"Oh, Joel," cried his mother, turning around on him with very
black hands, "you haven't told!"

"No," said Joel, "but she's hearin' the noise, Polly is."

"Hush!" said Ben, to one of the men.

"We can't put it up without some noise," the man replied, "but we'll
be as still as we can."

"Isn't it a big one, ma?" asked Joel, in the loudest of stage
whispers, that Polly on the other side of the door couldn't have
failed to hear if Phronsie hadn't laughed just then.

"Go back, Joe, do," said Ben, "play tag--anything," he implored,
"we'll be through in a few minutes."

"It takes forever!" said Joel, disappearing within the bedroom door.
Luckily for the secret, Phronsie just then ran a pin sticking up on
the arm of the old chair, into her finger; and Polly, while
comforting her, forgot to question Joel. And then the mother came
in, and though she had ill-concealed hilarity in her voice, she kept
chattering and bustling around with Polly's supper to such an
extent that there was no chance for a word to be got in.

Next morning it seemed as if the "little brown house," would turn
inside out with joy.

"Oh, mammy!" cried Polly, jumping into her anns the first thing, as