"Do run and let her out, and Davie, too," said Mrs. Pepper, quite as excited as either Polly or Ben.
"I'll go," said Joel, flying off with alacrity. So Phronsie and David came running in, well pleased to be once more in the midst of things; and then it was time for supper, and all the while she was laying the cloth and getting out the dishes, Polly was looking at Joel, and her brown head went up proudly, and every once in a while she would run over and drop a kiss on his stubby hair.
And when Davie went up to the loft back of him that night, as they were going to bed, Joel turned around on the upper stair. "We'll play bull to-morrow, Dave," he said.
"No, I don't want to," said little Davie, with a shiver.
"Pooh! I do; it's splendid! You may be the bull, if you want to," said Joel, generously.
"I don't want to," protested Davie, fretfully, and hurrying off his clothes, to tuck into bed, where he huddled down.
"Well, you've got to," said Joel, determinedly, giving his jacket a fling to the corner, "'cause if you don't, I'll be the bull, and chase you just awful. So there now, Dave Pepper!"
But Davie was spared that tribulation, for when the next day came, Mrs. Pepper had so much work for them all to do, that the chase dropped entirely out of Joel's mind, even if he had a moment in which to accomplish it. The great surprise that Mrs. Pepper had told them of, now came out, everybody being so full of the adventure with the bull, that it completely crowded out everything else.
"Now you can't guess," said Mrs. Pepper, smiling at them all, when she had repeated, "such a surprise, children," "so I might as well tell you. It was--"
"Oh, Mammy, let us guess," howled Joel. "I know--it is a horse! Somebody's given you one."