“Go out, dear,” said Polly gently, “and close the door.”
When the door was opened again, Elyot walked into the little room where they were all waiting for him. No one had done anything, and Grace’s hands were idle in her lap. Elyot walked up to her. “I’m sorry I made you feel badly, Miss Grace,” he said; and then he ran and threw his arms around King. “I don’t want the bears; I’d rather you had them,” he cried.
“Barby hurried over to Grace. ‘I’m sorry too,’ she said; ‘and I’ll take the bears.’”
Barby hurried over to Grace. “I’m sorry too,” she said; “and I’ll take the bears if nobody wants ’em.” So a space being cleared in the middle of the room, Polly had her little sewing-table brought in; and presently there was a delightful hum, and everybody talking and laughing at once. And it was found that Grace Tupper could draw everything in the most delightful fashion. And bears pursuing men and women and children in the most impossible places, were executed, and all sorts of hair-breadth escapes were indulged. And then the children wanted to color the pictures with their crayons, and then to cut them out; until the first thing they knew, the “little publishing bag” was swung over their heads.
“O papa!” screamed the two, and “O brother Jasper!” howled King, “is it so late?” And then they all swarmed around him to show their work; and Grace Tupper’s face flushed rosier yet at the praise, for Polly had come in, and was hanging on her husband’s arm.
And in the midst of the noise and bustle the children made,—for they seized their papa, and made him play “bear-garden” in earnest,—Grace made bold to proffer her request to Polly that she might try to hear King’s lessons.
“I’m afraid I don’t know enough,” she said humbly; “but oh! won’t you let me try, dear Mrs. King?”
And Polly, looking into the blue eyes, said, “Yes;” and Grace ran off on happy feet, resolved to do her very best, and to put in practice all that she had ever learned at school. How she wished now that there were no idle hours to think of! “But Mrs. King would say that it was of no use to spend time to think of that now,” she said to herself, “but to take hold of the books at once.”
“What a comfort Grace is!” said Polly to Jasper, as they were beginning to try a new duet, and just as he was setting it in place on the music-rest, “isn’t she, Jasper?”