearest of all the
Peppers.
=The Stories Polly Pepper Told.= Cloth, 12mo. Illustrated by Jessie
McDermott and Etheldred B. Barry. $1.50, postpaid.
Wherever there exists a child or a “grown-up,” there will be a welcome
for these charming and delightful “Stories Polly Pepper Told.”
=The Adventures of Joel Pepper.= Cloth, 12mo. Illustrated by Sears
Gallagher. $1.50, postpaid.
As bright and just as certain to be a child’s favorite as the others
in the famous series. Harum-scarum “Joey” is lovable.
=Five Little Peppers Abroad.= Cloth, 12mo. Illustrated by Fanny Y.
Cory. $1.50, postpaid.
The “Peppers Abroad” adds another most delightful book to this famous
series.
=Five Little Peppers at School.= Cloth, 12mo. Illustrated by Hermann
Heyer. Price, $1.50; postpaid.
Of all the fascinating adventures and experiences of the “Peppers,”
none will surpass those contained in this volume.
=Five Little Peppers and Their Friends.= Illustrated by Eugenie M.
Wireman. Cloth, 12mo, $1.50; postpaid.
The friends of the Peppers are legion, and the number will be further
increased by this book.
=Ben Pepper.= Illustrated by Eugenie M. Wireman. Cloth, 12mo, $1.50.
This story centres about Ben, “the quiet, steady-as-a-rock boy,” while
the rest of the Peppers help to make it as bright and pleasing as its
predecessors.
LOTHROP, LEE AND SHEPARD COMPANY
=JOY BELLS A Story of Quinnebasset=
By SOPHIE MAY Illustrated by FRANK T. MERRILL 12mo Cloth $1.25
[Illustration]
The thousands of admirers of the “Quinnebasset” books have had to
wait along time for another, but this new story is well worth waiting
for. All the delightful wit of the author is here and at its best,
and “Persis,” the heroine, is very near to being the most charming of
all her gifted creations. The scene is laid in the fifties. There are
thrilling incidents, and also mysteries and suspicions, but all these
are finally unravelled and allayed by the persistent efforts of the
heroine.
=PAULINE WYMAN=
By SOPHIE MAY Cloth Illustrated $1.25
In “Pauline Wyman” the author has drawn a typical New England girl
whose strong and beautiful character is developed by her environment.
How she overcomes unfavorable surroundings, her experience in teaching
school, the interesting circumstances in a young girl’s life are
all told with the same originality and freshness which have drawn a
multitude of young people to the author’s previous work.
=MADGE A GIRL IN EARNEST=
By S. JENNIE SMITH 12mo Cloth Illustrated by JAMES E. MCBURNEY $1.25
Madge is indeed “a girl in earnest.” She scorns the patronage of
an aristocratic relative and takes upon her strong young shoulders
the problem of carrying along the family in an independent manner.
Her bravely won success, in spite of the lions in her path, not the
least of which was the fear of social disfavor felt by some of her
family, forms an inspiring tale. An unusual amount of practical
information is presented in a thoroughly entertaining manner, and the
character-drawing is remarkably true and strong.
For sale by all booksellers or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the
publishers
LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO., BOSTON
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES:
Italicized text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_.
Emboldened text is surrounded by equals signs: =bold=.
Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.
Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized.
Archaic or variant spelling has been retained.