used to say he ‘d be a tip-top boy, but he was n’t,” observed Maud,
with a venerable air.
“Dear old grandma; she did her best, but I ‘m a bad lot,” said Tom,
with a shake of the head and a sober face.
“It always seems as if she must be up in her rooms, and I can’t get
used to finding them empty,” added Polly, softly.
“Father would n’t have anything moved, and Tom sits up there
sometimes; it makes him feel good, he says,” said Maud, who had
a talent for betraying trifles which people preferred should not be
mentioned in public.
“You ‘d better hurry up your apple, for if it is n’t done pretty soon,
you ‘ll have to leave it, Pug,” said Tom, looking annoyed.
“How is Fan?” asked Polly, with tact.
“Well, Fan is rather under the weather; says she ‘s dyspeptic, which
means cross.”
“She is cross, but she ‘s sick too, for I found her crying one day,
and she said nobody cared about her, and she might as well be
dead,” added Maud, having turned her apple with tender care.
“We must try to cheer her up, among us. If I was n’t so busy I ‘d
like to devote myself to her, she has done so much for me,” said
Polly, gratefully.
“I wish you could. I can’t understand her, for she acts like a
weathercock, and I never know how I ‘m going to find her. I hate to
have her mope so, but, upon my life, I don’t know what to do,” said
Tom; but as he uttered the words, something was suggested by the
sight before him. Chairs were few, and Polly had taken half of
Will’s when they drew round the fire. Now she was leaning against
him, in a cosy, confiding way, delightful to behold, while Will’s
strong arm went round her with a protecting air, which said, as
plainly as any words, that this big brother and small sister knew
how to love and help one another. It was a pleasant little picture,
all the pleasanter for its unconsciousness, and Tom found it both
suggestive and agreeable.
“Poor old Fan, she don’t get much petting; maybe that ‘s what she
wants. I ‘ll try it and see, for she stands by me like a trump. If she
was a rosy, cosy little woman, like Polly, it would come easier,
though,” thought Tom, as he meditatively ate his last nut, feeling
that fraternal affection could not be very difficult of
demonstration, to brothers blessed with pretty, good-tempered
sisters.
“I told Tom about the bad fellow who blew up the professor, and
he said he knew him, slightly; and I was so relieved, because I had
a kind of a feeling that it was Tom himself, you and Will laughed
so about it.”
Maud had a queer way of going on with her own thoughts, and
suddenly coming out with whatever lay uppermost, regardless of
time, place, or company. As this remark fell from her, there was a
general smile, and Polly said, with mock solemnity, “It was a sad
thing, and I ‘ve no doubt that misguided young man is very sorry
for it now.”
“He looked perfectly bowed down with remorse last time I saw
him,” said Will, regarding Tom with eyes full of fun, for Will was
a boy as well as a bookworm, and relished a joke as well as
scatter-brained Tom.
“He always is remorseful after a scrape, I ‘ve understood, for he is
n’t a very bad fellow, only his spirits are one too many for him, and
he is n’t as fond of his book as another fellow I know.”
“I ‘m afraid he ‘ll he expelled if he don’t mind,” said Polly,
warningly.
“Should n’t wonder if he was, he ‘s such an unlucky dog,” answered
Tom, rather soberly.
“I hope he ‘ll remember that his friends will be very much
disappointed if he is. He might make them so proud and happy;
that I guess he will, for he is n’t half as thoughtless as he makes
himself out,” said Polly, looking across at Tom with such friendly