“Where’s Tommy?” asked the jolly papa.
“I don’t know,” replied Ray, “he’s up to some mischief very likely.”
Then he told Mr. Pebble about Tommy’s running off to the party. Mr. Pebble roared with laughter, and Ray found himself sitting on the rock laughing so hard that it shook.
All of a sudden he saw Mr. Pebble roll up his sleeves and work very fast, while flashes like sunbeams seemed to shoot out of the rock.
At last Ray stopped laughing and Mr. Pebble disappeared, saying softly:—“Good supply of coal to-day.”
CHAPTER XI.
THE TALKING CHAIR.
YOU would never have thought that the chair could talk if you had seen it, and perhaps it would not have said a word for you and me, but it certainly did for Dorothy. It was a solid wooden chair and very old-fashioned. It had a face quaintly carved on its straight back, and Aunt Polly thought a great deal of this old chair because it had belonged to her great-grandmother. One day Dorothy was visiting Aunt Polly with her best doll, Susan Ida. The little girl sat on a hassock and put Susan Ida in the old chair in front of her.
“How do you do, Susan?” said a voice. “I’m real glad to see you; make yourself comfortable.”