"
"As long as you tease so hard," responded Alan, disregarding the
coolness of her tone; "I'll stay, then. I told mother I knew you'd
be in a fight, by this time, and need me to make peace, so she'd
better not expect me till I came. Now, honestly, aren't you glad
to see me?" And he beamed up at the girls with such goodwill that
they relaxed their severity, and took the lad into their
confidence.
"Now, Alan," Molly began solemnly; "if you stay here, you mustn't
ever tell the other girls, but Mary has gone, and Polly and I are
doing the cooking ourselves."
Alan whistled; but not even his whistle was as disrespectful as
was his following remark,--
"Anything left over from yesterday that I can have?"
"You must behave, if you stay, Alan," said Polly firmly. "You can
go home, or else you can go to work with us, when it's time. I've
told you before now that we won't have any lazy people around this
house."
"All right; what shall I do first?" And Alan pulled off his cuffs
and folded back the bottoms of his sleeves. "Hullo! who's this
coming?" he exclaimed, as a figure turned in at the gate.
"Why, it's Mr. Solomon Baxter," said Polly, in some surprise. "How
queer! He never comes here.
Pages:
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121