“Tell me, Polly, do,” whispered Phronsie, going over to her.

“Phronsie,” said Polly very slowly, “Mamsie doesn’t want a big party in the evening to see her married, but to have a cunning little company of friends come in the morning, and”—­

“Ugh!” cried Joel in disgust, coming down suddenly to both feet.

“It will please Mamsie best,” went on Polly, with a cold shoulder to Joel.  “And I never should be happy in all this world to remember that I helped to make my Mamsie unhappy on her wedding day.”

Phronsie shivered, and her voice held a miserable little thrill as she begged, “Oh! make her be married just as she wants to be, Polly, do.”

“Now that’s what I call mean,” cried Joel in a loud, vindictive tone back of Polly, “to work on Phronsie’s feelings.  You can’t make me say I don’t want Mamsie to have a wedding splurge, so there, Polly Pepper!”

Polly preserved a dignified silence, and presented her shoulder again to his view.

“You can’t make me say it, Polly Pepper!” shouted Joel shrilly.

“Oh, Phronsie!” exclaimed Polly in a rapture, throwing her arms around the child, “Mamsie will be so pleased—­you can’t think.  Let us go and tell her; come!”

“See here!” called Joel, edging up, “why don’t you talk to me?”

“I haven’t anything to say,” Polly condescended to give him, without turning her head.  “Come, Phronsie,” holding out her hand.

“Wait a minute.”

“Well, what is it?” Polly’s hand now held Phronsie’s, but she paused on the way to the door.

“I guess I can give up things as well as she can, if I know Mamsie wants me to,” said Joel, with a deeply injured manner.

“Mamsie doesn’t want any of us to give up anything unless we do it as if we were glad to,” said Polly.  For her life, she couldn’t conceal a little scornful note in her voice, and Joel winced miserably.

“I—­I wish she wouldn’t have the big party,” he whined.

“I thought you wanted it,” said Polly, turning to him.

“I—­I don’t.  I’d rather Mamsie would be happy.  O, dear! don’t look at me so.”

“I’m not looking at you so,” said Polly.  “You acted just as if you had your heart set on the party.”

“Well, it isn’t.  I’ll—­I’ll—­if you say party to me again!” and he faced her vindictively.

“Joel Pepper!” cried Polly, holding him with her brown eyes, “do you really mean that you are glad to give up that big evening party, and have the little teeny one in the morning?”

“Yes,” said Joel, “as true as I live and breathe, I do!”

“Oh! oh! oh!” cried Polly, and seizing his arm, she led off in a dance, so much surpassing his efforts, that Phronsie screamed with delight to see them go.  When they could dance no more, Polly, flushed and panting, ran out of the room, leaving the two to find out as best they might, the cause of the strange demeanor.