Polly Prentiss keeps a promise

Introduction

The first book of this series, “ Little Polly Prentiss,” tells of the adoption of Polly by Miss Hester Pomeroy of Pomeroy Oaks. In the second book, “ Polly Prentiss Goes to School,” the story of Polly’s first winter at the Quaker school and of her special friends and the test of her loyalty is told. In “ Polly Prentiss Goes a- Visiting ” there is a trip to Washington, where Polly and her best friends are bridesmaids at a wedding, and where they see many interesting people and things. There is also told the story of the shadow that darkens Pomeroy Oaks for a time and then is lifted.

Promises and Plans .

III. A Queer Letter

IY.

Polly Decides .

Y.

The Boarder

YI.

Trouble

YII.

Polly Learning How

YIII.

The Gypsies

IX.

Robert Speaks Up .

X.

Polly Has an Idea .

XI.

The Selectmen .

XII.

What Mrs. Hale Said

XIII.

Fireworks .

XIY.

Mrs. Leeds Helps

XY.

At the Farm

XYI.

Two Old Quarrels Mended .

XYII.

A Great Success

XYIII.

“ A Loving Heart ” .

Illustrations

PAGE

“ I’m Going to Have Griddle Cakes” Frontispiece 1/

She Walked Slowly Back to the Bench . 33 ^

At the Gap in the Stone Wall ... 84 ^

She Smoothed the Bed-Spread with Special u It’s a Regular Bower op Beauty ” . . 174

Polly Prentiss Keeps a Promise

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Polly Prentiss Keeps a Promise

Chapter I Planting Seeds

It was as lovely a June day as ever dawned, and the row of milk pans on the porch at Manser Farm caught the sun and shone like silver. But on the little group of old people gathered behind the barn the brightness of the day had no effect ; indeed a sky overcast with heavy clouds would better have suited their mood.

“ What’s the use of planting a garden for other folks to get all the advantages of it ? ” inquired Mr. Blodgett, surveying gloomily his rows of early pea vines. “ ’Most broke our backs, Father Manser and I did, hoeing, planting and all, and now what’s coming of it ? ”

“ And my ’sturtiums,” said Mrs. Ramsdell, fiercely, pointing to an old stone wall, a stretch of which was already brightened here and there by sturdy climbers. “ My stars ! I’ll tear every one o’ those plants out o’ the ground before I’ll leave ’em for strangers to pick 9 and gloat over. I paid for those seeds myself, and they were the best mixed, and one package of Sunset Beauties. Ever since I saw ’em pictured out in the catalogue I made up my mind I’d have ’em, and when they were at their best I’d take a bunch to Miss Hetty Pomeroy. Well, that’s the way all my plans turn out. I might ’ve known.”

“ And I was counting on my pansies,” said Aunty Peebles sorrowfully. “ Polly’s always set such store by pansies, and I’d found just the best spot for them. There’s so little we can do, anyway.”

“ Little ! there’s nothing ! ” grumbled Mrs. Bamsdell. “ What the town decides has to be done, that’s all ! What does the town care about a little parcel of old folks like us, when it comes to saving money ? They aren’t going to keep up a home for us when they can shift us over into the Greenby Farm. I don’t suppose there’s one o’ the selectmen that thinks it would make a mite o’ difference to such poor old things whether we stay here or are shipped off to Californy, so long as there’s a roof over our heads.”

“ They don’t ship ’em to Californy nowadays,” said Uncle Blodgett. “ They send ’em overland. I should like to travel somewheres first-rate, if ’twasn’t for losing sight o’ Polly.”

“ Aha ! there’s always an ‘ if,’ ” said Mrs. Bams-

II dell shrewdly. “ I guess it’s Polly we’re all thinking of, more or less. Do you suppose she’s heard of this plan ? Miss He tty ’d hate to tell her, if she knows of it herself. It’s more’n a week since we’ve seen her.”

“ Don’t I hear wheels coming along the road, down by the willows ? ” asked Aunty Peebles. “ You that have full sight strain it a mite and see if there isn’t something coming this way.”

“ There is,” announced Mrs. Ramsdell ; “ there’s a cloud of dust rising same as it always does in that sandy spot except when it’s pouring. And I don’t think I’m mistaken in saying — no, I’m not — that’s Polly’s pink dress I see. Well, there’s one good thing going to happen to us to-day, that’s certain. Now all of you have a care what you say, for if she doesn’t know about the moving yet, we don’t want to be the ones to tell her.”

“ If you don’t throw it at her I guess nobody else will,” said Uncle Blodgett with some resentment in his tone.

In a few minutes the brisk little horse driven by Hiram Green stopped at the lower end of the sandy driveway, and Polly waved her hand in good-bye to Hiram and ran up the slope toward the old people so eagerly awaiting her.

“ I was hoping you’d all be out here,” called Polly before she reached them. “ I’ve brought over some new seeds for you to plant ; they’re a late-blooming kind, and they’ve just come. Robert’s mother sent them to me, ’specially for you. And I want to see them planted. Hiram has to go to the Twitchells’, and he won’t be back for almost an hour. There’ll be plenty of time, won’t there ? ”

By this time she had reached the group, each member of which had a hearty kiss from her fresh young lips. Mrs. Ramsdell came last, and she held Polly at arm’s length when her greeting was accomplished, looking at the little girl with the fierce tenderness which no one else* ever brought to her vivid old face.

“ There’s time enough, but it’s no use our planting,” came from between the straight line of her lips. “ I’ve charged ’em all not to tell you, and now I’m doing it myself. Ho, I won’t, either ! Sam’l Blodgett, you tell Polly what’s going to become of us.”

“ Don’t look so troubled, little girl,” said Uncle Blodgett, as Polly, leaving Mrs. Ramsdell, stepped close to him, and laid her hand on his shabby coatsleeve. “ It isn’t anything so very bad.”

“ Oh, no, it’s quite agreeable, on the whole,” muttered Mrs. Ramsdell. “ Just what we’ve been wishing for and needing, I s’pose you’ll say next.”

“ ’Long as you’ve laid this task on me, why not let me ’tend to it,” suggested Uncle Blodgett. He took Polly’s hand in both of his own, his gnarled old fingers closing around hers in a steady clasp.

“ You see, Polly,” he began, “ it’s like this. Ashdon isn’t a rich town, and every expense counts up. Winters, for instance, keeping this house warm for us, and providing us with food and all, why, it costs considerable. You see that, don’t you ? ”

Polly shook her head. She had spent cold winters at Manser Farm, and she knew how the heat was conserved. Also she knew the appetites of her old friends.

“ It does cost considerable,” insisted Uncle Blodgett gently, “ and we aren’t any of us worth much as workers now. And the Greenby Farm is only about half full, they say, and the manager of it is going out West to live. So what the two towns propose to do is to unite forces ; and as the Greenby Farm is in a warmer location than this, and bigger, we’re to be moved over there the last o’ the summer — well, say about the middle,” he amended with Mrs. Ramsdell’s accusing eye fixed upon him, “ and the Mansers are to be put in charge. That’s one thing : we shall all be together, same as we have here. You see it isn’t so bad,” he ended, patting Polly’s hand which had grown very cold in his olasp.

H

Polly’s eyes were wide with indignation, and her cheeks flamed as she stood there. Suddenly she pulled her hand away from Uncle Blodgett’s and struck her other hand a stinging blow. Polly was not only bewildered ; she was angry.

“ It’s mean ! ” she cried, looking from one to another of her friends, her anger mounting as she looked. 44 It’s the meanest thing I ever heard ! Why, this is your home. I’ll tell my Aunt Hetty. She won’t let the selectmen do such a thing. Who would live here ? ”

44 Hate Downer and his wife,” said Mrs. Ramsdell bitterly. 44 That’s Squire Downer’s nephew who married the city girl. I’ve never seen either of ’em, but I understand they’ve got means between ’em. They’ll pay rent for the place till they see how they like it, and if it suits they’ll buy it. They can get it cheap, and there’s good air and water here. There’s talk of new paint and paper, and later on a hot water furnace ! ”

Polly’s little hands struck each other again.

44 1 can’t let it be that way,” she said, her pretty head taking the set on her shoulders which had sometimes brought her swift discipline in the old days of her life at Manser Farm. 44 And I just won't, Uncle Blodgett and Mrs. Ramsdell and Aunty Peebles, and dear Grandma Manser. Do you want to go away from here ? ” she asked, her lips close to the ear of the quiet knitter. “ I know you don’t ! ”

“ I hoped to stay here long as I lived, dearie,” said the old woman, her eyes turning from Polly’s face to the distant hills. “ ’Tisn’t the most beautiful place in the world, but it’s been my home for a good many years, and when folks get to my age, they don’t like changes. But I expect the changes have got to come.”

“ They shan’t,” said Polly, determinedly. “ They shall not! At any rate not this kind, Grandma Manser. I shall go right home and talk to Aunt Hetty and we’ll decide what is to be done first — and then we’ll do it.”

Polly was such a brave little figure as she stood there that in spite of their doubts her eager assurance infected them with hope. She nodded at them, her curls dancing in the June breeze.

“How let’s plant these seeds just as if nothing were going to happen,” said Polly, “ for nothing is — so there ! Don’t you worry another minute about it, one of you. And to-morrow or next day I’ll come over and tell you what we have decided to do. Please let me take up the first trowel full of earth over in that bed, just for luck, Uncle Blodgett. And next October I shall come up here some morning and I shall expect a big bouquet of perfectly beautiful i6 chrysanthemums. Some of them are gold, and some are bronze colored, and some are the most wonderful striped kind, and all feathery at the edges.

“ And when they have the County Fair,” went on Polly, nodding at them all again, “ I expect that the first prize for chrysanthemums will be taken by Ashdon Farm. That’s what I expect. Now please give me the sharpest trowel, Uncle Blodgett.”

“ And ’tisn’t three years ago that we thought of her as just a little speck of a thing that had got to be kind of kittened up and played with,” mused Uncle Blodgett half an hour later, standing at the foot of the road where he had said good-bye to Polly and had exchanged a word with Hiram. “ Dear me ! how time does tear along. She’s only a slip of a girl now, but she’s put heart into every one of us. I don’t know how she’s going to fix things — I don’t know as she can fix ’em at all — but someway or other I can’t help feeling cheered all through. Isn’t that a blackbird tuning up over there ? Sure as I live, ’tis. Good for you, little fellar ! You pipe up lively as you can. I’ve a mind to sit right down on this stone and listen to ye ! But I suppose ’twould be the part o’ wisdom to let you sing me up the hill instead. So good-day to ye, little master ! ”

Chapter II Promises And Plans

Polly was sitting on a leather hassock before the fire, her head against Miss Pomeroy’s knees. She had been talking eagerly for a long time, while her Aunt Hetty listened, sometimes smiling over Polly’s head, sometimes regarding her gravely. At last there fell a silence between them. Polly waited, for surely now it was Aunt Hetty’s turn to speak.

“ You promised them all — Mrs. Ramsdell and Miss Peebles, dear old Mrs. Manser and Mr. Blodgett, that they should not go away from Manser Farm,” said Miss Pomeroy slowly. “ Well, my dear, that was quite a large promise for any one to make. How do you mean to keep it ?

“Why — I thought you’d surely know how we could do it, Aunt Hetty. I thought you’d just tell the selectmen that they must give up the plan right away. Arctura says you are the most influential person in town, Aunt Hetty, and I knew you’d feel exactly as I did about it. I felt perfectly sure, Aunt Hetty, that if Hiram had told you about it, you xS would have attended to it right away. Oh, don’t you feel as I do ? ”

Polly’s eyes implored her so that Miss Pomeroy could not find it in her heart to deny them. Polly herself, sitting up very straight on her footstool, was hard to resist. But Miss Pomeroy felt that there was a crisis to be met which should not be avoided.

“I feel exactly as you do,” she began slowly. “Wait ! ” as Polly settled back with a little sigh of relief. “I feel as you do, but I should not have dared to promise what you have, Polly. I am not a rich woman, and just now my eyes, as you know, are costing me a great deal. I could not undertake to buy Manser Farm, and hire the Mansers to run it for the dear old friends of whom we are so fond. And unless I could do that, and promise to do it as long as they live, I should have no right to interfere with the present plan. You see, Polly, in all little things when you have promised help I’ve been able to grant your wish. Now this is a time when I can’t. You must think of some other way. You’re getting to be a big girl, you know, and big girls sometimes have big problems to face. If I could spare the money I’m not sure after all that it would be best for me to give it.”

“ Oh, Aunt Hetty ! ” gasped Polly. “ I never thought of money, not for a minute ! I only thought you’d speak your mind, that’s all. I thought that would be enough ! ”

Miss Pomeroy shook her head.

“ This isn’t a case where speaking my mind would do any good, Polly,” she said soberly. “ Has Hiram told you what Mr. Downer has agreed to pay for the rent of the farm if he takes it ? ”

“ Twenty-five dollars a month,” said Polly in a very small voice. “ That is three hundred dollars a year. He’s to have it for a year on trial. But Hiram says the papers haven’t been signed yet, for there is some kind of a legality that has to be looked out for. What is a legality, Aunt Hetty ? ”

“It might be almost anything,” laughed Miss Pomeroy, “ but in this case it probably has something to do with making sure that the town has a right to dispose of the property which was given it fifty years ago by Tobias Ladd, to be held and used as a home for such poor of the town as lacked the wherewithal to establish or maintain homes of their own.”

“ Maybe they’ll find they haven’t the right,” said Polly joyfully. “ Then we wouldn’t have to worry about it one bit.”

“I’m afraid there is no such simple way out, Polly,” and Miss Pomeroy smiled down at the eager, flushed face. “ You see unfortunately Mr. Ladd left very little money to run his charity, and the farm, never very profitable, has yielded less and less as the years have gone. When the Mansers came to take charge of it it was in a pretty bad state, and although Mr. Manser has worked hard, with his insufficient help, the results have not been very encouraging. Greenby Farm, on the other hand, I am told, is in excellent condition.”

There came another silence while Polly thought hard, rubbing her hand across her soft forehead.

“ If I could think of a way to make three hundred dollars, Aunt Hetty, and if we knew some young, strong man who wanted a place to ‘ try his hand at farming,’ as Hiram says, and who had a nice, pretty, kind young wife, and I could get money enough to pay for food and wood for the winter — then don’t ' you suppose the selectmen would tell Mr. Downer he couldn’t have it till the last of next summer anyway ? ” Polly’s voice was so anxious as it hurried to tell her hopes that Miss Pomeroy laid her hand on the bright curls and steadied the little head before she spoke.

“ I think perhaps they might do that, Polly,” she assented. “Mind you, child, I’m not sure; I only think so. I heard to-day that Mr. Downer’s wife had other plans for the fall and winter, and isn’t especially pleased at the thought of coming here. She is a young woman who likes a good deal of change, I believe.”

Polly’s mind had run on so far ahead of her Aunt Hetty’s words at the first hint of hope, that by the time Miss Pomeroy finished her fears had almost vanished.

“How much do you think we ought to allow for food and wood, Aunt Hetty ? ” she asked breathlessly. “Wait just a minute, please, till I get paper and pencil and put it all down so I’ll see just how much money I must have. You know I get all mixed up doing arithmetic in my head, and this is too complicated for just my fingers.”

A moment later she was seated again with a sheet of paper on a large atlas, and a soft, none too wellsharpened, lead pencil. It must be admitted that Polly’s mathematical problems were never very neat although they always gave evidence that she had worked hard over them.

44 How,” she said, writing across the top of her sheet in bold, straggling letters, “I’ve put down 4 Expenses of Polly Prentiss for Manser Farm.’ First of all I’ll put down the three hundred dollars, for that’s the worst, and I might as well get it over with. It looks very big, doesn’t it, Aunt Hetty ? ”

44 It need not be quite so big, perhaps,” said Miss Pomeroy thoughtfully. 44 Of course Ashdon will have to pay Greenby something each year. That ought to be subtracted from the three hundred dollars, I suppose. In fact I’m not sure but what most of it could be subtracted, Polly. The town has no right to make money out of Manser Farm, I know. Whatever money comes from it must be used for the poor in some way — and if you were looking out for the living of the old people who have been the only inmates of the farm for years, why, I don’t know ”

Polly clasped her hands, letting the atlas fall to the floor with a crash, carrying the paper and pencil with it.

“ I’ll write to my senator this very week, Aunt Hetty, and ask him to tell me exactly how it would be,” she cried. “ He knows all about the law. I wish I did. Oh, I wish I knew about everything ! Suppose they had to pay Greenby all that three hundred dollars, Aunt Hetty. Then — why then it seems as if all I’d have to think about would be just the food and to keep them warm in cold weather.”

“ Don’t you think perhaps the strong young man and his pretty, kind wife ought to have a little something for taking care of your family of old people who will probably be strangers to them, Polly ? ” asked Miss Pomeroy. “ Have you any one in mind for such a position, my dear ? For you cannot count on the Mansers staying in any event. Arctura tells me that Mrs. Manser is as nearly delighted over the prospect of going as she can be over anything.”

“ No, Aunt Hetty, I haven’t really selected anybody,” admitted Polly. “ But I’m sure there’ll be somebody if I can only fix the rest of it. Do you — do you think I’d better go to see the selectmen, Aunt Hetty, and ask them to tell me just what it will cost to run Manser Farm for a year. Would that be a good idea ? ”

“ I think perhaps I might attend to that part of it,” said Miss Hetty, glad that the firelight did not touch her face at the moment, for Polly would not have understood her smile. “ At any rate, there is one thing I am quite sure of, and that is that it’s high time you were in bed, letting that active little brain of yours rest for a few hours.”

“ Yes’m, I’ll go right away,” said Polly demurely ; “ and if you should think of any way for me to make money, after I’ve gone to bed, Aunt Hetty, you’d tell me in the morning, wouldn’t you ? ”

“ I surely would,” said Miss Pomeroy, her words half smothered by Polly’s arms which flew to clasp each other around her neck, while Polly’s warm lips

were pressed to hers. “ In fact ”

“ In fact what, Aunt Hetty ? Please tell me,” begged Polly.

“ Not a word,” said Miss Pomeroy firmly, “ not one single word, Polly. Off with yon now ! ”

And Polly with a last hug unclasped her arms, rescued the atlas and its attendants from the hearthrug, and playing on the big book as if it were a tambourine, danced out of the room and up-stairs to bed. There in spite of her plans to stay awake she fell promptly to sleep and dreamed that she was mistress of the Manser Farm and was trying to make the kitchen fire on a frosty morning without either a stick of wood or a lump of coal.

Chapter III A Queer Letter

When the sound of Polly’s dancing feet had died away, Miss Hetty took from a little bag which lay in her lap a letter. Its envelope was addressed in a queer, cramped hand, to “ Hester Pomeroy,” and it had an uncompromising look which made Miss Hetty smile as she glanced at it.

“ When Arctura comes in I’ll get her to read it to me,” she said. “ I won’t try my eyes with it a second time. Beside, I should like to hear Arctura’s comments, they are so sure to be amusing. I wonder what Polly will decide — for I shall let her decide, and make it clear that there must be no going back on her decision. Dear, dear ! how I hate to think that Polly is growing up ! But a little responsibility won’t hurt her, and she’s always sure to have a good time, no matter what happens. Here comes Arctura now.”

“ How you feeling to-night ? ” questioned Arctura. “ It’s been a good day for your eyes, hasn’t it ? I knew it had. When I think how scared I was about

’em in the spring it seems just like a nightmare. Anything there you want I should read to you ? ”

“ Yes,” said Miss Hetty. “It’s a letter from an old friend of mine, Arctura, and before you begin to read it I want to tell you a little about her. She is a very rich woman who has had her own way all her life except about winning love. Her husband died soon after they were married and even in the short time they were together he had learned to fear her iron will. She has almost adopted three young people, one after another, and given them up because they had wills of their own, and many friends she has given up for the same reason. She has held to me, perhaps, because for years we have seen so little of each other. And now she is lonely and not very

well and Here, Arctura, take the letter and

read it, slowly, to me.”

“ I guess I should have to read it slowly,” said Arctura, as she opened the thick, square sheet and gazed at it with frank scorn. “ Why, it looks more like hen-tracks than anything else. What’s the reason she left off the ‘ Miss ’ before your name on the envelope, I’d like to know. Hiram remarked on it to me, for the postmaster remarked on it to him. Doesn’t look very polite, according to my notions.”

“ Never mind,” said Miss Hetty ; “ that’s just one of her ways, Arctura.”

2 ?

“ Humph ! ” said Arctura. “ Well, here ’tis :

“ ‘ Dear Hester :

“ 4 If I didn’t know all your circumstances and just how your father left you, I should not be writing this letter, but as it is I have not the slightest hesitation about it. And as 7 have never been one to dilly-dally or beat about the bush I will go straight to the point. The house down on the Cape to which I have been for J uly and August for the last nine years has just been burned to the ground, and I am left without a home for those two months. The woman who has run the house and has really been quite thoughtful and attentive to me writes that there is no suitable house she can hire for the summer, so she is going to take a complete rest. I consider that a great mistake for a woman in her position, needing to earn money, and I have written telling her so ; but she’s always been stubborn as a mule, so I don’t imagine my words will change her foolish purpose.

“ 4 And so it turns out that I have to find another place, and I suddenly remembered you and your home at Pomeroy Oaks. I remember it as a pleasant place and quiet ; that’s what I must have this summer, the doctor says, quiet. Now if you’ll take me in for the months of July and August, give me two rooms — for I must have my own sitting-room, and arrange to have somebody do such waiting on me as I require — it isn’t very much — I will pay you twenty -five dollars a week. That’s what I paid down on the Cape, and I’ve no doubt your accommodations and food will be fully as good as what I got there.

44 4 At any rate, I’m quite willing to risk it. Let me know within a week what you decide. I don’t imagine it will take you long, for even if you’ve never had a boarder before, you must know that you can clear a good round sum every week at my price. I remember hearing that you thought of adopting a child. I hope you weren’t so foolish, at your age. I never was given to sentiment, as you know, but I really shall be glad to see you again. When you write, send me particulars about trains and so on. Hoping to hear from you within a day or two,

“ 4 Your old friend,

44 4 Maria Leeds.

44 4 P. S. — I wish to go away about the twenty-first of June this year.’ ”

Arctura’s color had mounted higher and higher as she read. Once or twice she paused and looked as if she could scarcely hold back her opinion of the letter and its writer, but at last she managed to finish it. Then her wrath burst forth.

44 Well, I must say!” she began. 44 Of all the saucy — what does she — who does she think she’s writing to, I’d like to know ? If I didn’t know better I should suppose you were feeling the pinch of poverty from the way she writes. Her and her twenty-five dollars a week. I wonder at her daring ! ”

44 That’s a great deal of money, Arctura,” said Miss Hetty. 44 Do you realize that it means over two hundred dollars for the two months? Think what could be done with it.”

The color in Arctura’s face was dying down and she looked at Miss Hetty, still indignant but with a dawning light of surrender in her eyes.