“I have brought a luncheon, and we will be home early in the afternoon,” she promised, and in a little while Roxy was ready to start, and the two girls went off across the pasture toward the brook.
“Roxy, why don’t you have your ‘circus’ party under the big sycamore? It would be a splendid place. We could fix up a tent close by, just like a real circus, and have a picnic dinner, and plan it all without your grandma guessing a word about it!” suggested Polly, as they came in sight of the big tree.
Roxy eagerly agreed, and Polly pointed out a fine place for a tent, and said she was sure that her father would help them put it up.
Then they followed the brook on up the slope and came to a thick growth of hazelwood, where Polly stopped to cut a couple of hazel-rods.
“I have some white moths for bait, and some fishing-lines; and there are always trout in this stream,” she told Roxy. “We’ll have to keep quiet, though, when we begin to fish.”
Roxy smiled happily. Polly had long promised her this fishing excursion, and she was now sure that it was going to be a wonderful day.
“We’ll build a fire and cook the trout, won’t we, Polly?” she said, and Polly promised, and began singing:
“I went into the hazelwood,
Because a plan was in my head,
To cut and peel a hazel-rod,
And put a berry on a thread.
“And when the birds are on the wing,
And flowers, like stars, are shining out,
I’ll drop the berry in the stream,
And catch a little silver trout.”
Roxy stood watching Polly and listened eagerly. “I wish I could sing that, Polly,” she said.
“Try!” responded Polly; and she slowly sang the first words over and Roxy repeated them, so that by the time the hazel-rods were cut and trimmed and Polly had fastened the lines, both the girls were singing the old song.