Miss Pomeroy’s rheumatism was much less troublesome than it had been for some days, and Hiram had helped her into the low basket phaeton an hour before.
“I expect she’s ’most home now,” said Polly to the kittens, with a little shiver, “and she’s bringing that boy—that Bobby—home with her. He’s going to stay till Monday morning. You needn’t be frightened, Snip and Snap, for he’s a boy that just likes to read; he wouldn’t do the things to kitties that the Higgins boys do—things with strings and spools, till the teacher stopped them. And, anyway, you’ve got lots of places to hide, where nobody could get you. But I can’t hide. I’m obliged to be right out where he can see me, and tell whether I’m like his sister Eleanor that died, and maybe change Miss Pomeroy’s mind after all, and lose Grandma Manser her ear-trumpet, and the money for the leaks and shingles and everything!”
Polly buried her face in the old shawl for a minute, and then sat up straight with a little gasp.
“I hear the phaeton!” she whispered, squeezing the kittens in her excitement. “I hear it coming over the bridge—fast!”
Snip and Snap objected to squeezing. They struggled under the shawl and dashed out over Polly’s knees, clutching wildly at the fringe. They looked up at her cannily with arched backs, and then scurried off toward the barn.
As the phaeton came around the curve of the driveway, Polly stood up, clasping her hands under the old shawl. She heard Arctura bustling out of the kitchen to the porch, and moved slowly along to stand beside her. In a moment more she found herself solemnly shaking hands with a boy who had jumped into the phaeton and then politely helped Miss Pomeroy out.
“This is my nephew Bobby,” Miss Hetty was saying. “And this is little Mary Prentiss.”
“I am very pleased to make your acquaintance,” said Polly, lifting her brown eyes to meet a pair of very large blue ones which gazed at her through spectacles.
“How d’you do?” said the boy, pleasantly. “Haven’t you got about through with my hand?”
He laughed as he said it, and so did Polly, but when the hand-shaking stopped they stood looking at each other awkwardly until Arctura broke the ice.