At supper their mother saw them buttering more biscuits than they usually ate. So she suddenly asked:—
“Has any one seen Free Polly to-day?”
“Yes’m,” promptly replied Drusilla, who was waiting on Buster John and Sweetest Susan.
“Is she coming here to-night?”
“I—I speck so,” Drusilla answered somewhat doubtfully.
At this the mother looked at the children and laughed.
“Mamma, how did you know?” cried Sweetest Susan.
“Because she used to come to see me when I was a little girl, and I always had to carry biscuits and ham to my room, if I wanted her to tell me a tale. Drusilla, put those biscuits and three slices of ham on a plate, and carry it to the nursery.”
Naturally the children were delighted at the way their mother fell into their innocent little plans, and they waited with a good deal of impatience for Free Polly to come. She came after what seemed to be a very long while. She was even more comically polite in the house than she was out of doors, and pretended to have a good deal to say to the “Mistiss;” but the lady said she was busy at that moment, and told Free Polly to go into the nursery and see the children.