her eyes fell upon Joel, who sat with his back to the cupboard,
persistently gazing at the opposite wall.

"Why, you told me yourself not to look at the cupboard," said Joel,
in the loudest of stage whispers.

"Dear me; that'll make mammy suspect worse'n anything else if
you look like that," said Polly.

"What did you say about the cupboard?" asked Mrs. Pepper, who
caught Joe's last word.

"We can't tell," said Phronsie, shaking her head at her mother;
"cause there's a ca"-- "Ugh!" and Polly clapped her hand on the
child's mouth; "don't you want Ben to tell us a stoty?"

"Oh, yes!" cried little Phronsie, in which all the others joined with
a whoop of delight; so a most wonderful story, drawn up in Ben's
best style, followed till bedtime.

The first thing Polly did in the morning, was to run to the old
cupboard, followed by all the others, to see if the cake was safe;
and then it had to be drawn out, and dressed anew with the
flowers, for they had decided to have it on the breakfast table.

"It looks better," whispered Polly to Ben, "than it did yesterday;
and aren't the flowers pretty?"

"It looks good enough to eat, anyway," said Ben, smacking his lips.