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Page 48
One sunny morning Polly ran along the avenue to overtake Lena Lindsey.
"Lena! Lena!" she cried, "wait for me! I've a letter from Rose," she
said, as she walked along with Lena.
"Which way are you going?" Lena asked, "I want to hear what she says."
"I wasn't going anywhere 'til I saw you," said Polly.
"Then come along the path through the grove," said Lena, "and we'll stop
on the bridge, and enjoy the letter there."
They ran along the path together, the sunbeams making Jack-o-lanterns at
their feet. Light branches swayed in the wind, and through the dancing
leaves the sunlight sifted, making Lena's hair a brighter brown, and
Polly's flaxen ringlets like pale gold.
They reached the little bridge, and paused to watch the clear, rippling
brook, as it ran beneath it, and out through the tiny grove.
Humming a melody all its own, it made its zigzag way between birches,
and alders, maples, and elderblow, carrying on its shining surface stray
leaves, and water spiders that struggled to see which first should reach
the sunlit meadow land beyond.
"Now, read the letter," said Lena, "and does she say when she's coming
here?"
"Oh, you hark, while I read," said Polly, taking from its envelope, the
letter that she had, already, read three times.
Lena listened with delight. It would be an event to have little Rose
Atherton come to Avondale! She told of Uncle John's frequent visits, and
of long drives enjoyed with him.
"And here's something that made me laugh," said Polly.
"I told you about Evangeline Longfellow Jenks," she continued, "and
she's written some more verses, and Rose copied this one. Just listen
while I read it."
Polly took a slip of paper from the envelope, and read this absurd verse
that was written upon it:
[Illustration with caption: "Lena listened with delight."]
"I'm to be a poet when I get big,
And I'll write a book that's bigger'n me.
My poems I make now are to practice on,
But when I'm big they'll be fine to see."
"Does she think THAT'S poetry?" said Lena, laughing because the verse
was so absurd that she could not help it.
"If you think that one is funny, just listen to this," said Polly,
turning the slip over, and reading from the other side.
"The sea is wet, and so is the brook;
The earth swings round and round.
The cat's asleep, and so are my feet,
So I'll write no more till anon."
"Why, what DOES she mean?" said Lena, when she could stop laughing long
enough to ask.
"I don't know," said Polly, laughing as heartily as Lena did, "and the
funny thing is that Evangeline says anyone could write poetry that folks
understand. She says it's just TWICE as bright to make verses that
NOBODY could understand!
"I wouldn't want to have to play with her, and Rose says she runs away
whenever she sees Evangeline coming," said Polly.
"I should think she would run," said Lena, "I would."
After the sweet little letter had been read, and Lena had asked for a
second reading, Polly put it back into its envelope, and they talked of
what Rose had written.
"Only think," said Polly, "her Aunt Rose doesn't wish her to be away
from the house to go to school, so she's to have a private tutor at
home, a music teacher, and a dancing teacher, and they're all to
come to her house. She won't be in school with other little girls at
all."
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