t of the closet as suddenly as
she had whisked in, leaving Tom sitting on the boot-jack, with a radiant
countenance.

How the girls made it up no one ever knew. But after much talking and
crying, kissing and laughing, the breach was healed, and peace declared.
A slight haze still lingered in the air after the storm, for Fanny
was very humble and tender that evening; Tom a trifle pensive, but
distressingly polite, and Polly magnanimously friendly to every one; for
generous natures like to forgive, and Polly enjoyed the petting after
the insult, like a very human girl.

As she was brushing her hair at bedtime there came a tap on her door
and, opening it, she beheld nothing but a tall black bottle, with a
strip of red flannel tied round it like a cravat, and a cocked-hat note
on the cork. Inside were these lines, written in a sprawling hand with
very black ink:

DEAR POLLY, Opydilldock is first-rate for sprains. You put a lot on the
flannel and do up your wrist, and I guess it will be all right in the
morning. Will you come a sleigh-ride tomorrow? I 'm awful sorry I hurt
you.

TOM

CHAPTER VI. GRANDMA

"WHERE 'S Polly?" asked Fan one snowy afternoon, as she came into the
dining-room where Tom was reposing on the sofa with his boots in the
air, absorbed in one of those delightful books in which boys are cast
away on desert islands, where every known fruit, vegetable and flower
is in its prime all the year round; or, lost in boundless forests, where
the young heroes have thrilling adventures, kill impossible beasts, and,
when the author's invention gives out, suddenly find their way home,
laden with tiger skins, tame buffaloes and other pleasing trophies of
their prowess.

"Dun no," was Tom's brief reply, for he was just escaping from an
alligator of the largest size.

"Do put down that stupid book, and let 's do something," said Fanny,
after a listless stroll round the room.

"Hi, they 've got him!" was the only answer vouchsafed by the absorbed
reader.

"Where 's Polly?" asked Maud, joining the party with her hands full of
paper dolls all suffering for ball-dresses.

"Do get along, and don't bother me," cried Tom exasperated at the
interruption.

"Then tell us where she is. I 'm sure you know, for she was down here a
little while ago," said Fanny.

"Up in grandma's room, maybe."

"Provoking thing! you knew it all the time, and did n't tell, just to
plague us," scolded Maud.

But Tom was now u