“And so do I wish I had some, Polly,” declared Joel, licking his mouth. “Did it have plums in, Polly?”
“Gre—at big ones,” declared Polly, “oh, so rich and juicy! My! there never was such a pie as those that Adolphus got every day,—one for breakfast, and one for dinner, and one for supper.”
“Oh, dear me!” exclaimed both boys again, unable to find other words.
“Well, one day there was a great stir in the big house under the vines, and everybody far and near knew that Adolphus’s folks were going to have company. And that very same night the beasts and beastesses got together, and held a meeting. And when everybody in the big house was sound asleep, and nothing was stirring but the mice scampering up and down in the walls, all the creatures in the cave were wide awake, and talking all together.
“‘I’ll tell you what,’ said a big white polar bear”—
“What’s a polar bear?” interrupted Joel, with a shout.
[The mince-pie boy and the beasts.]
“You mustn’t interrupt,” said Polly; “it’s a bear that lives at the Poles.”