“books! i’ve a fine packet for you to-night, polly.” jasper’s eyes glowed. polly ran up to meet

him.

“o mamsie! let me take the books—let me!” elyot thrust in his small figure between them, and

tugged at the parcel.

“you take yourself off, young man,” said his father. “now, polly, hold out your arms.”

“oh, what richness!” sighed polly ecstatically, “as alexia would say;” and, clasping her parcel

closely, she sank into a big chair, and examined her treasure. “o jasper!” she cried, “isn’t it just

magnificent to be a publisher’s wife!”

jasper laughed, and swung his boy up to his broad shoulder.

“i thought you’d like them, polly,” he said with great satisfaction, looking at her.

“like them!” repeated polly in a glow. then she sprang to her feet, tossed the whole pile into the

easy-chair, and ran up to her husband, putting her hand within his arm. “but where is the bag,

jasper?” she asked suddenly.

“oh, what richness!” sighed polly.

“well, the fact of it is, polly,” said jasper slowly, “i left the bag at the office. just for this night,”

he added, as he saw her face.

“why, jasper?” asked polly quickly, the color dropping out of her cheek.

“well, the truth is, i was afraid,” began jasper.

“oh! go on, and dance me up and down, daddy,” screamed elyot, beating his heels with all his

might.

polly laid her hand on the small feet. “no, no, dear; mamsie’s going to talk now. why, jasper?”

she asked again. this time she stood quite still, and looked at him.

jasper swung his boy lightly to the ground. “off with you!” he cried with a laugh, and elyot

scuttled away. “now, polly,” as he put his arm around her, and drew her to a seat, “the fact is, i

thought you wouldn’t sit down and go over those books to-night if i brought out the bag.”

“and so i wouldn’t,” declared polly. “of course not, with the dear old bag waiting. how could i?”

“that’s just it,” said jasper; “and it’s not fair for me to bring the bag, with those waiting, either;”

he nodded over at the untied packet and the new books scattered about. “you ought to have at

least one go at them before being tied down to business matters.”

polly broke loose from him, and ran over to the easy-chair. “and did you think i would so much

as look at these once?” she cried, her face flushing up to the brown waves. “oh! oh! i just detest

them now.” she looked down at the pile with the same face that she carried in the little brown

house when the old stove burned mamsie’s birthday cake.

“but, polly,” said jasper, hurrying over to comfort her, “you see it’s just this way. i’m tying you

down too much to business detail, and you ought to be enjoying yourself more, dear.”

“and don’t you suppose, jasper,” cried polly, turning on his troubled face a radiant one, “that

lovely old bag is just the dearest dear in all the world next to you and the children? oh, say you

will never leave it again! do say so, jasper;” she clung to him.

“i am so afraid i’m making your life too full of care, polly,” said jasper gravely, “to bring the bag

out every night. and this evening we might go over the new books, and have a break in the routine

for once.”

“and let you work over all your papers alone, jasper,” cried polly, aghast. “o jasper!”

“dance me up and down, daddy!” screamed elyot.

“i can find time to do them, dear; don’t worry. and it would be better for you.”

“and indeed it would be the worst thing in all this world, dear,” protested polly, shaking her

brown head. “i should be so dismal, jasper, you can’t think, without our lovely time working

together after dinner. when the bag is done, then we’ll play and read, and do all sorts of things.

but that first hour is the best of the whole evening, jasper; it truly is.”

“i’m sure i love it,” cried jasper, with kindling eyes; “i never could do it so well without you, nor

in half the time, polly.”

“well, then you must just promise you’ll never leave the bag back in the office,” said polly,

laughing. “promise now, jasper.”

“i suppose i must,” said jasper, laughing too. “here come alexia and pickering,” looking down

the carriage-drive.

“we’ve come out to dinner, polly, if you want us,” said alexia, hurrying in, pickering’s tall figure

following. “goodness me! how you can live so far out of town, i don’t see!”

“so you say every time i chance to meet you, alexia” said jasper.

“yes, and that’s the reason she’s decided to try it herself,” said pickering with a drawl.

“o alexia!” polly gave her a small hug, as she helped her off with her things, “are you really

coming to badgertown? oh, how nice!”

“pickering is always springing things on me, and telling everything i say,” said alexia, trying to

send a cross grimace over at her husband, but ending with a short laugh instead, “and just because

i said i wanted to have a house near you, polly, he’s got it into his head i’m coming out here to

live.”

pickering indulged in a long laugh.

“and i think it’s a shame,” declared alexia, with a very injured face, “to have one’s husband go

about, and spoil all one’s surprise parties—so there!”

“then you really do mean to come to badgertown to live, alexia?” cried polly with sparkling

eyes. “oh, you dear! how perfectly delightful!”

“i suppose i’ll have to, polly,” said alexia, “as i must be just as near you as i can get. but i do

think badgertown is utterly horrid, and you ought to be ashamed to live out here so far. i’m dying

to have that cunning little yellow house on the hill, polly,” she broke off suddenly, “with the

barberry-bushes in front, and we’ve come out here to see it after dinner. now you know it all; only

i was going to ask you to go out and take a walk, and then bring you up there with a flourish, and

give you a grand surprise. and now it’s as tame as tame can be.” she shook her linger at

pickering, who bore it like a veteran.

“how’s baby?” asked polly, when the wraps were off, and they were all seated on the long

veranda for a talk.

“he’s the dearest little rat you ever saw,” said alexia, who couldn’t forgive her boy for not being a

girl, whom she could call polly. “he’s two teeth, and four more coming.”

“alexia always counts those teeth that are coming with so much gusto,” said pickering.

“and why shouldn’t i?” cried alexia. “it would be perfectly horrid if he stopped with two teeth;

you know it would yourself, pickering. and to-day, polly pepper, you can’t think”—

“i decidedly object to having my wife called polly pepper,” said jasper, trying to get on a grave

look. “polly pepper king is all right. but be sure to put on the king.”

“oh! we girls shall never call her anything else but polly pepper—never in all this world, jasper,”

said alexia carelessly. “well, you tell what baby did to-day, pickering. i’m quite tired out with all

my trial of getting here, and the disappointment of my surprise spoiled.” she leaned back in the

rattan chair, and played with her rings.

“our child,” said pickering solemnly, “developed a most astonishing mental power this morning,

and actually uttered two consecutive syllables like this, ‘ar-goo!’”

“so did elyot at the same tender age,” observed jasper, “and barby too, i believe.”

“now, you just be quiet, pickering!” alexia cried, starting forward; “and aren’t you ashamed,

jasper, to help him on? baby actually said the most beautiful words; he really and truly did. and

that’s what i wanted to come out for to-night, polly, as much as to look at the house, to tell you

that baby’s talking; and he’s only eight months old! think of that, now!”

“i met roslyn may down town to-day,” said pickering when the laugh had subsided.

“did you!” exclaimed jasper.

polly stopped laughing at one of alexia’s sallies, and met her husband’s eyes. his look said,

“strange he did not come out here.”

“yes; he just got in day before yesterday, he told me, from england. i couldn’t understand what he

came over for.”

“he is going to stay some time, i suppose,” said jasper, “now he’s here.”

“no, he was on the way to the steamer, when we ran across each other on broadway,—sailed to-

day on the cunarder; that is, he said he was going to.”

“he was going right back!” exclaimed polly; and going over to jasper’s side, she lay her hand on

his. “what do you mean, pickering?”

“it’s just so, polly,” said pickering, feeling awfully that he must make the sad droop in her eyes,

and the color go out of her face.

“he probably is coming back soon—he may have been cabled back—a dozen things may have

happened,” said jasper. “don’t feel so badly, dear.”

“well, phronsie must never know he has been over,” said polly. “promise, alexia, you never’ll

tell her! you won’t, dear, will you?” she ran over and put her arms around alexia.

“horses won’t drag it out of me,” declared alexia. “i won’t ever mention roslyn may to”—

“hush!—hush! here she comes,” warned polly frantically, pinching alexia’s arm to make her

stop.

“oh, mercy! well, i didn’t say anything,” said alexia.

phronsie came around the veranda corner in her soft white gown. “we’re going to have a candy

party to-night,” she said.

“and a peanut party,” cried the children at her heels, as they scurried over the veranda steps. “tell

it all, phronsie; tell it all.”

“and you’re just in time, alexia and pickering,” said phronsie, with a smile, “to come over to the

little brown house after dinner, to the party.”

“and you’ve got to pull candy with me, mrs. dodge,” declared elyot, who just adored her, racing

up to possess himself of her long white fingers, glittering with rings.

“oh, mercy me! i can’t. why, i’ve on my best dress,” she said, to tease him.

“mamsie will let you have one of her aprons,” he cried, “or my nice mrs. higby will. i’ll go and

ask her.”

“no, i’m going to; mrs. higby will let me have the aprons,” shouted barby, turning her back on

her father, in whose lap she had thrown herself, and rushing after him.

“we’re all in for it, i see,” said pickering. “well, king, you’re my boy, seeing the others have got

champions. what do you want? i’ll see you through this candy scrape.”

“i’d rather have my brother jasper,” said king, not over politely, “but i’ll take you.”

“o king!” remonstrated phronsie gently.

“let him alone, phronsie,” said pickering. “king is delicious when unadulterated. well, my boy,

so i’ll consider myself engaged to you for this evening at the party.”

“all right,” said king coolly.

“and mrs. higby says we can have all the aprons we want,” announced elyot, rushing back.

“and she’ll boil the candy while we’re at dinner,” piped barby, tumbling after.

“this knocks your pretty plan of gazing at the yellow house, sky- high, alexia,” whispered

pickering, under cover of the noise.

“no, it doesn’t,” she retorted. “we’ll go afterward, when the children are abed. it’s moonlight, and

we can see it just as well.”

“think of choosing a house by moonlight!” laughed pickering.

“just as well as to choose it by sunlight, as long as we can see,” said alexia, jingling the house-

key they had secured from the agent on the way up. “yes; we’ll have quite time before we take the

train home.”

“oh, you can’t go home to-night!” cried polly and jasper together. “the idea! with a party and

house-hunting on your hands. stay over, alexia.”

“i must be in town at eight in the morning,” said pickering, getting out of his chair to stretch his

long legs and look at the hills. “alexia can stay if she wants to.”

“as if i could or would, when my husband can’t,” she cried. “and there’s that blessed child left all

alone!”

“but since he’s learned to converse,” said pickering, “he can ask for his rations. so he’s not to be

considered.”

“well, i’m perfectly shocked!” declared alexia. “and i shall go home with you in the late train.”

oh, the candy frolic of that night! everybody had such a glorious time that the little old kitchen

rang with the jollity that flowed over, taking in all primrose lane, and down as far as “grandma

bascom’s” little cottage. “grandma” now had to lie abed with her rheumatism; but polly and

jasper found time to slip away a bit in the midst of the festivities and carry her a little dish of the

candy before the nuts were put in, for “grandma” didn’t like nuts, and she did like molasses

candy. and polly carried a few other things in a small basket on her arm.

“for i never shall forget, jasper,” she said as they hurried along, “how good grandma was the day

phronsie hurt her toe. oh, that horrible old ‘receet’ of mirandy’s wedding-cake! i thought it would

kill me to wait for it. dear, dear,” laughed polly, “how we do remember, don’t we, jasper, things

we used to do when we were children?”

“i’m sure i never want to forget what we did in the little brown house,” said jasper. “well,

grandma was always good, i remember, bringing raisins and all that. now, polly, we must tell her

every single bit of joel’s last letter; for she’ll question us up just as closely, you may be sure.”

“we’ve come out to dinner, polly,” said alexia.

“i know it,” said polly, hanging to his arm; “and joel thinks as much of grandma as she does of

him. it’s so nice of him, jappy, isn’t it?”

“oh, yes, indeed!” said jasper, nodding briskly; “for no matter how tired joe is,—and he must get

awfully used up sometimes, polly, with that big parish of his,—he’s always doing something for

her. it was fine for him to buy her that big easy-chair with the first money he had saved up after he

paid father back for his education.”

“dear, beautiful old joel!” cried polly, with shining eyes.

“how upset father was,” exclaimed jasper, in a reminiscent mood, “when joe made him take that

money back. i declare, polly, i never saw him so upset in all my life!”

“it was right for joel to make him,” said polly stoutly.

“yes, i know it. but father had so set his mind on doing it for joe.”

“but joey couldn’t take it to keep,” declared polly. “you know he really couldn’t, jasper.”

“of course not,” said jasper quickly. “but what we should have done without phronsie to make

the peace between them, i don’t know. well, here we are.”

“see here,” cried alexia, mrs. higby’s red plaid apron working all up her long figure, as she had

tied it by the strings around her neck, “if somebody doesn’t go over and call polly pepper home,

why i’ll just go myself.” she brandished the big wooden spoon, a few drops of molasses trailing

off over the floor.

“i suppose that is meant for me,” said pickering, placidly eating the big piece he ought to have

been pulling, “as i’m the only one she orders round.”

“horrors!” cried alexia, glancing along the tip of the spoon, “just see the mischief i’ve done! now

the peppers won’t ever let me in this kitchen again.”

“i’ll wipe it up,” said elyot, running over to her, with sticky hands, and face streaked with

molasses.

“oh!” exclaimed alexia with a grimace, and edging away. “oh, my goodness, me! and see my

husband eating candy like a little pig, and me in this dreadful scrape.”

“i wish i was your husband,” said little elyot, getting down on his knees; and, seizing the first

thing he could find, which proved to be a fine damask napkin, he began to vigorously mop the

floor.

“mercy me! what have you got?” cried alexia, her sharp eyes peering at him. “oh! give it to me.”

she seized it from his hand, and threw down the spoon. “come along, do,” and she hauled him out

into the entry. “it’s one of polly pepper’s bestest napkins; we brought it over on the cake-plate.

now we must just douse it into a pail of water; but goodness knows where that is.”

“hoh!” said elyot, “i know where there’s one, just as easy as not. come on.”

it was now his turn to haul alexia, and he did it so successfully that she was soon over the little

steps, and in the “provision room.”

“if ever i’m thankful,” she sighed gratefully, “it is to see that sticky mess come out,” when elyot

had delightedly plunged the napkin into a pail of water standing in the corner. “oh, my goodness

me! if it had spoiled that; and it’s one of her great big embroidered k’s, too! well, come on; we

must run back, or the whole troop of them will be after us. wring it out and hang it up, do! now

come on.”

she picked up her skirts, and skipped over the steps, elyot scuttling after, in time to hear pickering

say, “evidently my wife doesn’t intend to take the train with me, for she’s disappeared.”

“somebody take off this!”

“i haven’t disappeared at all; i’m here,” cried alexia at his elbow. “the idea! why, i’m going to

look at the house on the hill; but ’tisn’t time yet,” drawing a long breath.

“going to look at the house on the hill! well, i guess you won’t to-night,” said pickering, taking

out his watch; “it’s just a quarter of ten, and the train leaves at ten. so, good-by, alexia; you’ve

got to stay all night.”

“oh, i can’t—i won’t!” cried alexia. “oh, dear! somebody take off this horrible old apron,”

wildly twisting this way and that.

“i will—i will,” cried little elyot, fumbling at the strings.

“oh, dear—dear!” wailed alexia, “my face is all stuck up; somebody—where’s mrs. higby? oh,

somebody wash it, please!” she was rushing around after her bonnet now, elyot hanging to the

apron-strings valiantly, this process tying them tighter than ever at each step.

“here, hold on, can’t you!” roared pickering. “you’ll never get her undone at that rate.”

“yes, i will, too,” cried elyot, tugging away, and tumbling against mrs. higby with a towel, wet at

one end, in her hand.

“oh, dear, dear! and that blessed child at home alone,” cried alexia. “mercy! here’s my best

bonnet down by the coal-scoop. well, as long as i’ve got anything to put on my head i suppose i

should be thankful. oh, dear! where’s that wet towel? do cut the strings of this horrible old apron

—oh, dear! what shall i do!” she whirled around on them all, as the door opened, and in ran polly

and jasper, with glowing cheeks.

“for goodness sake, alexia!” began polly.

“whew! is it a menagerie?” cried jasper.

“well, it’s bad enough to go visiting, and have your friends run off to see horrible old women,”

said alexia, whirling more than ever, “without coming back to laugh at one’s misery. oh, that’s a

dear, mrs. higby!” as that good lady’s scissors clicked, and set her free. “i’ll bring you out a new

pair of strings next time i come. come on, pickering—good-by, everybody;” and she was out and

running down the path by the time he found his hat.

“oh dear!” and back she came again, “i forgot my face; it’s all stuck up. do, somebody, wash this

molasses off.” and polly gave her a dab with the wet towel, and a little kiss at the same time.

“you didn’t wash it in the right place,” grumbled alexia, running off again; “it was the other

cheek. oh dear, dear! come on, pickering; we shall lose the train.”