Julie M. Lippmann

“ Poor Hannah, tired as she was, set out immediately with Lawrence and Richard to scour the grounds, while Mrs. Duer bade the household servants search the house from garret to cellar.
She herself hastened up to the nursery in the hope of finding some clue to the mystery of the child’s disappearance. But all she saw on entering the room was Priscilla crouching on the rug before the nursery-couch and crying her heart out from loneliness and disappointment. ”

“ Polly thought Oh-my a very curious name and Priscilla had to explain that pony received it from Uncle Arthur who had said “He was little but, Oh my!”
“I don’t care if he is little,” asserted Priscilla, “I love him just the same.”
“Why, of course you do,” responded Polly. “He’s the best and smartest horse I ever saw. He understands everything we say and sometimes I think he likes jokes, ’cause when we make ’em and laugh he starts up quick as anything, and his sides just shake, as if he were laughing too.” ”

“ But one thunder-stormy day Polly happened to stroll into the library down-stairs, because the nursery seemed so far off when the lightning was flashing and the great, crashing peals made one’s breath clutch at one’s throat, and as it happened, that was the last of her loneliness, for how could one possibly feel solitary with such a multitude of delightful friends as she found in those well-filled book-shelves? ”

“ The fields will all be green and there’ll be dandelions in them and daisies, and you must hunt for four-leafed clovers. Why, you ought to be the best girl in the world with so much good coming to you. She tries to do right, doesn’t she, Hannah? I’m glad. I knew she would. You’ll remember, won’t you, Polly, that sister wants you to tell the truth always; never to tell a falsehood. And you must be kind and generous to every one and cheerful too. There’s a little young mother here who has the cunningest baby! ”

“ Under all Priscilla’s real sweetness of nature there lay a hidden rock of obstinacy that made her, at times, a very difficult little personage to deal with. Hannah had encountered it often and often, but Hannah was indulgent and excused her pet to herself by saying: “She’s so young; she’ll outgrow it by and by.”
Polly had, up to this, given in almost entirely to Priscilla, no matter what her whims might be, and so had not really had any conflict with the quiet persistence and iron will that underlay the little girl’s other really lovable traits. ”

“ The biggest and fiercest thought-midge of all stung Priscilla with so sharp a point that she started as if she had been pricked with a needle. In a flash she saw how she could revenge herself on Polly, could punish her so that her face would look as queer and terrified as it had done a little while ago when she had been afraid Priscilla would fall over the ledge of Pine Lodge and had implored her to come away from it; in fact had made her getting down from the bench the condition on which the doll was to be brought. Priscilla had gotten down, as she had promised to do. ”

“ Believe me, the best present we could give Priscilla would be a companion; a flesh-and-blood little girl who could share her pretty things, and who would teach her how to enjoy them.”
“Dear me!” exclaimed Aunt Laura. “What a very curious creature you are, Cicely. Give Priscilla [16] a present of a ‘flesh-and-blood little girl!’ ‘A playmate of about her own age!’ Fancy!”
“I know you all think I am too young to know anything about bringing up children,” continued Miss Cissy, “and you all, being older, are very much wiser than I am. ”

“ Duer wants to have you come to her in the living-room. There, there, child! don’t look like that! You’ve nothing to fear. Just keep up a brave heart, answer her questions truthfully and don’t cry, or tire her with a long story. She hasn’t slept a wink all night and she needs rest as much as Priscilla does, so be quick about what you have to say; only speak when you’re spoken to and leave her to catch a nap if she can.”
How she got down to the living-room door Polly did not know. ”

“ Polly thought that it was the jolliest tea-party in the world, though she, herself, ate hardly anything at all because she was so occupied with the wonderful mite of a baby which she was permitted to hold in her own arms, just as if she had been a grown-up woman. ”

“ Poor little thing!” for when Theresa, the parlor-maid, whom, by the way, Priscilla did not like very much, came up to the nursery and saw all her wonderful toys and the new frocks and hats and coats that were continually being sent home to her, she always said sharply and with a curl of the lip: “My! But isn’t she a lucky child! It must be grand to be such a rich little thing!” ”

“ Polly took up her heavy, cumbersome bundle and stumbled blindly out into the vast, busy station, amid a babel of voices and a hurrying, struggling press of passengers. She pushed forward in the thickest of the crowd and presently found herself in the street, almost deafened by the clang and clatter of trolley cars, the shouts of eager hackmen and the piercing cries of shrill-voiced newsboys. ”

“ Sarah Findlay won her prize by “crossing her heart and promising sure and true, black and blue,” she’d never make her cross-eyed face any more, for Uncle Arthur had known a little girl once who had crossed her eyes just so, in fun, and when she tried she couldn’t get them straight again.
Polly had to tell them all what she wanted most in the whole world, but if Uncle Arthur thought it would be difficult for her to decide, he was mistaken. It did not take her an instant to say: “To have sister get well.” Then she got her doll—and a pat on the head from Uncle Arthur, as well. ”

“ All you have to do when you’re in the train is to sit still until you get to the city. Then you walk through the station and up Madison Avenue for a while and there [157] you are, right at the hospital door. You can’t possibly lose your way. It’s as plain as a pipe-stem. And I’ll wake you early to-morrow morning, before the rest are up, and you can get away on that first train.”
Polly’s head was whirling. She passively let Theresa lead her up-stairs and, in a sort of dream, saw her make ready a neat bundle containing the very best of the dainty garments Miss Cissy and Mrs. Duer had given her. ”

“ Just think what fun it’s going to be, Priscilla! Why, you can have breakfast-parties [53] and dinner-parties and tea-parties together every day at your little table, all by yourselves, and you can show Polly your toys and she can show you new ways of playing with them, and you can keep house and visit and have—oh! lots of good times! And perhaps, if I’m very good, you’ll let me come and join in the sport sometimes, for I think I like your kind of play better than the sort they have down-stairs—I mean, the grown-up people. ”

“ Priscilla heaved a deep sigh under the lace of her frock at which, to her embarrassment, all the company laughed and dear Cousin Cicely said:
“She’s bored to death with all our attention and I don’t wonder. It is a nuisance to have to kiss so many people. There, Priscilla darling, you shall sit right here, next to Cousin Cissy, and no one shall bother you any more.”
Dinner down here in the big dining-room was always a very slow and tiresome affair in Priscilla’s estimation. ”

“ Miss Cissy beckoned her to come forward saying gaily:
“See, Priscilla, I have brought you a visitor. This is Polly Carter. Won’t you shake hands with her, dear?”
Priscilla shyly put out a frail, soft little hand which Polly grasped in her thin, little chapped one.
“Polly is going to stay all night,” went on Miss Cicely, “and if she has a good time and enjoys herself, and if you get on nicely and like each other, she won’t go home for a while. ”

“ Aunt Edith would wish her to be older than Priscilla so Priscilla could rely upon her, and grandmamma desired her to be younger than Priscilla so Priscilla could learn to be self-reliant: and so it went on.
“As far as I can see, Cicely,” spoke up Uncle Arthur, teasingly, “this scheme of yours is first-rate! Quite as good, for instance, as the well-known recipe for cooking a hare, which begins ‘first catch your hare.’ In this case it is: first catch your child. It is clearly your place to produce the prodigy. Now then, my dear, let’s see what sort of a marvel you can [20] discover. ”

“ I’m going down the ravine to hunt for it.”
But Polly had sped out of hearing before he had finished his sentence and he strolled slowly after her saying to himself: “She must want something to do, sprinting around like that, this hot day! But children don’t seem to mind the heat. My! But her face is red! All the blood’s in her head! Hannah ought to tell her she hadn’t ought to exert herself like that when it’s ninety-four in the shade.”
It seemed no time at all to Priscilla before Polly reappeared across the lawn. She was holding the doll and running as fast as her feet would carry her. ”

“ Polly, happening to come out of the library just at the moment that Theresa was crossing the hall, noticed the maid’s white lips quiver and, thinking she was sick or unhappy, broke out at once with an impulsive: “Oh, Theresa, what’s the matter? Has anything happened?”
Theresa looked down at her for an instant with an ugly gleam in her eyes. “Only a telegram,” she muttered curtly.
Polly’s cheeks whitened. “A telegram!” she echoed. “They send telegrams when people are sick or hurt or dead, don’t they?” ”

“ Yes, Miss Cicely would certainly understand. As for Hannah——
Good Hannah found an opportunity, in the midst of all her hurry and worry, to run up-stairs to the nursery for a minute, just before bedtime and to say in a confidential whisper:
“There now, Polly, don’t you go to fretting yourself to skin and bone over this. Just you keep still and be good and it will all come out right in the end.”
“But Hannah, oh, Hannah,” Polly groaned. “Priscilla’s angry at me, and she stays angry. And Mrs. Duer said she couldn’t trust me any more.” ”

“ In another moment Theresa appeared and busied herself carrying in the wraps and umbrellas, while she gave Priscilla a radiant smile and Polly a not unkindly pat on the shoulder. She even assisted James to serve them at tea, and was so altogether amiable and accommodating that Polly concluded the city air had not agreed with her and that she felt better in her mind here. But she did not [96] have much opportunity to think about it, for Hannah whisked her and Priscilla up-stairs and had them safely tucked into bed in no time and then, somehow, that was the end of things until the next morning. ”

“ Perhaps Polly was hiding somewhere and meant to surprise her by springing out unexpectedly to welcome her with a kiss and a hug.
Priscilla was naturally very timid, but in her eagerness to find Polly she braved the shadowy staircases and lonely dim halls without a moment’s hesitation.
[164]
“P’raps she’s in the nursery and won’t come down ’cause I was horrid and wouldn’t see her before I went away. Of course that’s it! Why didn’t I think of it before?” Priscilla reasoned, and she ran along the upper hall crying, “Polly! Polly! I’m home again! Where are you, Polly dear?” ”

“ I wouldn’t tell anybody but you, of course, but it’s sometimes a little—just a little dull down there. But up here! dear me! why there’s no end to the sport you can have up here, if you want to. I don’t believe Polly ever saw anything so funny in all her life as your walking-doll was the other night, Priscilla, when you dropped her on the floor and she lay there on her back, sawing the air with her arms, and kicking.”
Priscilla smiled demurely and drew herself from Miss Cissy’s arm. ”

“ In a moment Hannah was at her side.
“What is it, honey? Tell Hannah,” she urged very tenderly, as she knelt down and slid her arm under Polly’s head. Then it all came out: about the dreadful ache and longing in her heart and the choking in her throat.
“Why, bless you, you’re homesick and so you are,” explained Priscilla’s nurse encouragingly. “And no [59] wonder at all—not the least in the world. Lots of folks are homesick and they get over it in no time at all, if they just make up their minds to it. Why, think of me! ”

“ She don’t know what it means to think of herself. And the grown-up way she’s got with her, of looking out for Priscilla! Why, you’d think she’d been used to protecting some one all her life.”
“Well, perhaps she has,” suggested James, thoughtfully. “How about that crippled sister of hers. Ain’t she had to protect her? An experience like that puts years on a young thing’s age. By the way, how is the sister?”
Hannah shook her head. “It’s a bad case the doctors think, so Miss Cicely and Mrs. Duer tell me. ”

“ The shopman laughed too and Miss Cicely, to explain her absurd blunder, confided to him that she was really looking for a little girl between six and twelve years of age who was truthful and not too mischievous, and did they keep any of the sort in stock?
The salesman laughed again.
“Why, yes, madam, we do,” he replied. “Most of them are somewhat older than you want, to be sure, but we have one, at least right here now, that, come to think of it, ought to just fill the bill. Here! Cash! Cash one-hundred-and-five! Cash! Cash!” ”