Fish Hooks Pool Party Panic
Sadie
Credits: Donald Cummings, David E. Brown, Sue Clark, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
FIVE LITTLE PEPPERS AND HOW THEY GREW
FIVE LITTLE PEPPERS MIDWAY
FIVE LITTLE PEPPERS GROWN UP
PHRONSIE PEPPER
THE STORIES POLLY PEPPER TOLD
THE ADVENTURES OF JOEL PEPPER
FIVE LITTLE PEPPERS ABROAD
FIVE LITTLE PEPPERS AT SCHOOL
FIVE LITTLE PEPPERS AND THEIR FRIENDS
BEN PEPPER
FIVE LITTLE PEPPERS IN THE LITTLE BROWN HOUSE
OUR DAVIE PEPPER
Mrs. Pepper came out of the bedroom andstopped a minute by the green door to smile at[24]them all. Then she went out with her bundleto take to Mr. Atkins at the store; but firstthere was another errand of importance toattend to, so she turned off at the cross-road.The smile had dropped away from her foldedlips, as she stepped swiftly along toward thePeters farm.
But she got there first and opened the oldgreen door without knocking. Mrs. Pepperwas coming out of the bedroom with a bowland a spoon in her hands. Her face was verywhite, but she tried to smile a welcome.
Phronsie, quite contented now that she wason the way to the little brown house wherePolly was and Mamsie would soon come, presentlybegan to hum in a happy little voice, andthe old white horse and big high wagon wentjogging on over a short cross-road leading toMaybury, where the farmer and his good wifelived.
So Davie ran over and fished out a cleantowel, and the dishes were soon done and piledon the dresser. And none too soon! Herecame around the corner of the parsonage, MissKeturah Sims to borrow a colander to strainblackberries in.
At that Davie ducked behind the wood-pile,and then ran after Polly into the little brownhouse. And now here he was in all his misery,standing before the counter, with Mr. Atkinsasking this dreadful question!
But Mrs. Pepper only smiled, and Polly raninto the house to get Davie ready. For whenMamsie said a thing, she always meant it, andpretty soon out they came, Davie quite freshin another calico blouse and not entirely at restin his mind as to the visit at the Parrott estate.
An old-fashioned garden, bright with hollyhocksand all sorts of dear, homely flowers, alittle square plot in the center, around whichwere stone seats, burst upon their view. Alloff in the distance were terraces and lawns,with all manner of splendid trees, and pleasantpaths intersecting.
Up-stairs under the gambrel roof overrunwith sweet-brier, Miss Parrott was sitting byher window, listening to the childish peals oflaughter, as Polly and David played hide-and-seekbetween the ancestral trees.
And the butler with a sullen face but a backthat expressed nothing but complete submission,stalked down the garden path to the big[214]trees whence the happy sounds proceeded.And the scornful housemaid confided it all tothe equally disdainful cook, who said neverin her twenty-five years of service on the Parrottestate had she seen such goings on.
When the three were seated around theluncheon table in the handsome dining-room,Davie was quite overwhelmed at the array ofsilver and glass that shone upon the polishedmahogany table. And Polly turned pale andonly hoped they should neither of them doanything to disgrace Mamsie.
Miss Parrott pushed up the little spring andthere were two small girls in checked high-neckeddresses, with ruffles around the necks,and hair brushed back and held by roundcombs. A small fuzzy-wuzzy dog with eyeslike black shoe buttons sat primly up betweenthe two.
Around and around the old-fashioned gardenbright with hollyhocks and all sorts of blossomsand shrubs, they went, Miss Parrott withher finger on her chin, a way she had when shewas thinking, and Polly holding her breathwhenever a stop was made before a little plant.
Miss Parrott led the way down the broadhall, with its rugs on the polished floor and theportraits of her ancestors lining the walls.She looked back as she neared the big oakendoor to see Polly standing spellbound beforethe drawing-room, and Davie by her side.
So Miss Parrott sat down on the music-stool[237]and drew her long figure up just as the musicmaster had instructed her years ago, and beganto finger the keys, Polly, with her little plant inher hand, standing in rapt attention, on oneside, and David, with his slate, on the other.
Peletiah never waited to hear more thanthe last sentence that told him what he hadcome to find out. He got off from his chair ingreat satisfaction and went out into the little[245]kitchen where Davie was waving the broomover the wild fluttering tangle of hens, allsquawking together, as he tried to drive themout of doors.
So Davie looked behind it, holding on to theedge of the shelf with one hand, and feelingaround with the other. But no bottle was insight. There were some papers of herbs, and,as they got stirred about, the little fine particlescoming out of various holes made him sneeze.
A tiny drop or two making its appearanceto her satisfaction, she made David sit up onthe bed again. And at last the little thumbwas all bound up, and the cloth tied up with abit of string she found in the little table-drawerby her bed.
David lifted up the calico valance runningaround the bed, and Peletiah got down on hisknees and lifted up the part hanging downhis side. There bunched up together were thetwo fat biddies. They turned sleepy eyes onthe two boys. And when Peletiah insertedthe broom under the bed, they got up, shooktheir feathers, and marched off to the kitchen,and so out of doors, much preferring to roostrespectably on a tree than under a feather bed.
The consequence was, as they came up to thedeep pool in the silvery little brook, Joel wasfixing his best hook on the line hanging fromhis new pole. Ezekiel, too lost in admirationto do anything to get his own made ready, washanging over him.
Joel, with no thought of the fish-pole he wasleaving behind but only that he must preventPeletiah from taking such a dreadful tale tothe parsonage, plunged after him. And Davie,recklessly abandoning the big fish, followedin the greatest distress.
Joel was occupied for the next few hoursafter reaching the little brown house and thestory all through with, in pretending he wasthe bull and dashing after imaginary persons;and then when tired of that, he said hewas going to be the burglar.
It had just begun to drizzle, the light rainkeeping customers within the store, and at sucha time Mr. Atkins opened his cracker-box andlaid out his cheese-knife. He was delightedat the chance of village gossip, and besides they[283]would all more than make up by their ordersfor the price of the entertainment.
Just then a mouse over in the corner gave ascratch against the wainscot. Polly hopped toher feet, afraid it was the bedroom door, andwiped her eyes on the end of the sweeping-cap,that flapped down over her shoulder. Thenshe tucked it up, and began to send the broomflying over the dust and crumbs on the kitchenfloor. Joel ran in and found her so.
It was all done in a minute. The mass ofhay, with David in its center, slid neatly offthe top of the cart to the ground. Bill, thehired man, pitchfork in hand, leaned over theedge in a state of great consternation, the restof the laborers, the loading all completed,watching to see the cart start off for the barn.
Phronsie stopped and regarded her pinkcalico gown. To have her lap full of chickenswas something that had to be thought outcarefully. And she was standing there quitestill when Mrs. Brown, who had hurried intothe shed, came out with a tin pan in her hand.
And then all the merry getting ready of thebig dinner was going on, and the little pinkcalico gown had to have its back breadthsmooth, so Mrs. Brown set a flat-iron on[339]the stove, and got out the ironing-board.
Once in the old kitchen, the story came out,with many jerks from Joel, as he oftenstopped to bemoan the loss of a chance to capturethe burglar, and the positive assurancethat he could have beaten him to nothing ifhe had only been there.
It was all of an hour after, and Mrs. Pepper,who had been sewing by the light of thecandle, to make up for the time spent in thevisit of that day, let the work drop in her lap,and she was lost in thought.
Mrs. Pepper folded her hands in her lap,and let her gaze wander off to the hills encirclingBadgertown. It was hard to rememberwhen she had done a thing like this, idlingof a morning on a roadside stone.
Mother Pepper kept her brood together, andwaited while Simmons carried out the instructionsof Miss Parrott, and bought the tickets,and got the big lunch-basket down. Then heconsidered his duties were all done, until afterthe performance he should pick the party upfor the return trip.
The old woman sank down on her kneesbeside Joel, as he pawed among the collectionof articles spread on the grass. Strange to sayshe seemed more curious to see if he would findit than disturbed at the way her bag wasemptied.
But Mrs. Pepper shook her head. And Joelbeing now absorbed in the bears that somehow[404]were determined not to march with theothers, but to get up a show all by themselves,till the trainer with his little whip had to getthem into line, everything became quiet oncemore.
David, finding it harder and harder to escorta person determined to find fault with hisname, had all he could do to keep himself fromdeserting altogether. But knowing that Mamsiewould feel badly if he did, and rememberinghow he had made them all ashamed, he[407]marched on, by her side; but his head wastossed up, and his cheeks were very red.
So there Jimmy was, and the table-clothbeing spread, the articles from the basket weresoon in place, everybody being handy at gettingthem out, Joel and David especially so,while Phronsie got in between, laughing andcrowing happily under the impression that shewas helping very much.
As it happened the bears were first in theline, so Joel had his wish, and he crowded upplastering his face close to their cage, in whichthe beasts had been put on their return fromthe parade in the ring.
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