"Hey? Oh, then, you don't like the plan, Joe?" said Ben, getting his coat free and whirling around on him.
"I'm not going to put any money in," repeated Joel, in the same high key.
"Well, then, you needn't," said Ben, nowise disturbed.
"Oh, Ben, then we can't any of us do it," said Polly, quite dismayed, "and it would have been so perfectly splendid." She stopped short, and Phronsie, looking up in surprise, pulled her hand gently. "Oh, Polly," she exclaimed, "are you sick?"
"Oh, the rest of us will do it," said Ben, coolly, "and Joel can stay outside."
"Oh, I'm not going to stay outside," howled Joel, throwing his arms around Ben and clinging to him in his distress. "I'm not. I'm not, Ben, don't make me."
"I don't make you," said Ben, getting himself free from Joel's frantic little hands; "if you don't want to join us, why, you'll just have to stay by yourself."
"I'm not going to stay by myself," cried Joel, in the greatest distress, "need I, Polly?" and he flew over to her. "I don't want to stay by myself, I don't."
But Ben answered instead of Polly.
"Hush now, Joel, we're to walk along quietly, else you'll have to go home. And we'll vote now, and all who don't want to get Grandpapa one big, nice present, can just stay out of the plan. Polly and I are going together in it, anyway."