So the butler took down the massive silver loving-cup, that had been for generation after generation in the King family, from the oaken sideboard, and filled it with pure cold water to the brim, “The only thing worthy of it,” said Polly; and all the company stood up, and Jasper lifted it high, with “Our Mamsie, now as always our guide, our comfort, and our delight; we pledge ourselves anew to her in loyal love.” And then the cup went around silently to every one.
The loving-cup was filled with pure cold water to the brim, “The only thing worthy of it,” said Polly.
And Ben proposed Father Fisher, and everybody drank his health and happiness; and then Polly turned a happy face over toward old Mr. King. “Our dear Grandpapa was everything,” she said; “I don’t know what we should ever have done without him.”
And around went the loving-cup again. And this neat little speech so touched the old gentleman that he got out of his chair, and responded right gallantly to his daughter, and to the rest of the “Five Little Peppers.” And Jasper’s eyes shone with proud delight, and everybody applauded to the echo. And then Davie, the new instructor in literature at a Western university, and already booked in the minds of all present for the professor’s chair, was called out for a speech; and a right good one it was too, the Rev. Joel pounding vigorously his approval above all the others on the festal board.
And Hamilton Dyce tried his hand at talking a bit, and brought down the house with many funny reminiscences; and Mr. Marlowe said, as he always did, exactly the right word in the right place; and Joel was called for loudly, but he had slipped away just then, so several of the others talked; and then Jasper brought down his improvised gavel, the handle of Grandpapa’s cane, “Speeches declared over! We will now adjourn to the little brown house;” and Polly led off proudly with Grandpapa, as was quite right, Phronsie and Mr. Marlowe following, the rest of the company falling in as they chose, with Jasper at the rear corralling all the stragglers into line.
“Let’s march all around it, father dear,” whispered Polly, gleefully as a child. So they led off in the moonlight the long procession around and around the little brown house, till some one proposed unwinding and going the other way. But they didn’t do it, but just broke ranks, and rushed unceremoniously into the old kitchen.
And there were Polly’s two hundred candles she longed for in the old days, all alight most merrily, which explained the Rev. Joel’s absence from the last part of the speech-making; and after that there was no more quiet. The old kitchen resounded to the babel of happy voices, until at last everybody drew up in a circle of chairs, getting the Peppers in the centre, whom they besieged for stories of those old times.
“I’m a Pepper!” cried Jasper, scrambling into the charmed circle. “I was in those happy days.”
“Yes, Jappy belongs to us,” said Phronsie.