"See here, now," cried Tom, suddenly squaring up to her and looking at
the face between the nodding cap-frills, "we are ready to take a
certain amount of abuse, my friend and I, but we won't stand more, I
can tell you."
"Oh, don't," began Polly, clasping her hands. "Oh, Tom, _please_
keep still. She doesn't know what she's saying, for she's lost her pin
with her father on."
"Hey?" cried Jasper. "Say it again, Polly," while Tom shouted and
roared all through Polly's recital.
"Was it an old fright with a long nose in a blue coat and ruffles, and
as big as a turnip?" he asked between the shouts. While Polly tried to
say, "Yes, I guess so," and Miss Car'line's sister so far overcame her
aversion to boys as to seize him by the arm, Tom shook her off like a
feather. "See here, old party," he cried, "that ancient pin of yours is
reposing in the hotel office at this blessed moment. Jasper and I,"
indicating his friend, "ran across it on the rocks up there more than
an hour ago, and--"
"Oh, Pa's found!" exclaimed the old woman, in a shrill scream of
delight, beginning to trot down to the hotel office.
"Yes, it would have been impossible for Pa to have got off this
mountain without making a landslide," said Tom, after her.
XXIII
IN THE SHADOW OF THE MATTERHORN
They had been days at dear Interlaken, walking up and down the
_Hoheweg_, of which they never tired, or resting on the benches
under the plane and walnut trees opposite their hotel, just sitting
still to gaze their fill upon the _Jungfrau_.
Pages:
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242