Page:An Old Fashioned Girl.djvu/43

Rh a little girl as to a woman; so, I like Mr. Sydney best, because he was kind to me."

"What a sharp child you are, Polly. I shouldn't have thought you'd mind things like that," said Fanny, beginning to understand that there may be a good deal of womanliness even in a little girl.

"I'm used to good manners, though I do live in the country," replied Polly, rather warmly, for she didn't like to be patronized even by her friends.

"Grandma says your mother is a perfect lady, and you are just like her; so don't get in a passion with those poor fellows, and I'll see that they behave better next time. Tom has no manners at all, and you don't complain of him," added Fan, with a laugh.

"I don't care if he hasn't; he's a boy, and acts like one, and I can get on with him a great deal better than I can with those men."

Fanny was just going to take Polly to task for saying "those men" in such a disrespectful tone, when both were startled by a smothered "Cock-a-doodle-doo!" from under the opposite seat.

"It's Tom!" cried Fanny; and with the words out tumbled that incorrigible boy, red in the face, and breathless with suppressed laughter. Seating himself, he surveyed the girls as if well satisfied with the success of his prank, and waiting to be congratulated upon it. "Did you hear what we were saying?' demanded Fanny, uneasily.

"Oh, didn't I, every word?" And Tom exulted over them visibly.

"Did you ever see such a provoking toad, Polly?