Books: The Adventures of Joel Pepper
M >>
Margaret Sidney >> The Adventures of Joel Pepper
Pages:
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
13 | 14 |
15 |
16 |
17 |
18
"They were awful good," said Joel, in satisfaction. "Give me the
rest of 'em, Polly," and he held out his hand.
"So you shall have 'em, Joel," cried Polly, glad to think there
was something she could do, and she ran and brought the little
sugar cooky animals where she had fixed them in some large
leaves ready for Joel to pass them around among the company at
the close of the performance.
"Mamsie must have the first one," said Joel, picking out the
biggest and best, with the largest currant eyes, to force it
between Mrs. Pepper's pale lips, "then Polly next."
"Oh, no, Joe," said Polly, "I'm not company. Give one to Grandma
and to Mrs. Beebe first."
"Oh, you pretty creature you!" exclaimed Grandma. "So you want
me to have a cake?" as Joel turned to her with one in his hand.
"Tisn't a cake--it's an animal," corrected Joel, irritably.
"Yes, yes--so 'tis a cake," repeated Grandma Bascom, taking the
animal.
"'Tisn't," said Joel. "Mamsie, make her stop saying things that
aren't so, over and over."
"Joel," said Polly, quickly, "Mrs. Beebe hasn't any animal. Why
don't you give her a--let me see," and she considered deeply.
"I'd give her a bird, Joel, here's a lovely one," and she
pounced on a most remarkable specimen in the bird line one would
wish to see. "Mrs. Beebe, wouldn't you like that?" she asked.
"Oh, I should so," replied Mrs. Beebe, smiling all over her face
to see how well Joel was, and putting out her hand. "Bless your
heart, Joel, I'd rather have the bird than any other."
"Had you?" asked Joel, greatly pleased.
"Yes, indeed I had. I always set dreadfully by birds," said Mrs.
Beebe. So Joel gave her the bird, then he leaned over and picked
out a horse, very much baked on one side, and with one leg shorter
than the other "That's for you, Mr. Tisbett," he said.
"That suits me," said Mr. Tisbett, heartily. "Well, now I never!
Seems to me I can't eat it, 'twould be almost like chewing up a
critter, but I'll keep it to remember you by," and he slipped it
into his big pocket. Then he got up and shook himself. "And now
I must be a-goin'. Don't you be a mite worried, Mrs. Pepper,
take my advice; that boy'll scare you more times than you can
count. So you might as well get used to it. Now look sharp, Joe,
and remember what you promised."
"Phronsie must have the--"
"Oh, Joey, I want the piggie, I do," cried Phronsie, whose eyes
had been fastened on the cooky animals ever since Polly had
brought them up on the beautiful green leaves. "May I, Joel?"
she begged.
"Hoh, that isn't good!" said Joel, disdainfully. "He's a horrid
old pig."
"Hush, Joey," said Polly, and her face turned rosy red,
remembering Mrs. Beebe. But old Mrs. Beebe only laughed, and
said she knew the pig wasn't baked good, he would whirl over
on one side in the pan. And sometime she would bake Joel a
good nice one. But Phronsie kept on pleading for this particular
pig. "Do, Joel, please," she begged, "give me the dear, sweet
piggie." So Joel put it in her hand, when she cuddled it lovingly
up against her fat little neck, not thinking of such a thing as
eating it.
And then David must pick out the one he wanted, and then Ben.
And then all over again, around and around, till there wasn't
another cooky animal left. And when he saw that, Joel hopped
down from Mamsie's lap and marched up to Mrs. Beebe. "Your
animals were better'n mine," he said.
"They don't tumble out of trees," said Mrs. Beebe, laughing. And
then everybody got very merry, and Polly said, Could they play a
game? and Mrs. Pepper looked at Joel hopping about, and she said,
Yes, with a glad thrill that her boy was safe. "It will help him
to forget his accident," she said to Polly. So after all, the
circus wound up with a fine ending.
And in the midst of it Mrs. Brown came panting over, having
run nearly every step of the way. When she saw Joel spinning
around in The Barberry Bush, she leaned against the side of the
little brown house, and said, "O my!"
Mrs. Pepper hurried over to her. "Sally ran home and said Joel
had tumbled from a tree, so I brought these over as soon's I
could," panted Mrs. Brown, opening her apron, and there were
ever so many bottles of medicine.
"O dear me!" exclaimed Mrs. Pepper, with a thankful throb to
think they were not wanted, and, "You are so good, Mrs. Brown."
"So we go round the barberry bush," sang Joel, piping out the
loudest of any one, and kicking up his heels as he danced.
"Dear me!" said Mrs. Brown, "I never did, in all my life! Just
hear that boy!"
And she hadn't been gone but a moment or two, carrying her apron
full of medicines with her, before Mrs. Henderson came hurrying
along down the dusty road. Her face was flushed, and she looked
anxious enough. Mrs. Pepper said, "Run, Polly, and meet her, and
tell her Joel is all right. Bless her! She is a parson's wife!"
So Polly ran with all her might, and stood before Mrs. Henderson,
flushed and almost breathless.
"Joey's all well," she managed to say.
"Thank you, Polly," said Mrs. Henderson, smiling down into the
flushed face. "And I am so glad to know it, for Peletiah came
home very frightened. Well, take your mother this. Stay, I
better go and see her, I guess." So she went up to the little
group back in the orchard, and heard all about Joel's accident
from himself, as he wanted to tell it all, up to the time when
they picked him up.
Mrs. Henderson wiped her eyes many times during the recital,
then she drew Joel to her. "You must come over to see my new
chickens some day."
"I'll go to-morrow," said Joel, sociably, "if Mamsie'll let me."
"Oh, Joey!" reproved Mrs. Pepper. "Please excuse him," to Mrs.
Henderson, "he doesn't think what he is saying."
"So you shall, Joey," said the parson's wife, with a pleasant
smile, "and bring the others with you. Let them come, Mrs.
Pepper, do."
"Ben can't go, of course," said Mrs. Pepper, "and Polly can't,
either," and her face grew sober, "for Mr. Atkins says I may get
some more coats to-morrow morning, and she's getting so she
helps me a good deal."
"Never mind," said Polly, trying to laugh. How she would love to
see those new chickens!
"Polly shall come some other time," said Mrs. Henderson, with a
kindly smile on her face. "To-morrow afternoon, Mrs. Pepper, at
three o'clock, please let them come over."
So the next afternoon Joel, with many injunctions to be good,
escorted the other two children to Parson Henderson's, Mrs.
Pepper and Polly watching them from the door stone as they
trudged off down the road, Phronsie clinging to Joel's hand, and
David on the other side.
"She's a parson's wife, now!" said Mrs. Pepper for the fiftieth
time, as the children turned the bend in the road, and wiping
her eyes she went back into the house to pick up her sewing and
go to work. "Well, Polly, you and I will have a fine time to fly
at this now."
The two needles clicked away busily enough as Polly sat down on
the cricket at Mrs. Pepper's feet. "Whatever should we do without
Mr. Atkins, too, Mamsie?" she said.
"Polly," said Mother Pepper, suddenly, and she laid down her
work a moment, although time was precious enough, "Mother's
sorry you couldn't go, too. But a nice time will come for you
sometime, I hope," though she sighed.
"Never mind me, Mammy," said Polly, cheerily.
"But I can't help minding, Polly," said Mrs. Pepper, sadly,
"when I think how few nice times you have. But I'll try all the
harder." And she picked up her work again, and made the needle
fly faster than ever.
"And it's so very nice that Joel can go and see those new
chickens," said Polly, suppressing a sigh, "after he fell
yesterday, and Phronsie, oh, you can't think, Mamsie! how she
runs on about the chickens she saw there once."
"Yes, it is nice," said Mrs. Pepper, but she sighed again.
Meantime Joel was in a state of supreme delight. Kneeling down
in front of the coop, with his face pressed close to the bars,
he was watching every movement of the fluffy little things, counting
them over and over, and speculating what he would do if they were
his, Phronsie crouching down by one side, while David was as close
on the other, and all three children speechless with delight.
Presently Joel broke the silence. "I'm going to take out one,"
he said.
"Oh, no, Joe!" cried Davie, in alarm, and tumbling backward from
the coop.
"Yes, I am," said Joel, obstinately, who never could brook
interference. "It won't hurt it a bit, and I'll put it right
back."
Phronsie didn't hear him, her whole attention being absorbed by
the wonderful chickens. So Joel cautiously pulled up one slat of
the coop a very little way. "There, you see," he cried in
exultation, "I can do it just as easy as not;" when a bee,
humming its way along, stung him smartly on the arm, and Joel
twitched so suddenly that up went the slat quite high, and
before he could stop them, out walked the old mother hen, and
two of her children.
"Oh, Joe, Joe! they're out!" screamed David. Phronsie rolled
over on the grass in a little ball, as Joel knocked against her,
and nobody thought for a moment of shutting the bar down. So
three more chickens stepped out and hopped away over the grass.
"Oh, Joe, Joe, they're all coming out!" cried David, quite
beside himself with horror.
"Shut the bar! shut the bar!" screamed Joel, running hither and
thither, and only making the mother frantic, in her efforts to
get away from him, and to protect her brood.
"I can't," mourned Davie, tugging bravely at it. So Joel stopped
chasing the hen and the chickens, and rushed up to slam down the
bar, and two more chickens having hopped out in the meantime,
there they were--seven downy little balls, hurrying about in a
great state of excitement to reach mother, who was clucking
noisily for them to hurry and come under her wing.
"Oh, Joe! see what you've done," cried Davie, in distress,
trying to help in every direction, but only succeeding in
getting in the way. "O dear me! You can't ever get 'em back in
the coop, in all this world." Phronsie, meanwhile, picked
herself up, and eagerly entered into the chase, gurgling in
delight as she pattered first after one little fluffy ball, and
then another.
"Yes, I can," said Joel, confidently, rushing here and there.
"You stand still, Dave, and don't let 'em get by you. Then
I'll drive 'em up."
But after about five minutes of this sort of work, Joel found
that he couldn't do it very well, for as fast as he got one
chicken headed for David, the others all scattered in every
direction, while Mistress Biddy scampered and waddled and
clacked to her children, till the parsonage garden seemed full
of hens and chickens. At last Joel stopped and wiped his hot
face, David looking at him from a distance in despair.
"You stay there, Dave, I'm going to tell 'em," and Joel marched
off with an awful feeling at his heart. But he didn't dare to
stop to think about it, but mounted the steps of the parsonage
and went down the wide hall. There was nobody to be seen, and
Joel was just going to run out to the kitchen, if, perhaps, Mrs.
Henderson could be found there. Suddenly the study door opened,
and there stood the minister himself in the doorway.
"Well, Joel," said Parson Henderson, kindly, "I'm glad to see
you. Do you want anything, my boy?"
Joel's knees knocked together, but he answered, "I've let all
the hens and chickens out."
"You've let all the hens and chickens out?" repeated the
minister, but he only half understood, and stood staring down
into Joel's black eyes.
"Yes, sir," said Joel, twisting his brown hands together tightly.
If he should cry now, before his story was told, maybe the
minister would never get those chickens into the coop. He must
make him understand. "They're all running everywhere in the
grass," he added miserably.
"Do you mean Mrs. Henderson's new chickens?" asked the minister,
starting a bit. Then he added composedly, "Oh, no, Joel, they're
quite safe. She is very particular about looking after the coop
herself."
"But they are," gasped Joel. Then he forgot that it was the
minister, and seized his hand. "Please--they're running awfully,
and they'll die, maybe."
Parson Henderson bestowed on him a long searching gaze. "How did
they get out?" he asked.
"I let 'em out," blurted Joel, "and they're all running. Do come,
sir." And he fairly tugged at the minister's hand as if it had
been David's.
The parson went swiftly down the long hall, Joel hanging to his
hand. Just then a voice called down the winding stairs,
_"Jotham! Jotham!"_
It was Miss Jerusha. Joel gave one glance up the stairs, and
held tighter than ever to the minister's hand. "Do come," he
cried, in an agony. "Oh, please! sir."
"Mehitable's chickens are out!" screamed Miss Jerusha, now
appearing at the top of the stairs. She was in a short gown and
petticoat, and had been doing up her hair, having just taken the
ends of the side wisps out of her mouth, where she had conveyed
them for the easier combing of the back locks.
"I know it," said Parson Henderson, quietly; "Joel has just told
me." With that he pressed the little brown hand that was in his
own.
"Go back to your room, Jerusha," he said. "I'll see to the
chickens."
"And there's those other two Pepper children," cried Miss
Jerusha after him, with a tart look at Joel, "all over the place.
And Mehitable is baking a cake for 'em--think of it!"
"Is she baking a cake for us?" cried Joel, finding his tongue,
as the minister, still holding his hand, went out toward the
garden.
"Yes," said Parson Henderson, "she is, Joel."
"And I've let out all her hens and chickens!" cried Joel. "O
dear, dear!" and the tears he couldn't hold back any longer
rained all down his chubby face.
"See here," Parson Henderson stopped a minute, "if you're going
to help me, Joel, you can't cry, that's very certain. Why, I
expect you and I will have every one of those chickens safe and
sound in that coop in--well, in next to no time."
"I'll help you!" cried Joel, dashing off the tears at once, and
swallowing hard. "Oh, do hurry, please, Mr. Henderson," pulling
hard at the kind hand.
"Softly--softly there, Joel, my boy," said the minister. "If
we're going to get those chickens into that coop, we mustn't
scare them to begin with. Now, you run into the barn, and get a
little corn in the quart measure."
So Joel, glad of something to do, dropped the minister's hand,
and ran off at lightning speed, and soon raced back again with
the quart measure half full of corn.
"That's well," said Parson Henderson, approvingly. "Now then,
the first thing to do is to make the mother go back into the
coop. Here, Mrs. Biddy, take a bit of this nice corn." He flung
out a kernel or two to the hen, whose feathers that had started
up in a ruffle and fluff, at sight of Joel, now drooped, and her
excited clacking stopped.
"Keep perfectly still, Joel," said Parson Henderson, over his
shoulder.
All this time, Phronsie and David, at sight of Parson
Henderson's approach, had stood as if frozen to the ground,
never taking their eyes from his face, except to look at Joel.
The parson then went along a few steps nearer to the coop,
scattering one or two kernels as he went. Mistress Biddy eyed
them all wistfully. "Come on," said the minister, gently.
"Cluck--cluck," said the mother hen, sociably, and she waddled
slowly, and picked up the first kernels. These were so good that
she came readily after the next, and so followed the parson, as
he let fall two more. The little fluffy balls, when they saw their
mother so employed, all scampered like mad after her, to surround
her. At last, she was so busily employed, that she didn't notice
that she was running into an angle formed by the coop and the
end of the barn. There was a rush. A sudden squawk, and the
parson emerged from this corner, with Mistress Biddy in his hands.
"Now, Joel, you can help me so much," he said cheerily. "Run and
push up the bar to the coop. Be careful not to let any more
chickens out. There, that's right!" In went Mistress Biddy, who
gave an indignant fluff to her gray feathers, and then cackled
crossly, and the bar flew down into place.
"That's fine!" exclaimed the minister in great satisfaction,
getting up straight again. "Now, Joel, it won't be such a task
to catch the little chickens. Come away from the coop, and
they'll run up when they hear her call," which was indeed the
fact. They soon began to scamper as hard as they could from all
directions as Mistress Biddy set up a smart "cluck, cluck,"
until all of the seven were swarming over each other to get into
the coop to mother.
It was surprising, then, to see the minister's hands; they
seemed to be here, there, and everywhere, and to pounce upon
those little fluffy balls with unerring aim, and presently,
there they were, Joel lifting the bar when bidden, in the coop,
"peeping" away and huddling up to the dear gray feathery nest.
The chickens who hadn't run out came up, as if wanting to hear
the story, and what it was like to be out in the world.
Mr. Henderson sat down on the long grass. "That's a very good
job done, Joel," he said.
Just then the kitchen door opened, and a pleasant voice called,
"Come, Joel and David and Phronsie Pepper, I've got a new baked
cake for you."
XXIII
THE BLACKBERRIES AND THE BULL
"Now, Joel," said Polly, a few days after, "you mustn't tease
for the pie, you know, 'cause Mamsie may not be able to get the
white flour."
"P'r'aps she will," said Joel, swinging his tin pail, and
kicking the sweet fern with his bare feet; "then, Polly, we
could have it, couldn't we?"
"Maybe," said Polly, with her thoughts not so much on blackberry
pie, as how good it was to be out of doors for a whole afternoon.
"Oh, Joe, what a big butterfly!"
"Hoh--that's nothing!" said Joel, who was rather tired of
butterflies. "I'm going to pick bushels and bushels of blackberries,
Polly."
"You'll do well if you pick a quart," said Polly, laughing,
remembering his past experiences. "Oh, Joel, isn't it just
lovely to go blackberrying like this!" and her brown eyes sparkled.
"The bushes scratch like everything," said Joel, with another
kick at the sweet fern.
"It's nice to go blackberrying," hummed Phronsie, holding fast
to a little tin cup the rag-man had presented her on his last
visit. "I'm going to pick ever and ever so many, to carry home
to my Mamsie."
"So you shall," cried Polly, rapturously; "and, children, I
never saw anything so perfectly beautiful as it is this
afternoon! Isn't the sky blue!"
Little David looked up and smiled. Joel threw back his head and
squinted critically. "I wish I could go sailing up there on that
cloud," he said.
"I don't," said Polly, merrily, swinging her tin pail. "I'd
rather be down here and going blackberrying with you children.
Well, come on, we ought to hurry, 'cause we want to take home as
many as we can."
"You're always hurrying us, Polly Pepper," grumbled Joel,
lagging behind. "What for, if we can't have any pie?"
"Well, we can carry home the berries to Mamsie, anyway," said
Polly, moving on very fast. Phronsie trotted after her with a very
happy face.
"Now, children," said Polly, when they reached the place where
the bars were to be taken down, "we must keep together, and not
straggle off. Remember, Joe; then when we're ready to go home,
it won't be such a piece of work to get started."
Joel was already pulling at the bars. "Come on, Dave, and help,"
he called.
"We'll go right across this corner," said Polly, when the bars
were put back, and they were on the other side, "and then, says
I, we'll soon be at the blackberry patch. O my, just see that
bird!"
"Polly's always stopping to look at birds," said Joel.
"I like 'em, too," said David. "And that one is just beautiful."
"It's just beautiful," hummed Phronsie, who wanted to stop every
moment and pick clover blossoms, or the big waving green grasses.
"Well, come on, Pet," said Polly, seeing this, "or we shan't
ever get to the blackberry patch; and then, says I, what would
Mamsie ever do for her berries!"
At this, such a dreadful distress seized the whole bunch of
little Peppers, that they one and all scuttled as fast as they
could through the long grass, Phronsie not looking back once to
pick a single blossom; and Polly presently had her company all
marshalled up in good order in a perfect thicket of blackberry
bushes, where the berries hung as thick and ripe as could be.
For a few minutes no one spoke; the big blackberries tumbling
into the tin pails making the only noise, though Phronsie
dropped hers into the grass as often as she put one in her
little cup. And they worked so fast, that no one noticed that
Polly's blue sky was getting overcast by white patches of puffy
clouds that looked as if they were chasing each other. At last
Joel said, "Ow!" and began to complain that he was all scratched
up by the prickly bushes, and when Phronsie heard that, she set
down her tin cup and held up her fat little arms. "See, Polly,"
she said gravely.
"O dear me, now that's too bad, Pet!" So Polly had to come out
from her nice little clump where she was picking fast, and kiss
the little red marks on Phronsie's arms. "Now don't lean in the
bushes again; I'll show you a place. There," and Polly pointed
to some low branches that stood out; and the blackberries on
them were thick and ripe.
"Ooh!" said Phronsie, when she saw them; and she forgot all
about her arms, that prickled and ached, and Polly flew back to
her clump again.
Rumble--rumble! "Oh, boys!" gasped Polly, "there can't be a
thunder-storm coming!" and she poked her head out from her clump,
and stared up at the sky in dismay. "There surely is! Now we
must run home like everything." She skipped out and seized
Phronsie's arm. "Come, Pet," and not stopping to look, she set
out upon a run. Phronsie began to wail, and then pulled back.
"I've left my cup, Polly," she said.
"Didn't you bring it?" cried Polly, pausing a minute. "Boys," as
she saw that they hadn't started, "come this minute, and bring
Phronsie's cup," she screamed. "Now come on, child; they run so
much faster they will soon overtake us."
Phronsie, with her mind at rest about her cup, kept up as well as
she could by Polly's side. "I guess I shall have to carry you,"
at last said Polly, as the boys came rushing up in high glee
over their dash across the meadow.
"Where's my cup?" asked Phronsie, holding out eager hands.
"Here," said Joel, thrusting it at her. "Now come on, Dave,
let's see who will get to the bars first."
Phronsie peered within the tin cup. "Why--where--" she began.
Then she turned two big sorrowful eyes up toward Polly. "They
aren't there," she said.
"What--the berries? Oh, never mind, Pet, you shall have some of
mine," said Polly, whose only thought was how to get home as
quickly as possible. "Goodness me, child!" as a raindrop
splashed on her nose. "I really shall have to carry you," and
Polly picked her up, and tried to hurry over the ground.
"But they won't be mine I picked," wailed Phronsie. "Polly, I
want my very own."
"Well, the boys spilled 'em, I s'pose," said Polly, staggering
on, her own tin pail swinging from her arms, while Phronsie grew
heavier and heavier every minute, and the clouds blacker and
blacker. "Dear me, I didn't think it was so far across this meadow!"
when suddenly Joel screamed out, "Oh, Polly, he's coming!" and
there, from the further corner of the field, was walking quite smartly
a bull, and he was looking straight at her and Phronsie.
"I mustn't run," said Polly; "Mamsie said once, I remember, I
must look straight at any cross animal, and not let 'em see that
I was afraid." So she set Phronsie down on the ground. "Now, Pet,
don't run, but walk to Joel as fast as you can," for Joel and
David were over the bars, which they hadn't taken the trouble to
take down for themselves, intending to do it for Polly and
Phronsie when they should come up.
Phronsie set off at once, since Polly had told her to do so, and
was soon nearly at the bars. Joel sprang over to meet her.
"Don't run, Joe," called Polly, in a warning voice; "just take
her over the bars." Then she slowly went backward, keeping her
brown eyes fastened on the bull, who still walked toward her,
with his eyes fixed on her face.
Joel got Phronsie safely over the bars, David, with trembling
fingers, pulling her from the other side, and all was going on
well when Polly stepped backward into a little gully, and over
she went in a heap. In a minute, the bull tossed his head and
quickened his pace, and by the time she was up on her feet,
he was coming on toward her at a trot, and with an angry light
in his eyes.
All of a sudden, Joel shot past her. "I'll stop him, Polly," he
said cheerily, and he dashed in between her and the bull, who,
not liking this interference, now shook his head angrily. Joel
then turned off, and the animal went after him.
"Joel, you'll be killed!" cried Polly, rushing after him, to
make the bull turn from the chase. But it was useless; for both
were now well across the field, Joel running like wildfire, and
the bull snorting and kicking up the ground in his rage after
him. And Polly, straining her eyes, pretty soon saw Joel turn
swiftly and duck, and the bull run with full force against a
tree, before he could stop himself. And there was Joel clambering
over a high stone wall. Then she started and rushed for the high
bars, climbed them in a flash, and when the disappointed bull came
running back, there she was, with the other two, huddled up in
a place of safety. And in a minute Joel scrambled around from
his stone wall. So there they were, all together, safe and sound!
Pages:
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
13 | 14 |
15 |
16 |
17 |
18