"Oh, Joel Pepper!" she cried, whirling around, "is that really you!""Yes," cried that individual, confidently, "it's I; oh, I say, Polly, I've had fun up-stairs, I tell you what!""Poor boy!" said Polly, compassionately.
"I wasn't a poor boy," cried Joel, indignantly; "I had splendid things to eat; oh, my!" and he closed one eye and smacked his lips in the delightful memory.
"I know it," said Polly, "and I'm so glad, Joel.""I don't suppose I'll ever get so many again," observed Joel, reflectively, after a minute's pause, as one and another of the wondrous delicacies rose before his mind's eye; "not unless I have the measles again--say, Polly, can't I have 'em again?""Mercy, no!" cried Polly, in intense alarm, "I hope not.""Well, I don't," said Joel, "I wish I could have 'em sixty--no--two hundred times, so there!""Well, mammy couldn't take care of you," said Ben; "you don't know what you're sayin', Joe.""Well, then, I wish I could have the things without the measles,"said Joel, willing to accommodate; "only folks won't send 'em," he added, in an injured tone.
"Polly's had the hardest time of all," said her mother, affectionately patting the bandage.
"I think so too," put in Ben; "if my eyes were hurt I'd give up.', "So would I," said David; and Joel, to be in the fashion, cried also, "I know I would;" while little Phronsie squeezed up to Polly's side, "And I, too.""Would what, Puss?" asked Ben, tossing her up high. "Have good things," cried the child, in delight at understanding the others, "Iwould really, Ben," she cried, gravely, when they all screamed.
"Well, I hope so," said Ben, tossing her higher yet. "Don't laugh at her, boys," put in Polly; "we're all going to have good times now, Phronsie, now we've got well.""Yes," laughed the child from her high perch; "we aren't ever goin' to be sick again, ever--any more," she added impressively.
The good times were coming for Polly--coming pretty near, and she didn't know it! All the children were in the secret; for as Mrs.
Pepper declared, "They'd have to know it; and if they were let into the secret they'd keep it better."So they had individually and collectively been intrusted with the precious secret, and charged with the extreme importance of "never letting any one know," and they had been nearly bursting ever since with the wild desire to impart their knowledge.
'Tm afraid I shall tell," said David, running to his mother at last;"oh, mammy, I don't dare stay near Polly, I do want to tell so bad .""Oh, no, you won't, David," said his mother encouragingly, "when you know mother don't want you to; and besides, think how Polly'll look when she sees it.""I know," cried David in the greatest rapture, "I wouldn't tell for all the world! I guess she'll look nice, don't you mother?" and he laughed in glee at the thought.
"Poor child! I guess she will!" and then Mrs. Pepper laughed too, till the little old kitchen rang with delight at the accustomed sound, The children all had to play "clap in and clap out" in the bedroom while it came; and "stage coach," too--"anything to make a noise,"Ben said. And then after they got nicely started in the game, he would be missing to help about the mysterious thing in the kitchen, which was safe since Polly couldn't see him go on account of her bandage. So she didn't suspect in the least. And although the rest were almost dying to be out in the kitchen, they conscientiously stuck to their bargain to keep Polly occupied. Only Joel would open the door and peep once; and then Phronsie behind him began-- "Oh, I see the sto--" but David swooped down on her in a twinkling, and smothered the rest by tickling her.
Once they came very near having the whole thing pop out.
"Whatever is that noise in the kitchen?" asked Polly, as they all stopped to take breath after the scuffle of "stage coach." "It sounds just like grating.""I'll go and see," cried Joel, promptly; and then he flew out where his mother and Ben and two men were at work on a big, black thing in the corner. The old stove, strange to say, was nowhere to be seen! Something else stood in its place, a shiny, black affair, with a generous supply of oven doors, and altogether such a comfortable, home-like look about it, as if it would say--"I'm going to make sunshine in this house!""Oh, Joel," cried his mother, turning around on him with very black hands, "you haven't told!""No," said Joel, "but she's hearin' the noise, Polly is.""Hush!" said Ben, to one of the men.
"We can't put it up without some noise," the man replied, "but we'll be as still as we can.""Isn't it a big one, ma?" asked Joel, in the loudest of stage whispers, that Polly on the other side of the door couldn't have failed to hear if Phronsie hadn't laughed just then.
