tender that evening; Tom a trifle pensive, but distressingly polite, and Polly magnanimously friendly to every one; for generous natures like to forgive, and Polly enjoyed the petting after the insult, like a very human girl.As she was brushing her hair at bedtime there came a tap on her door and, opening it, she beheld nothing but a tall black bottle,
with a strip of red flannel tied round it like a cravat, and a cocked-hat note on the cork. Inside were these lines, written in a sprawling hand with very black ink:
DEAR POLLY, Opydilldock is first-rate for sprains. You put a lot on the flannel and do up your wrist, and I guess it will be all right in the morning. Will you come a sleigh-ride tomorrow? I 'm awful sorry I hurt you.
TOM
CHAPTER VI. GRANDMA
"WHERE 'S Polly?" asked Fan one snowy afternoon, as she came into the dining-room where Tom was reposing on the sofa with his boots in the air, absorbed in one of those delightful books in which boys are cast away on desert islands, where every known
fruit, vegetable and flower is in its prime all the year round; or, lost in boundless forests, where the young heroes have thrilling adventures, kill impossible beasts, and, when the author's invention gives out, suddenly find their way home, laden with tiger skins, tame buffaloes and other pleasing trophies of their prowess.
"Dun no," was Tom's brief reply, for he was just escaping from an alligator of the largest size.
32
"Do put down that stupid book, and let 's do something," said Fanny, after a listless stroll round the room. "Hi, they 've got him!" was the only answer vouchsafed by the absorbed reader.
"Where 's Polly?" asked Maud, joining the party with her hands full of paper dolls all suffering for ball-dresses. "Do get along, and don't bother me," cried Tom exasperated at the interruption.
"Then tell us where she is. I 'm sure you know, for she was down here a little while ago," said Fanny. "Up in grandma's room, maybe."
"Provoking thing! you knew it all the time, and did n't tell, just to plague us," scolded Maud.
But Tom was now under water stabbing his alligator, and took no notice of the indignant departure of the young ladies. "Polly 's always poking up in grandma's room. I don't see what fun there is in it," said Fanny as they went up stairs.
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