“Bless your heart!” exclaimed old Mr. King suddenly, and patting her little hands, “so you did; dear me, yes, to be sure.”
“Well, it was such a time to get Phronsie ready the next day,” said Polly with a long sigh; “dear me, I thought I never should get through. And then she had to sit in her little chair and wait for the rest of us, and for Ben to bring the horse and the green wagon from Deacon Brown’s. Oh! and we were so afraid it would rain—just suppose it had!” and she brought up suddenly at the direful prospect.
“And did it? did it rain?” cried Percy anxiously, pulling her sleeve.
“No; it was clear as a bell,” said Polly. “Oh, you can’t think how beautiful that day was! Seems to me I never saw the sun shine any brighter; ’twas just as if it were made for us. And Mamsie stood on the door-step to see us go; and the last thing she said was, ‘Be sure not to get them rights and lefts, they’ll wear longer,’ and ‘Get them plenty broad;’ and I had her purse with the money in it.”
“And Joe and David were just dreadful,” said Ben, as Polly stopped a minute to take breath; “they dangled their legs out the back of the wagon, and they screamed and made an awful racket—we couldn’t keep them still. They scared the old horse most to death.”
“Well, he wouldn’t go unless he was scared,” said Joel, “would he, Dave?”
“No,” laughed Davie; “and then Ben said he’d turn around and drive home again if we didn’t stop, so that scared us; and then Polly thought she’d lost Mamsie’s purse with all the money in it, and that was worse than ever.”
“Yes,” said Polly with a long breath; “how frightened we all were. That was perfectly dreadful.”
“But she didn’t lose it—Polly didn’t,” cried Phronsie, shaking her yellow head positively at them all. “No, she truly didn’t; and I had my new shoes, and they were red-topped ones,” she brought up triumphantly.