"Oh, do make Pip hurry." He fairly howled it now. "Percy and Van have started already, I most know. They said they'd get ahead of me." And he rushed up and nipped Ben's arm.
"Goodness me! What a crab you are, Joe!" cried Ben, shaking him off, and then feeling of his arm.
"Well, do make him hurry," begged Joel. "O dear me, all the boys will get ahead of me!"
"Well, let them for once," said Ben, coolly. "And Aunty Whitney won't allow the boys to go now, you may be sure. So rest easy, Joe. And one thing more, you are not to race Pip over there at lightning speed. Do you understand, Joe?"
"O dear!" said Joel, wrinkling his round cheek in great disdain, "he's such a—"
"Yes, yes, I know," said Ben, hastily. "Well, now, I'm off to Jasper."
"Oh, Ben," Joel flew after him, "I wish you were going, I do."
"Well, I'm not," said Ben, "so good-by." He pulled his jacket away from Joel's detaining hand, got around the corner of the hall, and hurried up the front stairs.
Meantime, Polly was having a perfectly dreadful time in little Doctor Fisher's office. There he sat behind his big table, rolling up some powders in tiny papers, and looking at her over his spectacles.
"Oh, please, papa Doctor," begged Polly, clasping her hands, "do let me stay at home."