"What's that? only a bagatelle," sniffed Tom, "compared to what I meant
to do."
"Well, let's have the race on horseback this afternoon," proposed
Polly, "down through the park, that you said you were going to have,
Tom. Wouldn't that be nice?"
"Do," urged Jasper. "It would be so capital, Tom."
"All right," assented Tom, "if you'd really rather have that than
anything else; but it seems as if I ought to think up something more
for the last afternoon, but the f?te; and that doesn't count."
"Oh, nothing could be finer," declared Polly, and Jasper joined. So Tom
rushed off to the stables to give the orders. And Polly on Meteor was
soon flying up and down with the boys, and Elinor and Mary. And the two
small lads trotted after on their Shetland ponies, in and out the
winding roads of the park confines, without any haunting fear of a poor
red fox to be done to death at the end.
And on the morrow, the sun condescended to come out in all his glory,
upon the groups of tenantry scattered over the broad lawns. There were
games in abundance for the men and boys; and others for the children.
There were chairs for the old women, and long benches for those who
desired to sit under the spreading branches of the great oaks to look
on. And there were cups of tea, and thin bread and butter passed around
by the white-capped maids, superintended by the housekeeper and the
butler, quite important in their several functions.
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