"
"Oh, they sha'n't!" declared Polly. "O dear me!" as one boy drew near,
on the side next to the travellers, and watching his chance, picked at
a flying apron or two. But the ring of girls paid no more attention to
him, than they had to any other outside matters, being wholly absorbed
in the game. So Polly and the others breathed freely again.
But up came another boy. "O dear me!" cried Polly, aghast. When number
three put in an appearance, she gave up all hope at once.
"They're jealous chaps," cried Tom, "and are vexed because they can't
get into the game! Hear them jeer!" And his long arm went out and
picked a jacket-end of an urchin, who, incautiously regarding such
quiet travellers as not worth minding, had hovered too near, while
trying to tease the girls.
"Here, you, sir," cried Tom, with a bit of a shake, and a torrent of
remarkably good French not to be disregarded; then he burst into a
laugh. And the urchin laughed too, thinking this much better fun to
tussle with the tall lad, than to hang around a parcel of girls. And
presently a woman came and took little blue pinafore off, and then the
rest of the girls unclasped their hands, and the ring melted away, and
the game was over.
"I'm glad the girls over here have fun," said Polly, as Grandpapa and
his party moved off. "Isn't it nice to think they do?"
"It isn't much matter where you live, there's a good deal to be gotten
out of life; if you only know how," said the parson, thinking busily of
the little brown house.
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