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The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew
By Margaret Sidney
Chapter Three: Mamsie's Birthday
"Thy mother shall be glad, and she that
bare thee shall rejoice."
~ Proverbs 23:25 ~
un, down and get the cinnamon, will you, Joey?" said
Polly. "It's in the Provision Room."
The Provision Room was a little shed that was tacked on to the main house and reached
by a short flight of rickety steps; so called, because, as Polly said, "'Twas
a good place to keep provisions in, even if we haven't any. And besides," she
always finished, "it sounds nice!"
"Come on, Dave! Then we'll get something to eat!"
So the cinnamon was handed up, and then Joel flew back to Davie.
And now Polly's cake was done and ready for the oven. With many admiring glances
from herself and Phronsie, who with Seraphina, an extremely old but greatly revered
doll, tightly hugged in her arms, was watching everything with the biggest of eyes
from the depths of the old chair, it was placed in the oven, the door shut to with
a happy little bang, and then Polly gathered Phronsie up in her arms and sat down
in the chair to have a good time with her and to watch the process of cooking.
There was a bumping noise that came from the Provision Room that sounded ominous,
and then a smothered sound of words, followed by a scuffling over the old floor.
"Boys!" called Polly. No answer; everything was just as still as a mouse.
"Joel and David!" called Polly again, in her loudest tones.
"Yes," came up the crooked stairs, in Davie's voice. "Come up here,
right away!"
went back again from Polly. So up the stairs trudged the two boys, and presented
themselves rather sheepishly before the big chair.
"What was that noise?" she asked. "What have you been donig?"
"'Twasn't anything but the pail," answered Joel, not looking at her.
"We had something to eat," said Davie, by way of explanation. "You
always let us."
"I know," said Polly. "That's right, you can have as much bread as
you want to. But what have you been doing with the pail?"
"Nothing," said Joel. "'Twouldn't hang up, that's all."
"And you've been bumping it," said Polly. "Oh, Joel, how could you!
You might have broken it; then what would mamsie say?"
"I didn't," said Joel stoutly, with his hands in his pockets, "bump
it worse'n Davie, so there!"
"Why, Davie," said Polly, turning to him sorrowfully, "I shouldn't
have thought you would!"
"Well, I'm tired of hanging it up," said little Davie vehemently. "And
I said I wasn't a - goin' to. Joel always makes me; I've done it for two million
times, I guess!"
"Oh, dear," said Polly, sinking back into the chair, "I don't know
what I ever shall do. Here's Phronsie hurt, and we want to celebrate tomorrow, and
you two boys are bumping and banging out the bread pail, and - "
"Oh! We won't!" cried both of the children, perfectly over - whelmed with
remorse. "We'll hang it right up.
"I'll hang it," said Davie, clattering off down the stairs with a will.
"No, I will!" shouted Joel, going after him at double pace. And presently
both came up with shining faces and reported it nicely done.
"And now," said Polly after they had all sat around the stove another half
hour, watching and sniffing expectantly, "the cake's done - dear me! It's turning
black!"
And quickly as possible Polly twitched it out with energy and set it on the table.
Oh, dear. Of all things in the world! The beautiful cake over which so many hopes
had been formed - that was to have given so much happiness on the morrow to the dear
mother - presented a forlorn appearance as it stood there in anything but holiday
attire. It was quite black on the top, in the center of which was a depressing little
dump, as if to say, "My feelings wouldn't allow me to rise to the occasion."
"Now," said Polly, turning away with a little fling and looking at the
stove, "I hope you're satisfied, you old thing. You've spoiled our mamsie's
birthday!" and without a bit of warning she sat right down in the middle of
the floor and began to cry as hard as she could.
"Well, I never!" said a cheery voice that made the children skip.
"It's Mrs. Beebe. Oh, it's Mrs. Beebe!" cried Davie. "See, Polly."
Polly scrambled up to her feet, ashamed to be caught thus, and whisked away the tears;
the others explaining to their new visitor the sad disappointment that had befallen
them; and she was soon oh - ing and ah - ing enough to suit even their distressed
little souls.
"You poor creeters, you!" she exclaimed at last, for about the fiftieth
time. "Here, Polly, here's some posies for you, and - "
"Oh, thank you!"" cried Polly with a radiant face. "Why, Mrs.
Beebe, we can put them in here, can't we! The very thing!"
And she set the little knot of flowers in the hollow of the cake, and there they
stood and nodded away to the delighted children like brave little comforters, as
they were.
"The very thing!" echoed Mrs. Beebe, tickled to death to see their delight.
"It looks beautiful, I declare! And now I must run right along, or pa'll be
worrying." And so the good woman trotted out to her waiting husband, who was
impatient to be off. Mr. Beebe kept a little shoe shop in town. And always being
of the impression if he left it for ten minutes that crowds of customers would visit
it, he was the most restless of companions on any pleasure excursion.
"And Phronsie's got hurt," said Mrs. Beebe, telling him the news as he
finished tucking her up and started the old horse.
"Ho? You don't say so!" he cried. "Whoa!"
"Dear me!" said Mrs. Beebe. "How you scat me, pa! What's the matter?"
"What! The little girl that bought the shoes?" asked her husband.
"Yes," replied his wife. "She's hurt her foot."
"Sho, now," said the old gentleman, "that's too bad," and he
began to feel in all his pockets industriously. "There, can you get out again
and take her that?" And he laid a small piece of peppermint candy, thick and
white, in his wife's lap.
"Oh, yes," cried Mrs. Beebe good - naturedly, beginning to clamber over
the wheel.
So the candy was handed in to Phronsie, who insisted that Polly should hold her up
to the window to thank Mr. Beebe. So amid nods and shakings of hands, the Beebes
drove off, and quiet settled down over the little brown house again.
"Now, children," said Polly after Phronsie had made them take a bite of
her candy all around, "let's get the cake put away safe, for mamsie may come
home early."
"Where'll you put it?" asked Joel, wishing the world was all peppermint
candy.
"Oh - in the cupboard," said Polly, taking it up. "There, Joe, you
can climb up and put it clear back in the corner - oh! Wait. I must take the posies
off, and keep them fresh in water." So the cake was finally deposited in a place
of safety, followed by the eyes of all the children.
"Now," said Polly as they shut the door tight, "don't you go to looking
at the cupboard, Joey, or mammy'll guess something."
"Can't I just open it a little crack and take one smell when she isn't looking?"
asked Joel. "I should think you might, Polly; just one."
"No," said Polly firmly. "Not one, Joe; she'll guess if you do."
But Mrs. Pepper was so utterly engrossed with her baby when she came home and heard
the account of the accident that she wouldn't have guessed if there'd been a dozen
cakes in the cupboard. Joel was consoled, as his mother assured him in a satisfactory
way that she never should think of blaming him; and Phronsie was comforted and coddled
to her heart's content. And so the evening passed rapidly and happily away, Ben smuggling
Phronsie off into a corner, where she told him all the doings of the day - the disappointment
of the cake, and how it was finally crowned with flowers; all of which Phronsie,
with no small pride in being the narrator, related gravely to her absorbed listener.
"And don't you think, Bensie," she said, clasping her little hand in a
convincing way over his two bigger, stronger ones, "that Polly's stove was very
naughty to make poor Polly cry?"
"Yes, I do," said Ben, and he shut his lips tightly together. To have Polly
cry hurt him more than he cared to have Phronsie see.
"What are you staring at, Joe?" asked Polly a few minutes later as her
eyes fell upon Joel, who sat with his back to the cupboard, persistently gazing at
the opposite wall.
"Why, you told me yourself not to look at the cupboard," said Joel in the
loudest of stage whispers.
"Dear me. That'll make mammy suspect worse'n anything else if you look like
that," said Polly.
"What did you say about the cupboard?" asked Mrs. Pepper, who caught Joe's
last word.
"We can't tell," said Phronsie, shaking her head at her mother, "'cause
there's a ca- "
"Ugh!" and Polly clapped her hand on the child's mouth. "Don't you
want Ben to tell us a story!"
"Oh, yes!" cried little Phronsie, in which all the others joined with a
whoop of delight. So a most wonderful story, drawn up in Ben's best style, followed
till bedtime. The first thing Polly did in the morning was to run to the old cupboard,
followed by all the others, to see if the cake was safe; and then it had to be drawn
out, and dressed anew with the flowers, for they had decided to have it on the breakfast
table.
"It looks better," whispered Polly to Ben, "than it did yesterday.
And aren't the flowers pretty?"
"It looks good enough to eat, anyway," said Ben, smacking his lips.
"Well, we tried," said Polly, stifling a sigh. "Now, boys, call mamsie;
everything's ready."
Oh! How surprised their mother appeared when she was ushered out to the feast, and
the full glory of the table burst upon her. Her delight in the cake was fully enough
to satisfy the most exacting mind. She admired and admired it on every side, protesting
that she shouldn't have supposed Polly could possibly have baked it as good in the
old stove; and then she cut it, and gave a piece to every child, with a little posy
on top. Wasn't it good, though! For like many other things, the cake proved better
on trial than it looked, and so turned out to be really quite a good surprise all
around.
"Why can't I ever have a birthday?" asked Joel, finishing the last crumb
of his piece. "I should think I might," he added reflectively.
"Why, you have, Joe," said Ben. "Eight of 'em."
"What a story!" ejaculated Joel. "When did I have 'em? I never had
a cake, did I, Polly?"
"Not a cake birthday, Joel," said his mother. "You haven't got to
that yet."
"When's it coming?" asked Joel, who was decidedly of a matter - of - fact
run of mind.
"I don't know," said Mrs. Pepper, laughing, "but there's plenty of
time ahead."
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