“I can’t, Davie,” I whispered back, “the children all over the country have been teasing me for years to give them a book about you. And now as all the rest of the Pepper family want it, why, you see, I just must write it.”

“O dear!” said David.

Polly ran over to our corner. “Dear Margaret Sidney,” she begged, clasping her hands, “please tell all about Davie when he was a little boy. That’s what we want; because you see you told ever so much more about the rest of us than you did about him. And Davie was always just splendid! Why, he was our Davie!”

So now here is “Our Davie Pepper,” just as the Little Brown House people wanted me to write it.

Margaret Sidney.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE
I Davie and Old Man Peters[ 1]
II Mrs. Pepper Attends to the Matter[ 15]
III The Dark Cloud Over the Little Brown House[ 30]
IV Sunlight Through the Cloud[ 47]
V On the Maybury Road[ 68]
VI Back to Mamsie[ 84]
VII “Good-by, Children”[ 101]
VIII “Old Father Dubbin”[ 118]
IX The Old Book Box[ 134]
X Mary Pote Helps[ 149]
XI “I’d Try to Learn”[ 163]
XII Hop o’ My Thumb[ 177]
XIII “Don’t Hurt Him”[ 192]
XIV In the Parrott Playroom[ 206]
XV “And See My Slate”[ 223]
XVI At Grandma Bascom’s[ 239]
XVII The Fishing Party[ 255]
XVIII Danger[ 269]
XIX “Polly Kissed It!” Said Davie[ 282]
XX Joel’s Company[ 296]
XXI At Farmer Brown’s[ 312]
XXII The Beautiful Day[ 326]
XXIII The Uninvited Guest[ 341]
XXIV Great-Grandmother Pepper’s Beads[ 355]
XXV Jimmy[ 370]
XXVI The Circus[ 384]
XXVII More About the Circus[ 398]
XXVIII David’s Cap[ 421]
XXIX The Story In the Shoe-Shop[ 441]
XXX The Letter[ 456]
XXXI Working Hard to Keep Cheery[ 474]

ILLUSTRATIONS

“My! don’t you hear the logs crackle,and isn’t this blaze perfectly beautiful!” (Page [124])[ Frontispiece]
FACING
PAGE
“He told me to write things that folks askedfor on the slate,” said David[ 188]
“You may pick out the one you like best,”said Miss Parrott[ 234]
“Dave caught that. Dave caught that allby himself!”[ 272]
Pretty soon he was stitching away and cobblingat a great rate, Davie swinging hisstocking-foot[ 434]
They all held their breath to catch everyword, and Davie began[ 490]

OUR DAVIE PEPPER