“Her father is an industrious plumber,” explained Aunt Louise in Miss Cissy’s ear. “But his wife died last fall, and the children have no one to look out for them while he is at work.”
Poor Rosy was frightfully alarmed. She set up a violent crying at once, shedding the biggest tears Polly had ever seen, and it took all Miss Cissy’s tact to comfort her.
In the meantime a lady and gentleman called “Aunt Edith” and “Uncle Elliot,” had brought up another little girl whose hair was as black as Polly’s boots, and whose eyes almost snapped with mischief.
“This is Miss Elsie Blair, and she lives at our beautiful Home for Friend—for Children,” explained Aunt Edith. “Mrs. McAdams, the matron, says Elsie is an excellent child.”
“Now, father and mother,” said Miss Cicely, clasping Rosy Hartigan with one hand, and patting the excellent Elsie into line with the other.
“Father” and “Mother,” it appeared, had brought Miss Sarah Findlay, who was twelve, and tall for her age. She was very thin, with not much hair to speak of, and no eyebrows at all. Miss Sarah came from the country and her father was a minister. “She had twelve brothers and sisters,” she confided to Polly.
“Now, I think we have all our party collected together,” said Miss Cissy cheerfully. “Suppose we play London Bridge. Come, Polly and Katie and Angeline! Come, Elsie and Sarah and Rosy! Join hands! Now sing! ‘London Bridge is falling down, falling down, falling down!’”
No one but Miss Cicely could possibly have managed to make those six little girls feel so at home and so well-acquainted with one another in so short a time. By the end of “London Bridge” they felt as if they had been friends all their lives. Then followed “Oats, peas, beans and barley grows,” and “Drop the handkerchief,” and in all the excitement Polly had no time to wonder where Priscilla was and why she did not come to her own party. After a while Miss Cissy sat down at the piano and played a gay march and then the company was invited out to supper.
Polly and Sarah walked together; Katie Schorr and Angeline Montague made a second couple and Rosy Hartigan and Elsie Blair brought up the rear.
“It’s going off surprisingly well,” remarked Aunt Laura, as the procession filed out into the hall. “They all seem decent children, but of the lot I prefer Angeline Montague. She has such superior manners. After her I should select Cicely’s Polly What’s-her-name.”