Part 8 (1/2)

”Miss Mary thinks a great deal of me,” said Alexia composedly. ”Dear me, what a plaguey little thing that needle is! Never mind, Phronsie, don't feel badly. I guess--oh, here it is, and sticking straight up.”

”And all this would never have happened but for your calling Miss Mary away,” observed Mr. Dyce, getting up straight again. ”What a little nuisance you are, Alexia!” All of which she had heard from him so many times before that it failed to disturb her, so she went back to her seat in high spirits, Phronsie hopping over like a small rabbit to a little cricket at Polly's feet. At this there was a bustle among the girls.

”Sit next to me, Miss Mary,” begged Silvia Horne, sweeping a chair clear.

”No, no,” cried Amy Garrett, ”she's coming here!”

”I call that nice,” exclaimed Alexia decidedly, ”when I asked her to come across the room! I'm going to sit next to her of course.”

”You'd much better have stayed with me,” laughed Mr. Hamilton Dyce, ”since there'll be one long fight over you. Better come back.”

But Miss Mary, protesting that the girls needed her, finally settled it by getting her chair into the middle of the group, which she made into a circle.

”There, now, we're all comfy together,” she announced. ”Now, Mr. Dyce, you must read us something.”

”Oh, tell us a story,” put in Alexia, who didn't relish listening to reading.

”Oh, yes, a story, a story,” they one and all took it up. Even Phronsie laid down her big needle which she was patiently dragging back and forth, with a very long piece of red worsted following its trail across the face of her ”cus.h.i.+on-pin” in a way to suit her own design, to beg for the story.

”Oh, Phronsie!” exclaimed Polly, for the first time catching sight of this, ”you can't work with such a long thread. Let me cut off some of it, do.”

”Oh, no, no,” protested Phronsie, edging off in alarm.

”Why, it'll get all knotted up,” said Polly, in concern; ”you better let me take off a little--just a little, teenty bit, Phronsie.”

”No, no,” declared Phronsie decidedly, ”I must hurry and get my cus.h.i.+on-pin done.”

”She thinks she'll get it done faster with a great, long thread,” giggled one of the girls over in the corner. Mr. Dyce turning to fix her with a stare, she subsided, ducking behind her neighbor's back.

”Phronsie, I must buy that cus.h.i.+on-pin at the fair,” he announced. ”I want such an one very much indeed.”

Phronsie got off from the little cricket where he had placed her, and went straight over to him, to lay her hand with the ”cus.h.i.+on-pin” in it on his knee. ”Then I will sell it to you,” she said gravely, ”and the poor children can go into the country.” Then she went back to her seat and took up her work once more.

Some of the girls laughed, but Alexia frowned furiously at them; and Mr.

Dyce and Miss Mary apparently seeing no amus.e.m.e.nt in it, they all began to beg for the story again, till the clamor bade fair to stop the needles from doing their work.

”I guess you'll have to,” Miss Mary smiled over at him from the center of the circle, while the color deepened on her cheek.

”I want a story told to me first,” he said coolly, leaning back in his chair. ”What is all this bee for, and this fair? I know just a hint about that, but let me have the whole story from beginning to end. Now then, some one tell me. I am very anxious to hear.”

”You tell, Polly,” cried Alexia, and ”Let Polly Pepper tell, can't she, Miss Mary?” begged all the girls, every one saying the same thing. So Miss Mary said yes, and Polly laid down her violet handkerchief case in her lap, although she hated to stop working, and began:

”You see, Miss Mary said one day in Sunday-school----”

”Oh, Polly, not that!” said Miss Taylor, in dismay.

”Go on, Polly, and tell every word,” said Mr. Hamilton Dyce. ”I'm to be told the whole story; from the very beginning, now mind. You said, 'One day in Sunday-school.' Now go on.”

”Yes,” said Polly, her cheeks like a rose for fear her dear Miss Mary might not like it, ”Miss Mary said we ought to be doing things, not always talking about them and learning how to be good; and she said there were so many poor children who were waiting for us to help them. And----”