5. Scrapes
Chapter 6. Grandma
Chapter 7. Good-by
Chapter 8. Six Years Afterward
Chapter 9. Lessons
Chapter 10. Brothers and Sisters
Chapter 11. Needles and Tongues
Chapter 12. Forbidden Fruit
Chapter 13. The Sunny Side
Chapter 14. Nipped in the Bud
Chapter 15. Breakers Ahead
Chapter 16. A Dress Parade
Chapter 17. Playing Grandmother
Chapter 18. The Woman Who Did Not Dare
Chapter 19. Tom's Success

An Old-fashioned Girl

CHAPTER I. POLLY ARRIVES

"IT 'S time to go to the station, Tom."

"Come on, then."

"Oh, I 'm not going; it 's too wet. Should n't have a crimp left if I
went out such a day as this; and I want to look nice when Polly comes."

"You don't expect me to go and bring home a strange girl alone, do you?"
And Tom looked as much alarmed as if his sister had proposed to him to
escort the wild woman of Australia.

"Of course I do. It 's your place to go and get her; and if you was n't
a bear, you 'd like it."

"Well, I call that mean! I supposed I 'd got to go; but you said you 'd
go, too. Catch me bothering about your friends another time! No, sir!"
And Tom rose from the sofa with an air of indignant resolution, the
impressive effect of which was somewhat damaged by a tousled head, and
the hunched appearance of his garments generally.

"Now, don't be cross; and I 'll get mamma to let you have that horrid
Ned Miller, that you are so fond of, come and make you a visit after
Polly 's gone," said Fanny, hoping to soothe his ruffled feelings.

"How long is she going to stay?" demanded Tom, making his toilet by a
promiscuous shake.

"A month or two, maybe. She 's ever so nice; and I shall keep her as
long as she 's happy."

"She won't stay long then, if I can help it," muttered Tom, who regarded
girls as a very unnecessary portion of creation. Boys of fourteen are
apt to think so, and perhaps it is a wise arrangement; for, being fond
of turning somersaults, they have an opportunity of indulging in a good
one, metaphorically speaking, when, three or four years later, they
become the abject slaves of "those bothering girls."

"Look here! how am I going to know the creature? I never saw her, and
she never saw me. You 'll have to come too, Fan," he added, pausing on
his way to the door, arrested by the awful idea that he might have to
address several strange girls before he got the right one.

"You 'll find her eas