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Five Little Peppers and How They Grew by Margaret Sidney
page 125 of 317 (39%)
"Don't you live there?" asked Polly, with a gasp, almost dropping a
tin full of little brown lumps of dough she was carrying to the
oven.

"Live there!" cried Jasper; and then he burst out into a merry laugh.
"No, indeed! I hope not! Why, we're only spending the summer
there, father and I, in the hotel."

"Where's your mother?" asked Joel, squeezing in between Jasper
and his audience. And then they all felt instinctively that a very
wrong question had been asked.

"I haven't any mother," said the boy, in a low voice.

They all stood quite still for a moment; then Polly said, "I wish
you'd come out sometime; and you may bake--or anything else,"
she added; and there was a kinder ring to her voice than ever.

No mother! Polly for her life, couldn't imagine how anybody could
feel without a mother, but the very words alone smote her heart;
and there was nothing she wouldn't have done to give pleasure to
one who had done so much for them.

"I wish you could see our mother," she said, gently. "Why, here she
comes now! oh, mamsie, dear," she cried. "Do, Joe, run and take
her bundle."

Mrs. Pepper stopped a minute to kiss Phronsie--her baby was
dearer than ever to her now. Then her eye fell on Jasper, who stood
respectfully waiting and watching her with great interest.
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