Part 23 (1/2)

”Just hear him,” cried Polly, p.r.i.c.king up her ears to catch the blissful sound, ”and Grandpapa, too. Oh, Jasper!”

”I know it,” said Jasper, in great satisfaction. ”Father has been so pulled down because Joe took it so hard.”

”Well, you see, Joel couldn't help it,” cried Polly, ”because it was careless, just as Mamsie said, to leave anything without handing it to the person.”

”Of course,” a.s.sented Jasper quickly. ”Mrs. Fisher is right; but I'm sure any one is likely to do it, and Joel was in such a hurry that day, everybody pulling at him this way and that to get letters.”

”I know it,” said Polly, delighted to hear Joel's part taken, ”and just think how he worked before, Jasper. He helped such a perfect lot getting the flower-table ready.”

”He helped everywhere,” declared Jasper, bringing down his hand with emphasis on his knee. ”I never saw anybody work as Joe did.”

”And now to think that he has lost that money!” mourned Polly, her head drooping sorrowfully over her closed hands. ”Oh, dear me, Jasper!”

”But just hear him laugh,” cried Jasper, springing up; ”it's going to be all right now, Polly, I do believe. Come, let's go and hunt some more for the banknote.”

So they both flew off from the stairs to begin the search for the money again. For no one stopped--dear me, not a bit of it!--the hunt for the hidden ten-dollar bill. Everybody but Phronsie and little d.i.c.k searched and prowled in every nook and corner where there was the least possible chance that the ten-dollar bill could be in hiding. They had both been so sleepy on the evening of the garden party when the loss had been announced, that it fell unheeded on their ears. And afterward all the household was careful to keep the bad news from them. So the two children went on in blissful unconsciousness of Joel's trouble, while the grand hunt proceeded all around them.

When Joel emerged from Grandpapa King's writing-room, he was hanging to the old gentleman's hand and looking up into his face and chattering away.

”You know it means work,” said old Mr. King, looking down at him.

”I know, Grandpapa,” said Joel, bobbing his stubby, black head.

”And you must keep at it,” said the old gentleman decidedly, ”else no pay.

There's to be no dropping the job, once you take it up. If you do, you'll get no money. That's the bargain, Joe?”--with a keen glance into the chubby face.

”Oh, I will, Grandpapa, I will,” declared Joel eagerly, and hopping up and down; ”I'll do every single speck of the work. Now do let us hurry and get the book.”

”Yes, we'll hurry, seeing our business arrangement is all settled,” laughed the old gentleman. ”Now, then, Joel, my boy, we'll go down-town and buy the blank book, so that I can set you to work at once,” and he grasped the brown hand tightly, and away they went.

And in ten minutes everybody knew that Joel was going to make a list of all the books in a certain case in old Mr. King's writing-room, and that Grandpapa and he were already off down-town to buy a new blank book for the work. And at the end of it--oh, joy!--Joel was to have a crisp ten-dollar bill to replace the one he had lost.

XI

RACHEL

”Here she comes!” roared Mr. Tisbett. The townspeople, hurrying to Badgertown depot to see the train bearing the new little girl sent on by Mrs. Fisher to their parson's care, crowded up, Mr. and Mrs. Henderson smilingly in the center of the biggest group.

”Oh, husband, I do pity her so!” breathed the parson's wife. ”Poor thing, she will be so shy and distressed!” The parson's heart gave a responsive thrill, as he craned his neck to peer here and there for their new charge.

”She hasn't come. Oh, dear me!”--as a voice broke in at his elbow.

”I'm here.” The words weren't much, to be sure, but the tone was wholly self-possessed, and when the parson whirled around, and Mrs. Henderson, who had been looking the other way, brought her gaze back, they saw a little girl in a dark brown suit, a brown hat under which fell smooth braids of black hair, who was regarding them with a pair of the keenest eyes they had either of them ever seen.

”Oh--oh--my child--” stammered Mr. Henderson, putting out a kind hand. ”So you have come, Rachel?”

”Yes, I am Rachel,” said the child, looking up into his face and laying her hand in the parson's big one; then she turned her full regard upon the minister's wife.

Mrs. Henderson was divided in her mind, for an instant, whether to kiss this self-possessed child, as she had fully arranged in her mind beforehand to do, or to let such a ceremony go by. But in a breathing s.p.a.ce she had her arms about her, and was drawing her to her breast.