“Polly!” Mrs. Pepper turned suddenly on her. “Why, Polly—hush, he’ll hear you. For shame, child; he’s such a very poor old man.”
“And then you won’t have any,” said Polly, at her end of self-control. “O Mamsie! I wish I hadn’t brought him in,” she added under her breath, and she burst into tears.
Mrs. Pepper only stopped to pat her head; and then she hurried into the pantry and brought out the tea-caddy; and Polly, with the tears racing over her face, watched her as the precious tea was poured into the little black pot and set on the stove.
“Now run, Polly, child,” cried Mother Pepper as cheerily as ever, “and get the big pink-and-white cup on the upper shelf.” This used to be Father Pepper’s, and was carefully laid away; so while Polly ran off with her tears, wiping them on her apron, Mrs. Pepper sliced up some cold potatoes, and set them in the spider to fry. Joel in the meantime had been opening his mother’s big bundle, as he always tried to do whenever she brought home the fresh supply of sacks and coats to make, so he heard nothing of what was going on.
“And I guess you better have a look at those biscuits in the oven,” observed Mrs. Pepper wisely, as she sliced away. So Polly ran, and kneeled down before the stove, and drew out first one pan and then the other—the one with the lonely little lumps in it—
“O Mamsie!” she exclaimed happily; “see, they’re as fine as they can be!”
And sure enough they were; every biscuit had turned a lovely brown, and it had puffed up in just the right place, as much as to say, “You see, we did our duty.”
“So they are,” cried Mrs. Pepper, pleased to see Polly all right once more; “it beats all, Polly, to see how nicely you can bake things. Mother’s proud of you.”
Polly set down the two hot pans on the kitchen table, and ran round back of her mother, and dropped a kiss on the black hair. “I’m awfully sorry,” she whispered.
“I know it,” said Mrs. Pepper; “and now we just won’t say any more about it, Polly, child.” Then she briskly began to turn her potato-slices that were sizzling away in the spider in the cheeriest fashion.