“Oh, that was nice!” screamed Joe, in a joyful tone. “Now there’s going to be a big, big fight;” and he wriggled all over in great satisfaction.
“And so up they all came in a troop—I guess there was a dozen of ’em,” said Polly.
“Oh, my!” exclaimed Joel.
“Yes; and Mrs. Nutcracker rushed up ahead of ’em all, to her husband. ‘Pa,’ she cried, ‘here we are—we’ll help you to drive out the bad, naughty, wicked thing from our house.’
“And every single one of those cousins said, ‘Yes, we’ll help you, Cousin Nutcracker.’
“So the little Nutcrackers let their pa go; and they were very glad to do so, for they ached all over holding him so long,—he was very big, you know; and he kicked dreadfully, and bit and scratched, whenever he didn’t like things, and”—
“That wasn’t nice in a man,” observed Joel; “I ain’t going to bite and scratch when I’m grown up, Polly.”
“Hey?” said Polly. “Oh!” and then she laughed. “Well, don’t interrupt again, Joel,” she warned, holding up her finger. “Well, Father Nutcracker, he said, ‘Now, Ma and children,’ turning to the little Nutcrackerses, ‘and you, cousins, let’s plan how we’ll do this thing; since you’ve come, you might as well help, though I could have done very well alone. Now, I’m going ahead; and just as soon as my nose sticks in the doorway, do you jump in and scream, “Now we got you!” and we’ll all hop on to that dreadful horrid creature, and beat him, and pitch him out of our house.’”
Joel gripped Polly’s arm in speechless enjoyment.