Penelope and the Others | Page 3

that's pleasant first, and afterwards, and all the time," said Nancy, who was now standing still on the swing.
It was worse for Nancy to listen in this mood than to pay no attention.
"I wish you'd go on swinging, Nancy," said Pennie impatiently, "you only interrupt."
"Oh, all right!" said Nancy. "I thought you wanted us to listen. I don't like the beginning at any rate."
She launched herself into motion again, but Pennie was uneasily conscious that she could still hear every word, and though she explained her plan as well as she could, she felt she was not doing it justice. She got through it, however, without any further interruption.
"Wouldn't it be nice," she said after dwelling on Miss Unity's attachment to the mandarin, "if we all saved up some money and put it into a box, and when we got enough if we all bought a new mandarin, and all gave it her? I wanted to do it by myself, but I never could. It would take too long."
She looked anxiously at her hearers. No one spoke at first. David seemed entirely occupied in picking out the choicest bits of parsley and carrot for Goliath, his biggest rabbit; but at last he said moodily:
"Ethelwyn broke it."
"Mean thing!" exclaimed Nancy's voice on high.
"Yes, I know," murmured Pennie.
"Then," continued David, "she ought to pay for a new one. Not us."
"But she never would," said Ambrose. "Why, I don't suppose she even remembers doing it."
"If there ever was," put in Nancy, "anyone I hated, it was that stupid Ethelwyn."
"You oughtn't to say that, Nancy," said Pennie reprovingly. "You know mother doesn't like you to say you hate people."
"Well, I won't say so, then; but I did all the same, and so did you at last."
"Will anyone agree to the plan?" asked Pennie dejectedly, for she felt that the proposal had been a failure. To her surprise David turned round from the row of hutches.
"I will," he said, "because she was so kind once, but I can't give it every week. I'll give it when I don't want it very much for something else."
Ambrose remained silent a little while. He was rather vexed that David had made this offer before he had spoken himself, for he did not like his younger brother to take the lead.
"I don't call that much of a sacrifice," he said at length. "I shall give some every week."
Dickie had listened to all this without any clear idea as to what it meant, but she could not bear to be left out of any scheme, and she now said firmly:
"Me will too."
Her offer was received with laughter.
"You've got no pocket-money, Dickie," said Pennie.
"She's got her slug-money," observed David. This property of Dickie's consisted of the payment for slugs and snails which she collected in a flower-pot and delivered to Andrew for execution. He kept the account chalked up in the potting shed, and when it reached a hundred, Dickie was entitled to ask her father for a penny.
"I call it a shame to take her slug-money," cried out Nancy from the swing.
"No one wants to take it," replied Pennie, "but she shall give it if she likes."
"I call it a stupid old plan, with nothing pleasant about it at all," were Nancy's last words as they all left the barn.
Pennie tried to treat those remarks with indifference, but she was in truth wounded and discouraged by them, and felt, moreover, that they were likely to affect the boys unfavourably. She observed that Ambrose became very thoughtful as they approached the house, and presently he asked in an off-hand manner:
"How long do you suppose it will take us to buy a mandarin?"
Pennie could not say, but she thought it might be a long while, because she had heard that china figures of that sort were expensive, "and of course," she added, "we must get one of the very best."
"Oh, of course!" said Ambrose at once. But he began to reflect that it would be very dull never to have any pocket-money to spend, and to wish that he had followed David's prudent example. He could not possibly draw back now, but he hoped the mandarin might not prove quite so expensive as Pennie thought.
Pennie herself hardly knew what to think about the success of her plan. It certainly had not been received very heartily, but there was no reason why it should fail if Ambrose and David would remain true to their promise. That was the question. Much patience and self-denial would be needed, and it was unfortunate that next month there would be a great temptation in the way--Cheddington Fair.
David had only agreed to give his share when he did not want to spend it on anything else. Now even without the attractions of a fair there are plenty of