The Adventures of Joel Pepper

  XXII

  THE MINISTER'S CHICKENS

  Mr. Tisbett was right. And before he left, Joel was sitting onhis knee, and hearing various accounts of Black Bill; how he ranaway once when he was a colt, and Mr. Tisbett never caught himtill he'd chased him over into Hillsbury; and how once, when thepole broke going down a hill, Black Bill had held Jerry fromkicking and plunging loose, and brought 'em all down in safetyto the bottom.

  "I tell you, sir," declared Mr. Tisbett, bringing his big fistdown on his knee, "that's a horse for you, ef ever there was one.And you shall go along of me sometime, Joe, and have a ride inth' stage-coach again, if your Ma'll let you."

  "Hooray!" cried Joel, hugely pleased. "When I'm a man, Mr.Tisbett, I'm goin' to have a stage just like yours, and twohorses just exactly like Black Bill."

  "Take my advice," said the stage-driver, "an don't try to gettwo horses exactly alike, 'cause you're bound to be disappointed.Now there's Jerry; ain't a mite like Black Bill, but he's awful goodto run along with him."

  "Then I shall have one like Jerry, instead," decided Joel,folding his hands in great satisfaction, since Mr. Tisbettadvised it so. "Now I'm going to finish my circus, and bemonkey." And he began to get down from the stage-driver's knee.

  "You hold on there," said Mr. Tisbett, firmly; "you've beenmonkey long enough, and scart your Ma and all on us nigh almostto death. Don't you go up that tree again, Joel Pepper! If youdo, I won't take you on no more stage rides with me. You hear me,now."

  Yes, Joel did hear, so although he whimpered and teased, anddeclared he hadn't played monkey more than a half a minute, andhe'd lost most all his circus, Mr. Tisbett sat up stiff andstraight, holding him tightly, and said, "If I hear of you goin'up that ere tree again, you don't go with me." So Joel promisedhe would be very good, and then he hopped down and got intoMamsie's lap, and let himself be cuddled to his heart's content.

  "My land!" exploded Mrs. Beebe, when quiet was restored. "Ideclare, I'm all beat out. You could knock me down with afeather," she confided to Polly. "Well, well, well, that boy'ssaved for something. Now, Joel, why don't you have the animalsnow? Did you like 'em?" and she settled her glasses to get agood look at him, and assure herself that he was reallyuninjured. "It's a miracle," she kept saying to Grandma, whobobbed her cap all the while, as if she heard every word.

  "They were awful good," said Joel, in satisfaction. "Give me therest of 'em, Polly," and he held out his hand.

  "So you shall have 'em, Joel," cried Polly, glad to think therewas something she could do, and she ran and brought the littlesugar cooky animals where she had fixed them in some largeleaves ready for Joel to pass them around among the company atthe close of the performance.

  "Mamsie must have the first one," said Joel, picking out thebiggest and best, with the largest currant eyes, to force itbetween Mrs. Pepper's pale lips, "then Polly next."

  "Oh, no, Joe," said Polly, "I'm not company. Give one to Grandmaand to Mrs. Beebe first."

  "Oh, you pretty creature you!" exclaimed Grandma. "So you wantme to have a cake?" as Joel turned to her with one in his hand.

  "Tisn't a cake--it's an animal," corrected Joel, irritably.

  "Yes, yes--so 'tis a cake," repeated Grandma Bascom, taking theanimal.

  "'Tisn't," said Joel. "Mamsie, make her stop saying things thataren't so, over and over."

  "Joel," said Polly, quickly, "Mrs. Beebe hasn't any animal. Whydon't you give her a--let me see," and she considered deeply."I'd give her a bird, Joel, here's a lovely one," and shepounced on a most remarkable specimen in the bird line one wouldwish to see. "Mrs. Beebe, wouldn't you like that?" she asked.

  "Oh, I should so," replied Mrs. Beebe, smiling all over her faceto see how well Joel was, and putting out her hand. "Bless yourheart, Joel, I'd rather have the bird than any other."

  "Had you?" asked Joel, greatly pleased.

  "Yes, indeed I had. I always set dreadfully by birds," said Mrs.Beebe. So Joel gave her the bird, then he leaned over and pickedout a horse, very much baked on one side, and with one leg shorterthan the other "That's for you, Mr. Tisbett," he said.

  "That suits me," said Mr. Tisbett, heartily. "Well, now I never!Seems to me I can't eat it, 'twould be almost like chewing up acritter, but I'll keep it to remember you by," and he slipped itinto his big pocket. Then he got up and shook himself. "And nowI must be a-goin'. Don't you be a mite worried, Mrs. Pepper,take my advice; that boy'll scare you more times than you cancount. So you might as well get used to it. Now look sharp, Joe,and remember what you promised."

  "Phronsie must have the--"

  "Oh, Joey, I want the piggie, I do," cried Phronsie, whose eyeshad been fastened on the cooky animals ever since Polly hadbrought them up on the beautiful green leaves. "May I, Joel?"she begged.

  "Hoh, that isn't good!" said Joel, disdainfully. "He's a horridold pig."

  "Hush, Joey," said Polly, and her face turned rosy red,remembering Mrs. Beebe. But old Mrs. Beebe only laughed, andsaid she knew the pig wasn't baked good, he would whirl overon one side in the pan. And sometime she would bake Joel agood nice one. But Phronsie kept on pleading for this particularpig. "Do, Joel, please," she begged, "give me the dear, sweetpiggie." So Joel put it in her hand, when she cuddled it lovinglyup against her fat little neck, not thinking of such a thing aseating it.

  And then David must pick out the one he wanted, and then Ben.And then all over again, around and around, till there wasn'tanother cooky animal left. And when he saw that, Joel hoppeddown from Mamsie's lap and marched up to Mrs. Beebe. "Youranimals were better'n mine," he said.

  "They don't tumble out of trees," said Mrs. Beebe, laughing. Andthen everybody got very merry, and Polly said, Could they play agame? and Mrs. Pepper looked at Joel hopping about, and she said,Yes, with a glad thrill that her boy was safe. "It will help himto forget his accident," she said to Polly. So after all, thecircus wound up with a fine ending.

  And in the midst of it Mrs. Brown came panting over, havingrun nearly every step of the way. When she saw Joel spinningaround in The Barberry Bush, she leaned against the side of thelittle brown house, and said, "O my!"

  Mrs. Pepper hurried over to her. "Sally ran home and said Joelhad tumbled from a tree, so I brought these over as soon's Icould," panted Mrs. Brown, opening her apron, and there wereever so many bottles of medicine.

  "O dear me!" exclaimed Mrs. Pepper, with a thankful throb tothink they were not wanted, and, "You are so good, Mrs. Brown."

  "So we go round the barberry bush," sang Joel, piping out theloudest of any one, and kicking up his heels as he danced.

  "Dear me!" said Mrs. Brown, "I never did, in all my life! Justhear that boy!"

  And she hadn't been gone but a moment or two, carrying her apronfull of medicines with her, before Mrs. Henderson came hurryingalong down the dusty road. Her face was flushed, and she lookedanxious enough. Mrs. Pepper said, "Run, Polly, and meet her, andtell her Joel is all right. Bless her! She is a parson's wife!"

  So Polly ran with all her might, and stood before Mrs. Henderson,flushed and almost breathless.

  "Joey's all well," she managed to say.

  "Thank you, Polly," said Mrs. Henderson, smiling down into theflushed face. "And I am so glad to know it, for Peletiah camehome very frightened. Well, take your mother this. Stay, Ibetter go and see her, I guess." So she went up to the littlegroup back in the orchard, and heard all about Joel's accidentfrom himself, as he wanted to tell it all, up to the time whenthey picked him up.

  Mrs. Henderson wiped her eyes many times during the recital,then she drew Joel to her. "You must come over to see my newchickens some day."

  "I'll go to-morrow," said Joel, sociably, "if Mamsie'll let me."

  "Oh, Joey!" reproved Mrs. Pepper. "Please excuse him," to Mrs.Henderson, "he doesn't think what he is saying."

  "So you shall, Joey," said the parson's wife, with a pleasantsmile, "and bring the others with you. Let them come, Mrs.Pepper, do."

  "Ben can't go, of course," said Mrs. Pepper
, "and Polly can't,either," and her face grew sober, "for Mr. Atkins says I may getsome more coats to-morrow morning, and she's getting so shehelps me a good deal."

  "Never mind," said Polly, trying to laugh. How she would love tosee those new chickens!

  "Polly shall come some other time," said Mrs. Henderson, with akindly smile on her face. "To-morrow afternoon, Mrs. Pepper, atthree o'clock, please let them come over."

  So the next afternoon Joel, with many injunctions to be good,escorted the other two children to Parson Henderson's, Mrs.Pepper and Polly watching them from the door stone as theytrudged off down the road, Phronsie clinging to Joel's hand, andDavid on the other side.

  "She's a parson's wife, now!" said Mrs. Pepper for the fiftiethtime, as the children turned the bend in the road, and wipingher eyes she went back into the house to pick up her sewing andgo to work. "Well, Polly, you and I will have a fine time to flyat this now."

  The two needles clicked away busily enough as Polly sat down onthe cricket at Mrs. Pepper's feet. "Whatever should we do withoutMr. Atkins, too, Mamsie?" she said.

  "Polly," said Mother Pepper, suddenly, and she laid down herwork a moment, although time was precious enough, "Mother'ssorry you couldn't go, too. But a nice time will come for yousometime, I hope," though she sighed.

  "Never mind me, Mammy," said Polly, cheerily.

  "But I can't help minding, Polly," said Mrs. Pepper, sadly,"when I think how few nice times you have. But I'll try all theharder." And she picked up her work again, and made the needlefly faster than ever.

  "And it's so very nice that Joel can go and see those newchickens," said Polly, suppressing a sigh, "after he fellyesterday, and Phronsie, oh, you can't think, Mamsie! how sheruns on about the chickens she saw there once."

  "Yes, it is nice," said Mrs. Pepper, but she sighed again.

  Meantime Joel was in a state of supreme delight. Kneeling downin front of the coop, with his face pressed close to the bars,he was watching every movement of the fluffy little things, countingthem over and over, and speculating what he would do if they werehis, Phronsie crouching down by one side, while David was as closeon the other, and all three children speechless with delight.

  Presently Joel broke the silence. "I'm going to take out one,"he said.

  "Oh, no, Joe!" cried Davie, in alarm, and tumbling backward fromthe coop.

  "Yes, I am," said Joel, obstinately, who never could brookinterference. "It won't hurt it a bit, and I'll put it rightback."

  Phronsie didn't hear him, her whole attention being absorbed bythe wonderful chickens. So Joel cautiously pulled up one slat ofthe coop a very little way. "There, you see," he cried inexultation, "I can do it just as easy as not;" when a bee,humming its way along, stung him smartly on the arm, and Joeltwitched so suddenly that up went the slat quite high, andbefore he could stop them, out walked the old mother hen, andtwo of her children.

  "Oh, Joe, Joe! they're out!" screamed David. Phronsie rolledover on the grass in a little ball, as Joel knocked against her,and nobody thought for a moment of shutting the bar down. Sothree more chickens stepped out and hopped away over the grass.

  "Oh, Joe, Joe, they're all coming out!" cried David, quitebeside himself with horror.

  "Shut the bar! shut the bar!" screamed Joel, running hither andthither, and only making the mother frantic, in her efforts toget away from him, and to protect her brood.

  "I can't," mourned Davie, tugging bravely at it. So Joel stoppedchasing the hen and the chickens, and rushed up to slam down thebar, and two more chickens having hopped out in the meantime,there they were--seven downy little balls, hurrying about in agreat state of excitement to reach mother, who was cluckingnoisily for them to hurry and come under her wing.

  "Oh, Joe! see what you've done," cried Davie, in distress,trying to help in every direction, but only succeeding ingetting in the way. "O dear me! You can't ever get 'em back inthe coop, in all this world." Phronsie, meanwhile, pickedherself up, and eagerly entered into the chase, gurgling indelight as she pattered first after one little fluffy ball, andthen another.

  "Yes, I can," said Joel, confidently, rushing here and there."You stand still, Dave, and don't let 'em get by you. ThenI'll drive 'em up."

  But after about five minutes of this sort of work, Joel foundthat he couldn't do it very well, for as fast as he got onechicken headed for David, the others all scattered in everydirection, while Mistress Biddy scampered and waddled andclacked to her children, till the parsonage garden seemed fullof hens and chickens. At last Joel stopped and wiped his hotface, David looking at him from a distance in despair.

  "You stay there, Dave, I'm going to tell 'em," and Joel marchedoff with an awful feeling at his heart. But he didn't dare tostop to think about it, but mounted the steps of the parsonageand went down the wide hall. There was nobody to be seen, andJoel was just going to run out to the kitchen, if, perhaps, Mrs.Henderson could be found there. Suddenly the study door opened,and there stood the minister himself in the doorway.

  "Well, Joel," said Parson Henderson, kindly, "I'm glad to seeyou. Do you want anything, my boy?"

  Joel's knees knocked together, but he answered, "I've let allthe hens and chickens out."

  "You've let all the hens and chickens out?" repeated theminister, but he only half understood, and stood staring downinto Joel's black eyes.

  "Yes, sir," said Joel, twisting his brown hands together tightly.If he should cry now, before his story was told, maybe theminister would never get those chickens into the coop. He mustmake him understand. "They're all running everywhere in thegrass," he added miserably.

  "Do you mean Mrs. Henderson's new chickens?" asked the minister,starting a bit. Then he added composedly, "Oh, no, Joel, they'requite safe. She is very particular about looking after the coopherself."

  "But they are," gasped Joel. Then he forgot that it was theminister, and seized his hand. "Please--they're running awfully,and they'll die, maybe."

  Parson Henderson bestowed on him a long searching gaze. "How didthey get out?" he asked.

  "I let 'em out," blurted Joel, "and they're all running. Do come,sir." And he fairly tugged at the minister's hand as if it hadbeen David's.

  The parson went swiftly down the long hall, Joel hanging to hishand. Just then a voice called down the winding stairs,_"Jotham! Jotham!"_

  It was Miss Jerusha. Joel gave one glance up the stairs, andheld tighter than ever to the minister's hand. "Do come," hecried, in an agony. "Oh, please! sir."

  "Mehitable's chickens are out!" screamed Miss Jerusha, nowappearing at the top of the stairs. She was in a short gown andpetticoat, and had been doing up her hair, having just taken theends of the side wisps out of her mouth, where she had conveyedthem for the easier combing of the back locks.

  "I know it," said Parson Henderson, quietly; "Joel has just toldme." With that he pressed the little brown hand that was in hisown.

  "Go back to your room, Jerusha," he said. "I'll see to thechickens."

  "And there's those other two Pepper children," cried MissJerusha after him, with a tart look at Joel, "all over the place.And Mehitable is baking a cake for 'em--think of it!"

  "Is she baking a cake for us?" cried Joel, finding his tongue,as the minister, still holding his hand, went out toward thegarden.

  "Yes," said Parson Henderson, "she is, Joel."

  "And I've let out all her hens and chickens!" cried Joel. "Odear, dear!" and the tears he couldn't hold back any longerrained all down his chubby face.

  "See here," Parson Henderson stopped a minute, "if you're goingto help me, Joel, you can't cry, that's very certain. Why, Iexpect you and I will have every one of those chickens safe andsound in that coop in--well, in next to no time."

  "I'll help you!" cried Joel, dashing off the tears at once, andswallowing hard. "Oh, do hurry, please, Mr. Henderson," pullinghard at the kind hand.

  "Softly--softly there, Joel, my boy," said the minister. "Ifwe're going to get those chickens into that coop, we mustn'tscare them to begin w
ith. Now, you run into the barn, and get alittle corn in the quart measure."

  So Joel, glad of something to do, dropped the minister's hand,and ran off at lightning speed, and soon raced back again withthe quart measure half full of corn.

  "That's well," said Parson Henderson, approvingly. "Now then,the first thing to do is to make the mother go back into thecoop. Here, Mrs. Biddy, take a bit of this nice corn." He flungout a kernel or two to the hen, whose feathers that had startedup in a ruffle and fluff, at sight of Joel, now drooped, and herexcited clacking stopped.

  "Keep perfectly still, Joel," said Parson Henderson, over hisshoulder.

  All this time, Phronsie and David, at sight of ParsonHenderson's approach, had stood as if frozen to the ground,never taking their eyes from his face, except to look at Joel.The parson then went along a few steps nearer to the coop,scattering one or two kernels as he went. Mistress Biddy eyedthem all wistfully. "Come on," said the minister, gently.

  "Cluck--cluck," said the mother hen, sociably, and she waddledslowly, and picked up the first kernels. These were so good thatshe came readily after the next, and so followed the parson, ashe let fall two more. The little fluffy balls, when they saw theirmother so employed, all scampered like mad after her, to surroundher. At last, she was so busily employed, that she didn't noticethat she was running into an angle formed by the coop and theend of the barn. There was a rush. A sudden squawk, and theparson emerged from this corner, with Mistress Biddy in his hands.

  "Now, Joel, you can help me so much," he said cheerily. "Run andpush up the bar to the coop. Be careful not to let any morechickens out. There, that's right!" In went Mistress Biddy, whogave an indignant fluff to her gray feathers, and then cackledcrossly, and the bar flew down into place.

  "That's fine!" exclaimed the minister in great satisfaction,getting up straight again. "Now, Joel, it won't be such a taskto catch the little chickens. Come away from the coop, andthey'll run up when they hear her call," which was indeed thefact. They soon began to scamper as hard as they could from alldirections as Mistress Biddy set up a smart "cluck, cluck,"until all of the seven were swarming over each other to get intothe coop to mother.

  It was surprising, then, to see the minister's hands; theyseemed to be here, there, and everywhere, and to pounce uponthose little fluffy balls with unerring aim, and presently,there they were, Joel lifting the bar when bidden, in the coop,"peeping" away and huddling up to the dear gray feathery nest.The chickens who hadn't run out came up, as if wanting to hearthe story, and what it was like to be out in the world.

  Mr. Henderson sat down on the long grass. "That's a very goodjob done, Joel," he said.

  Just then the kitchen door opened, and a pleasant voice called,"Come, Joel and David and Phronsie Pepper, I've got a new bakedcake for you."