"Well, who did?" queried Rose.

"I did," he said, watching her closely. "I axed yer is she going ter
have a _big_ party?"

"She can't. It would be too costly, and the cottage is too small, but
she is generous and kind to give us any party at all, and oh, Gyp!"
she cried, moving nearer to him, "I _do_ wish you wouldn't tease her."

Gyp wriggled.

"She said she hated me!" he said.

"Well, she _might_ have been angry, but she likes boys. I've heard her
say so," Rose replied.

"I ain't just a boy. I'm a _Gypsy_ boy. That's _different_."

"Princess Polly is always kind to her, and I _know_ it would please
her if you stopped teasing Aunt Judith," Rose said.

That was just the thing to have said!

Gyp was determined to win Polly's approval at all costs. He sprang
from the low wall, and rushed off to the old shanty that his family
called "home."

There he found an old basket, and rushing off into the heart of the
woods, he returned with a quantity of fine shellbarks that he had
gathered and hoarded. Two days before the party was to occur he obtained