Five Little Peppers at School

by Margaret Sidney

  V AT SILVIA HORNE'S

  But they weren't--not a bit of it--and had ten minutes to spare as theycame rushing up to the station platform.

  "Oh, look--look, girls." Polly Pepper pointed up to the clock, pushingback the damp rings of hair from her forehead. "Oh dear me--I'm so hot!"

  "And so am I," panted the other girls, dashing up. One of them sank downon the upper step, and fanned herself in angry little puffs with herhat, which she twitched off for that purpose.

  "Just like you, Alexia," cried one when she could get her breath,"you're always scaring us to death."

  "Well, I'm sure I was scared myself, Clem," retorted Alexia, proppingherself against the wall. "Oh dear! I can't breathe; I guess I'm goingto die--whew, whew!"

  As Alexia made this statement quite often on similar occasions, thegirls heard it with the air of an old acquaintance, and straightenedtheir coats and hats, and pulled themselves into shape generally.

  "Oh my goodness, how you look, Sally! Your hat is all over your lefteye." Alexia deserted her wall, and ran over to pull it straight.

  "You let me be," cried Sally crossly, and twitching away. "If it hadn'tbeen for you, my hat would have staid where I put it. I'll fix itmyself." She pulled out the long pin.

  "Oh dear me! now the head has come off," she mourned.

  "Oh my goodness! Your face looks the worst--isn't it sweet!" criedAlexia coolly, who hadn't heard this last.

  "Don't, Alexia," cried Polly, "she's lost her pin."

  "Misery!" exclaimed Alexia, starting forward, "oh, where, where--"

  "It isn't the pin," said Sally, holding that out, "but the head hasflown off." She jumped off from the step and began to peer anxiouslyaround in the dirt, all the girls crowding around and getting dreadfullyin the way.

  "What pin was it, Sally?" asked Polly, poking into a tuft of grassbeneath the steps, "your blue one?"

  "No; it was my best one--oh dear me!" Sally looked ready to cry, andturned away so that the girls couldn't see her face.

  "Not the one your aunt gave you, Sally!" exclaimed Clem.

  "Yes--yes." Sally sniffed outright now. "Oh dear! I put it inbecause--because--we were going to Silvia's--oh dear me!"

  She gave up now, and sobbed outright.

  "Don't cry, Sally," begged Polly, deserting her grass-tuft, to run overto her. "We'll find it." Alexia was alternately picking frantically inall the dust-heaps, and wringing her hands, one eye on the clock all thewhile.

  "Oh, no, you won't," whimpered Sally. "It flew right out of my hand, andit's gone way off--I know it has--oh dear!" and she sobbed worse thanever.

  "Perhaps one of those old hens will pick it up," suggested Lucy Bennett,pointing across the way to the station master's garden, where four orfive fowl were busily scratching.

  "Oh--oh!" Sally gave a little scream at that, and threw herself intoPolly Pepper's arms. "My aunt's pin--and she told me--to be careful,and she won't--won't ever give me anything else, and now those old henswill eat it. Oh _dear_ me! what shall I do?"

  "How can you, Lucy, say such perfectly dreadful things?" cried Polly."Don't cry, Sally. Girls, do keep on looking for it as hard as you can.Sally, do stop."

  But Sally was beyond stopping. "She told--told me only to wear itSundays, and with my best--best dress. Oh, do give me your handkerchief,Polly. I've left mine home."

  So Polly pulled out her clean handkerchief from her coat pocket, andSally wiped up her face, and cried all over it, till it was a damplittle wad; and the girls poked around, and searched frantically, andAlexia, one eye on the clock, exclaimed, "Oh, girls, it's time for thetrain. Oh misery me! what _shall_ we do?"

  "And here it comes!" Lucy Bennett screamed.

  "Stick on your hat, Sally, you've the pin part. Come, hurry up!" criedthe others. And they all huddled around her.

  "Oh, I can't go," began Sally.

  "You must," said Clem; "we've telephoned back to Mrs. Horne we'recoming. Do stick on your hat, Sally Moore."

  Alexia was spinning around, saying over and over to herself, "I won'tstay back--I won't." Then, as the train slowly rounded the long curveand the passengers emerged from the waiting-room, she rushed up to theknot of girls. "Go along, Sally Moore, and I'll stay and hunt for yourold pin," just as some one twitched Sally's hat from her fingers andclapped it on her head.

  "Oh my goodness me!" Alexia gave a little scream, and nearly fellbackward. "Look--it's on your own head! Oh, girls, I shall die." Shepointed tragically up to the hat, then gave a sudden nip with her longfingers, and brought out of a knot of ribbon, a gilt, twisted affairwith pink stones. "You had it all the time, Sally Moore," and she wentinto peals of laughter.

  "Well, do stop; everybody's looking," cried the rest of the girls, asthey raced off to the train, now at a dead stop. Sally, with her hatcrammed on her head at a worse angle than ever, only realized that shehad the ornament safely clutched in her hand.

  "Oh, I can't help it," exclaimed Alexia gustily, and hurrying off to getnext to Polly. "Oh dear me!--whee--_whee_!" as they all plunged into thetrain.

  When they arrived at Edgewood, there was a carriage and a wagonettedrawn up by the little station, and out of the first jumped Silvia, andfollowing her, a tall, thin girl who seemed to have a good manybracelets and jingling things.

  "My cousin, Kathleen Briggs. She just came to-day," said Silvia, "whileI was at school, and so mother thought it would be nice to have yougirls out to supper, 'cause they're only going to stay till to-morrow.Oh, it's so fine that you've come! Well, come and get in. Polly, you'regoing in the carriage with Kathleen and me. Come on."

  Alexia crowded up close behind.

  "I'm going with Polly Pepper, this time," announced Sally, pushing inbetween; "Alexia always gets her."

  "Well, she's my very dearest friend," said Alexia coolly, and workingher long figure up close to Polly, as Silvia led her off, "so of courseI always must go with her."

  "Well, so she is our very dearest friend, too, Alexia Rhys," declaredClem, "and we're going to have her sometimes, ourselves." And there theywere in a dreadful state, and Silvia's cousin, the new girl, to see itall!

  She jingled her bracelets, and picked at the long chain dangling fromher neck, and stared at them all.

  "Oh my goodness!" exclaimed Polly Pepper with very red cheeks. "Alexia,don't--don't," she begged.

  "Well, I don't care," said Alexia recklessly, "the girls are alwayspicking at me because I will keep next to you, Polly, and you're my verydearest friend, and----"

  "But Sally had such a fright about her pin," said Polly in a low tone.Alexia was crowded up close and hugging her arm, so no one else heard.

  "Well, that old pin dropped in the ribbon; she had it herself all thetime, oh dear!" Alexia nearly went off again at the remembrance.

  "She felt badly, all the same," said Polly slowly. She didn't evensmile, and Alexia could feel that the arm was slipping away from her.

  "Oh dear me!" she began, then she dropped Polly Pepper's arm. "Sally,you may go next," she cried suddenly, and she skipped back into thebunch of the other girls.

  Polly sent her an approving little nod, and she didn't fail to smilenow. Alexia ran over to the wagonette, and hopped in, not daring totrust herself to see Sally Moore's satisfaction ahead in the covetedseat.

  The other girls jumping in, the wagonette was soon filled, and away theyspun for the two miles over to the Hornes' beautiful place. And beforelong, their respects having been paid to Mrs. Horne, the whole bevy wasup in Silvia's pretty pink and white room overlooking the lake.

  "I think it's just too lovely for anything here, Silvia Horne,"exclaimed Sally, whose spirits were quite recovered now. She had heraunt's pin all safe, and she had ridden up next to Polly. "Oh girls, shehas a new pincushion and cover."

  "Yes, a whole new set," said Silvia carelessly, as the girls rushed overfrom the bed where they were laying their things, to see this newacquisition to the beautiful room.

  "Well, if I could have such perfectly exquisite things
," breathed Alexiaas they all oh-ed and ah-ed over the pink ribbons and dainty lace, "I'dbe the very happiest girl."

  Kathleen Briggs thrust her long figure in among the bevy. "That toiletset is very pretty," she said indifferently and with quite a young-ladyair.

  "Very pretty!" repeated Alexia, turning her pale eyes upon her inastonishment, "well, I should think it was! It's too perfectly elegantfor anything!"

  "Oh dear me!" Kathleen gave a little laugh. "It's just nothing to theone I have on my toilet table at home. Besides, I shall bring home someOriental lace, and have a new one: I'm going around the world to-morrow,you know."

  "Oh my goodness!" exclaimed Alexia faintly. And the other girls fellback, and stared respectfully.

  "Yes," said Kathleen, delighted at the effect she had produced. "Westart to-morrow, and we don't know how long we shall be gone. Perhapstwo years. Papa says he'll stay if we want to; but mamma and I may gettired and come home." She jingled her bracelets worse than ever.

  "They've come to bid us good-bye, you see," said Silvia, to break theuncomfortable silence.

  "Oh yes," said Polly Pepper.

  "Well, if you've got your things off, let's go out of doors," proposedSilvia suddenly.

  "Yes, do let's." The girls drew a long breath as they raced off.

  "I think that Kathleen Briggs is too perfectly horrid foranything"--Alexia got up close to Polly as they flew down thestairs--"with her going round the world, and her sniffing at Silvia'stoilet set."

  "Hush--hush!" whispered Polly, "she'll hear you."

  "Well, I don't care; and she's going round the world to-morrow, so whatdoes it signify?" said Alexia. "Oh, don't go so fast, Polly. You mostmade me tumble on my nose."

  "Well, you mustn't come with me, then, if you don't keep up," saidPolly, with a merry little laugh, and hurrying on.

  "I'm going to keep up," cried Alexia, dashing after, "but you go sofast," she grumbled.

  "We're going to have tea out on the lawn," announced Silvia insatisfaction, as the bevy rushed out on the broad west piazza.

  The maids were already busily setting three little tables, that weregrowing quite pretty under their hands.

  "There will be four at each table," said Silvia. "Polly's going to sitwith Kathleen and me, and one other girl--I don't know which one yet,"she said slowly.

  "Oh, choose me." Alexia worked her way along eagerly to the front. "I'mher dearest friend--Polly's, I mean. So you ought to choose me."

  "Well, I sha'n't," declared Silvia. "You crowded me awfully at LucyBennett's party, and kept close to Polly Pepper all the time."

  "Well, that's because you would keep Polly yourself. You crowded andpushed horribly yourself, you know you did." Her long face was quite rednow.

  "Well, I had to," declared Silvia coolly. "At any rate, you sha'n't havePolly to-day, for I've quite decided. Clem, you shall have the otherseat at my table."

  Clem hopped up and down and beat her hands together in glee. "There,Alexia Rhys!" she cried in triumph. "Who's got Polly Pepper now, I'dlike to know!"

  Alexia, much discomfited, fell back. "Well, I think that's a great wayto give a party," she said, "to get up a fight the first thing."

  But Silvia and Kathleen had got Polly Pepper one on each side, and werenow racing down to the lake. "We're going to have a sail," called Silviaover her shoulder, so they all followed, Alexia among the rest, with notime for anything else. There was the steam launch waiting for them.

  "Girls--girls!" Mrs. Horne called to them from the library, "wait amoment. Mr. and Mrs. Briggs are going too."

  "Oh bother!" began Silvia. Then the color flew into her face, forKathleen heard.

  "I shall tell my mother what you said," she declared.

  "Dear me! no, you mustn't," begged Silvia in alarm.

  "Yes, I shall too." Kathleen's bracelets jingled worse than ever as sheshook them out.

  "Well, I call that real hateful," broke out Silvia, a red spot on eithercheek, "you know I didn't mean it."

  "Well, you said it. And if you think it's a bother to take my mother andfather out on your old launch, I sha'n't stop here and bring youanything when I come home from around the world."

  Silvia trembled. She very much wanted something from around the world.So she put her arm about Kathleen. "Oh, make up now," she said. "They'recoming," as Mr. and Mrs. Briggs advanced down the path. "Promise youwon't tell," she begged.

  "Yes, do," said Polly Pepper imploringly.

  So Kathleen promised, and everything became quite serene, just in timefor Mr. and Mrs. Briggs to have the girls presented to them. And thenthey all jumped into the steam launch, and the men sent her into thelake, and everything was as merry as could be under the circumstances.

  "I haven't got to go to school to-morrow," announced Silvia when theywere well off. "Isn't that too fine for anything, girls?"

  "Dear me! I should say so," cried Alexia enviously. "How I wish I couldever stay home! But aunt is so very dreadful, she makes me go everysingle day."

  "Well, I'm going to stay home to bid Kathleen good-bye, you know," saidSilvia.

  "You see we are going around the world," announced Mrs. Briggs. She wasjust like Kathleen as far as mother and daughter could be, and she hadmore jingling things on, besides a long lace scarf that was catching ineverything; and she carried a white, fluffy parasol in her hand. "Andwe've come to bid good-bye to our relatives before we start. Kathleen,you shouldn't have come out on the water without your hat," for thefirst time noticing her daughter's bare head.

  "None of the girls have hats on," said Kathleen, shaking her long lightbraids.

  "Well, I don't see how their mothers can allow it," exclaimed Mrs.Briggs, glancing around on the group, "but I sha'n't let you, Kathleen.Dear me! you will ruin your skin. Now you must come under my parasol."She moved up on the seat. "Here, come over here."

  "Oh, I'm not going to," cried Kathleen with a grimace. "I can't seeanything under that old thing. Besides, I'm going to stay with thegirls."

  "Yes, you must come under my parasol." A frown of real anxiety settledon her mother's face. "You'll thank me by and by for saving yourcomplexion for you, Kathleen; so come over."

  "No," said Kathleen, hanging back, and holding to Silvia's arm.

  "There's your veil, you know." Mr. Briggs hadn't spoken before, but nowhe edged up to his wife. "It's in my pocket."

  "So it is," cried his wife joyfully, as Mr. Briggs pulled out a longgreen tissue veil. "I am so glad I had you bring it. Now, Kathleen, tiethis all over your head; your father will bring it over to you. And nexttime, do obey me, and wear your hat as I've always told you."

  So Kathleen, not daring to hold back from this command, but grumbling atevery bit of the process, tied on the veil, and then sat up very crossand stiff through the rest of the sail.

  "I should rather never go around the world, if I'd got to be tied uplike an old green mummy every step," Alexia managed to whisper inPolly's ear as they hopped out of the launch. And she was very sweet toKathleen after that, pitying her dreadfully.