And no one could be more astonished than was she—for the record was so simple—when the editor wrote for another one just like it. So “Phronsie Pepper’s New Shoes” was written.
And then—well, the editor wrote that the Wide Awake must have enough stories for one year, to be connected. So Margaret Sidney had to go regularly after that to the “Little Brown House” and write down all the records just as Mrs. Pepper and the Five Little Peppers told them to her, and then those insatiable editors wrote that they must have a book—nothing more nor less—because the children’s letters to them from all over the country demanded it. So that was the way it all began. And of course the two separate stories—the motif, as it were, for the book—had to be left out.
So here they are now in the post of honor—leading off in the very front of the volume, as is quite proper; the other stories (which are all just newly written expressly for this book) following humbly after in the wake of Phronsie’s red-topped shoes.
MARGARET SIDNEY.
CONTENTS
| CHAPTER | PAGE | |
| I. | Polly Pepper’s Chicken Pie | [ 1] |
| II. | Phronsie’s New Shoes | [ 22] |
| III. | The Little Tin Plate | [ 46] |
| IV. | In Deacon Blodgett’s Barn | [ 78] |
| V. | Baking Day | [ 101] |
| VI. | The Little White Cat | [ 134] |
| VII. | Spending the Day at the Beebes’ | [ 163] |
| VIII. | At the Peters Farm | [ 203] |
| IX. | Over at Grandma Bascom’s | [ 239] |
| X. | The Stage Ride | [ 262] |
| XI. | A Little Yellow Chicken | [ 293] |
| XII. | At the Parsonage | [ 317] |
| XIII. | Company at the Little Brown House | [ 357] |
| XIV. | In Doctor Fisher’s Gig | [ 397] |
ILLUSTRATIONS
| Ben and Polly both held their breath.What if they shouldn’t fit! (Page [43]) | [ Frontispiece] |
| FACING PAGE | |
| So Polly had her flowers after all, and shedressed the pie gayly with them | [ 20] |
| Every one of the four pairs of hands wasgathering up the pieces, oh, so fast! | [ 74] |
| “O dear, that’s my fault!” cried Ben, ingreat distress | [ 124] |
| “Let me see—I want to see ‘From aFriend’!” screamed Joel | [ 198] |
| And there was Phronsie fast asleep | [ 254] |
| “You must tell me all about it, Joey” | [ 306] |
| “Oh!” screamed somebody | [ 394] |
I
POLLY PEPPER’S CHICKEN PIE
TO begin with, it was the most remarkable chicken that was to have made the famous pie for Thanksgiving. But alas! A sad mishap befell the Pepper family.