“Wait, and you’ll see,” she replied, laughing. “Well, so, sure enough, just as soon as Mrs. Nutcracker was fairly off, in hurried this dreadful creature, right in the doorway of the Nutcracker house.”
“Did he get on Mr. Nutcracker’s bed?” cried Joel.
“Wait, and see,” said Polly again.
“You say, ‘wait and see,’ every single time I ask anything,” grumbled Joel.
“And I am going to all through this story,” said Polly coolly; “so it won’t be any use for you to ask me, Joe. Well, and there he was as quick as could be, inside that dear little house, and all those Nutcrackers away.”
Polly spread her hands in a sad little way.
“Oh, dear me!” exclaimed Joel in distress.
“Well, now you know when Mrs. Nutcracker went down she didn’t mean to stay long, but she met a friend,”—
“Who was it?” asked Joel abruptly.
“Oh, it was—dear me!” said Polly, bursting into a little laugh; “it was her cousin, and”—