Kate stepped in and began to right things with practised hand.
Disaster came when she saw Polly, at the well, take an instant
from bringing in the water, to wave in the direction of the Peters
farm. As she entered the door, Kate swept her with a glance.
"Have to upset the bowl, as usual?" she said, scathingly. "Just
as I think you're going to make something of yourself, and be of
some use, you begin mooning in the direction of that big, gangling
Hank Peters. Don't you ever let me see you do it again. You are
too young to start that kind of foolishness. I bet a cow he was
hanging around here, and made you late with dinner."
"He was not! He didn't either!" cried Polly, then stopped in
dismay, her cheeks burning. She gulped and went on bravely:
"That is, he wasn't here, and he didn't make ME late, any more
than I kept HIM from his work. He always watches when there are
tramps and peddlers on the road, because he knows I'm alone. I
knew he would be watching two men who stopped to see you, so I
just went as far as the haw tree to tell him I was all right, and
we got to talking --"
If only Kate had been looking at Polly then! But she was putting
the apple butter and cream on the table. As she did so, she
thought possibly it was a good idea to have Henry Peters seeing
that tramps did not frighten Polly, so she missed dawn on the face
of her child, and instead of what might have been, she said:
"Well, I must say THAT is neighbourly of him; but don't you dare
let him get any foolish notions in his head. I think Aunt Nancy
Ellen will let you stay at her house after this, and go to the
Hartley High School in winter, so you can come out of that much
better prepared to teach than I ever was. I had a surprise
planned for you to-night, but now I don't know whether you deserve
it or not. I'll have to think."
Kate did not think at all. After the manner of parents, she SAID
that, but her head was full of something she thought vastly more
important just then; of course Polly should have her share in it.
Left alone to wash the dishes and cook supper while her mother
went to town, it was Polly, who did the thinking. She thought
entirely too much, thought bitterly, thought disappointedly, and
finally thought resentfully, and then alas, Polly thought
deceitfully. Her mother had said: "Never let me see you." Very
well, she would be extremely careful that she was NOT seen; but
before she slept she rather thought she would find a way to let
Henry know how she was being abused, and about that plan to send
her away all the long winter to school. She rather thought Henry
would have something to say about how his "Little Beautiful" was
being treated. Here Polly looked long and searchingly in the
mirror to see if by any chance Henry was mistaken, and she
discovered he was. She stared in amazement at the pink-cheeked,
shining eyed girl she saw mirrored. She pulled her hair looser
around the temples, and drew her lips over her teeth. Surely
Henry was mistaken. "Little Beautiful" was too moderate. She
would see that he said "perfectly lovely," the next time, and he
did.