[X.]
THE PINK AND WHITE STICKS.
“Were they as nice as dear Mrs. Beebe’s pink and white sticks?” asked Joel anxiously.
“And dear Mr. Beebe’s,” added Phronsie; “were they, Polly?”
“Yes—no; that is, they couldn’t be quite as nice, Pet. No pink and white sticks could be, you know. But they were very nice indeed, and they all lived together in a candy-jar.”
“Oh—oh! Tell about it, Polly,” they all begged.
So Polly got the little bunch of Peppers together in “the breathing-spell,” as the edge of the twilight was called, when it was too soon to light a candle, because mother Pepper couldn’t afford any light in the old kitchen except when it was absolutely necessary; and then she began:
“Yes, they all lived together in the big candy-jar.”
“Where was it?” cried Joel insistently, at which the others clamored immediately to be told the same thing.