“it can't rain,” cried polly pepper, “and it isn't going to. don't think it, girls.”
“but it looks just like it,” said alexia obstinately, and wrinkling up her brows; “see those awful, horrid clouds, girls.” she pointed tragically up to the sky.
“don't look at them,” advised polly. “come on, girls. i challenge you to a race as far as the wicket gate.”
away she dashed, with a bevy at her heels. alexia, not to be left behind staring at the sky, went racing after.
“wait,” she screamed. the racers, however, spent no time attending to laggards, but ran on.
polly dashed ahead, and touched the green wicket gate. “oh, polly got there first!” almost immediately came another girl's fingers on it.
“no—i don't think so,” panted polly. “philena got there just about as soon.”174
“no, you were first,” said the girl who plunged up next; “i saw it distinctly.”
“well, it was so near that we ought to have another race to decide it,” declared polly, with a little laugh, pushing back the damp rings of hair from her forehead. “girls, isn't it lovely that we have this splendid place where we can run, and nobody see us?”
“yes,” said alexia, throwing herself down on the grass; which example was immediately followed by all the other girls. “i just love this avenue down to the wicket gate, polly pepper.”
“so do i,” chimed in the others.
“oh dear me! i'm just toasted and fried,” declared alexia. “i never was so hot in all my life.”
“you shouldn' have run so, alexia,” said polly reproachfully, patting the arm still in its sling. “oh, how could you!”
“well, did you suppose i was going to see you all sprinting off and having such fun, and not try it too? no, indeed; that's asking too much, polly.”
then she threw herself at full length on the grass, and gazed at her meditatively.
“well, we mustn't have the second race, philena,”175 said polly; “because if alexia runs again, it surely will hurt her.”
“ow!” exclaimed alexia, flouncing up so suddenly that she nearly overthrew amy garrett, who was sitting next, and who violently protested against such treatment, “now i won't keep you back, polly. oh dear me! it can't hurt me a single bit. i'm all ready to take off this horrible old thing, you know i am, only dr. fisher thought—”
“he thought it would be safer to keep it on till after the picnic,” polly was guilty of interrupting. “you know he said so, alexia. no, we won't run again, girls,” polly brought up quite decidedly.
“polly, you shall; i won't run—i really won't; i'll shut my eyes,” and alexia squinted up her pale eyes till her face was drawn up in a knot. “i'll turn my back, i'll do anything if you'll only race; please try it again, polly.”
so polly, seeing that alexia really wished it, dropped a kiss on each of the closed eyes. “put your hand over them, and untwist your face from that funny knot,” she laughed. “come on, girls,” and the race began.
alexia twisted and wriggled, as the pattering176 feet and quick breath of the girls when they neared her resting place, plunged her in dreadful distress not to look. “oh dear—um! if i could just see once; um—um! i know polly will win; oh dear! she must.”
but she didn't. it was cathie harrison, the new girl; that is, new to them, as they hadn't drawn her into their set, but a few weeks. she was a tall, thin girl, who got over the ground amazingly, to touch the green wicket gate certainly three seconds before polly pepper came flying up.
“you did that just splendidly, cathie,” cried polly breathlessly. “oh dear me, that was a race!”
“goodness me!” cried alexia, her eyes flying open, “my face never'll get out of that knot in all this world. my! i feel as if my jaws were all tied up. well, polly, this time you beat for sure,” she added confidently, as the girls came running up to throw themselves on the grass again.
“but i didn't,” said polly merrily. “oh dear! i am so hot.”
“yes, you did,” declared alexia stubbornly.
“why, alexia rhys! i didn't beat, any such177 a thing,” corrected polly—“not a single bit of it.”
“well, who did, then?” demanded alexia, quite angry to have polly defeated.
“why, cathie did,” said polly, smiling over at her.
“what, that old—” then alexia pulled herself up; but it was too late.
a dull red mounted to cathie's sallow cheek, that hadn't changed color during all the two races. she drew a long breath, then got up slowly to her feet.
“i'm going to play bean-bags,” announced polly briskly. “come on, girls. see who'll get to the house first.”
“i'm going home,” said cathie, hurrying up to wedge herself into the group, and speaking to polly. “good-bye.”
“no,” said polly, “we're going to play bean-bags. come on, cathie.” she tried to draw cathie's hand within her arm, but the girl pulled herself away. “i must go home—” and she started off.
“cathie—cathie, wait,” but again cathie beat her on a swift run down the avenue.
alexia stuffed her fingers, regardless of arm in178 the sling, or anything, into her mouth, and rolled over in dreadful distress, face downward on the grass. the other girls stood in a frightened little knot, just where they were, without moving, as polly came slowly back down the avenue. she was quite white now. “oh dear!” groaned philena, “look at polly!”
alexia heard it, and stuffed her fingers worse than ever into her mouth to keep herself from screaming outright, and wriggled dreadfully. but no one paid any attention to her. she knew that polly had joined the girls now; she could hear them talking, and polly was saying, in a sad little voice, “yes, i'm afraid she won't ever come with us again.”
“she must, she shall!” howled alexia, rolling over, and sitting up straight. “oh polly, she shall!” and she wrung her long hands as well as she could for the arm in the sling.
“oh, no, i am afraid not, alexia,” and her head drooped; no one would have thought for a moment that it was polly pepper speaking.
and then amy garrett said the very worst thing possible: “and just think of that picnic!” and after that remark, the whole knot of girls was plunged into the depths of gloom.179
jasper, running down the avenue with pickering dodge at his heels, found them so, and was transfixed with astonishment. “well, i declare!” he burst into a merry laugh.
“you look like a lot of wax figures,” said pickering pleasantly; “just about as interesting.” then they saw polly pepper's face.
“oh, what is it?” cried jasper, starting forward.
polly tried to speak cheerfully, but the lump in her throat wouldn't let her say a word.
“if you boys must know,” said alexia, flouncing up to her feet, “i've been bad and perfectly horrid to that harrison girl; and i've upset everything; and—and—do go right straight away, both of you, and not stand there staring. i don't think it's very polite.”
“oh polly,” cried jasper, gaining her side, “can't we help?” he was dreadfully distressed. “do let us.”
polly shook her head. “no, jasper, there isn't anything you can do,” she said brokenly.
pickering thrust his hands in his pockets, and whistled softly. “girls always get into such rows,” he observed.
“well, i guess we don't get into worse ones180 than you boys do, nor half as bad,” cried alexia crossly, perfectly wild to quarrel with somebody. “and, besides, this isn't the other girls' fault. it's all my fight from beginning to end.”
“then you ought to be perfectly ashamed of yourself, alexia,” declared pickering, not intending to mince matters in the slightest.
“well, i am,” said alexia, “just as ashamed as i can be. oh dear me! i wish i could cry. but i'm too bad to cry. polly pepper, i'm going to run after that horrible harrison girl. oh misery! i wish she never had come to the salisbury school.” alexia made a mad rush down the avenue.
“don't, alexia, you'll hurt your arm,” warned polly.
“i don't care—i hope i shall,” cried alexia recklessly.
“it's no use to try to stop her,” said jasper, “so let us go up to the house, polly.”
so they started dismally enough, the girls, all except polly, going over in sorry fashion how cathie harrison would probably make a fuss about the little affair—she was doubtless on her way to miss salisbury's now—and then perhaps there wouldn't be any picnic at all on the morrow.181 at this, philena stopped short. “girls, that would be too dreadful,” she gasped, “for anything!”
“well, it would be just like her,” said silvia horne, “and i wish we never had taken her into our set. she's an old moping thing, and can't bear a word.”
“i wish so too,” declared amy garrett positively; “she doesn't belong with us; and she's always going to make trouble. and i hope she won't go to the picnic anyway, if we do have it, so there.”
“i don't think that is the way to mend the matter, amy,” said jasper gravely.
“hoh, hoh!” exclaimed pickering, “how you girls can go on so, i don't see; talking forever about one thing, instead of just settling it with a few fisticuffs. that would be comfortable now.”
the girls, one and all, turned a cold shoulder to him after this speech.
“well, we sha'n't get the picnic now, i know,” said philena tragically; “and think of all our nice things ready. dear me! our cook made me the sweetest chocolate cakes, because we were going to start so early in the morning. now we'll have them for dinner, and eat them up ourselves. we might as well.”182
“you better not,” advised pickering. “take my advice; you'll get your picnic all right; then where would you be with your cakes all eaten up?”
“you don't know miss salisbury,” said sally moore gloomily; “nothing would make her so mad as to have us get up a fuss with a new scholar. she was so pleased when polly pepper invited that harrison girl to come to our bee for that poor family down south.”
“and now, just think how we've initiated her into our club!” said lucy bennett, with a sigh. “oh my goodness—look!”
she pointed off down the avenue. all the girls whirled around to stare. there were alexia and cathie, coming toward them arm in arm.
“jasper”—polly turned to him with shining eyes—“see!” then she broke away from them all, and rushed to meet the two girls.
“there isn't anybody going to say a word,” announced alexia, as the three girls came up to the group, polly pepper in the middle, “because, as i told you, it was all my fight, anyway. so, pickering, you needn't get ready to be disagreeable,” she flashed over at him saucily.
“i shall say just what i think,” declared pickering flatly.183
“no doubt,” said alexia sweetly, “but it won't make a bit of difference. well, now, polly, what shall we do? do start us on something.”
“we came, pick and i,” announced jasper, “to ask you girls to have a game of bean-bags. there's just time before dinner—on the south lawn, polly.”
“oh, good—good!” cried the girls, clapping their hands. “come on, cathie,” said philena awkwardly, determined to break the ice at once.
“yes, cathie, come on,” said amy and silvia, trying to be very nice.
cathie just got her mouth ready to say, “no, i thank you,” primly, thought better of it, and before she quite realized it herself, there she was, hurrying by a short cut across the grass to the south lawn.
“i'm going to stay with alexia,” said polly, when they all reached there, and jasper flew over to pull out the bean-bags from their box under the piazza. “come on, alexia, let's you and i sit in the hammock and watch it.”
“oh polly, come and play,” begged jasper, pausing with his arms full. “here, pick, you lazy dog. help with these bags.”184
“can't,” said polly, shaking her head. so alexia and she curled up in one of the hammocks.
“i'm just dying to tell you all about it, polly pepper,” said alexia, pulling polly's cheek down to her own.
“yes,” said polly happily, “and i can't wait to hear it; and besides, you can't play bean-bags, alexia, with that arm. well, do go on,” and polly was in quite a twitter for the story to begin.
“you see,” said alexia, “i knew something desperate had got to be done, polly, for she was crying all over her best silk waist.”
“oh dear me!” exclaimed polly, aghast.
“yes; she had sat down on the kitchen step.”
“the kitchen step,” repeated polly faintly.
“yes. i suppose she got beyond caring whether the cook saw or not, she was feeling so very badly. well, there she was, and she didn't hear me, so i just rushed up, or rather down upon her, and then i screamed 'ow!' and she jumped up, and said, 'oh, have you hurt your arm?' and i held on to it hard, and made up an awful face, oh, as bad as i could, and doubled up; and the cook came to the door, and said could she get me anything, and she was going to call185 mrs. fisher. that would have been terrible.” alexia broke off short, and drew a long breath at her remembrance of the fright this suggestion had given her. “and cathie fell right on my neck with, 'oh, do forgive me,' and i said 'twas my fault, and she said, no, she oughtn't to have got mad, and i said she must hold her tongue.”
“oh alexia!” cried polly reprovingly.
“i had to,” said alexia serenely, “or we should have gotten into another fight. and she said she would, and i just took hold of her arm, and dragged her down here. and i'm tired to death,” finished alexia plaintively.
“alexia,” exclaimed polly, cuddling up the long figure in a way to give perfect satisfaction, “we must make cathie harrison have the best time that she ever had, at the picnic to-morrow.”
“i suppose so,” said alexia resignedly. “well, but don't let's think of it now, for i've got you, polly, and i want to rest.”
