'But when I lie in the green kirkyard,
With the mould upon my breasts
Say not that she made flapjacks well,
Only, she did her best.'
'We promise!' cried Bell.
CHAPTER VII: POLLY'S BIRTHDAY: FIRST HALF
IN WHICH SHE REJOICES AT THE MERE FACT OF HER EXISTENCE.
'"O frabjous day! Calooh! Callay!"
He chortled in his joy.'
Polly's birthday dawned auspiciously. At six o'clock she was kissed
out of a sound sleep by Bell and Margery, and the three girls slipped
on their wrappers, and prepared to run through the trees for a
morning plunge in Mirror Pool. Although it was August there was
still water enough in Minnehaha Brook to give one a refreshing dip.
Mirror Pool was a quarter of a mile distant and well guarded with
rocks and deep hidden in trees; but a little pathway had been made to
the water's edge, and thus the girls had easy access to what they
called The Mermaid's Bath. A bay-tree was adorned with a little
redwood sign, which bore a picture of a mermaid, drawn by Margery,
and below the name these lines in rustic letters:-
'A hidden brook,
That to the sleeping woods all night
Singeth a quiet tune.'
Laura had not lived long enough in the woods to enjoy these cold
plunges; and, as her ideal was a marble tub, with scented water, and
a French maid to apply the same with a velvet sponge, it is not much
wonder. She insisted that, though it was doubtless a very romantic
proceeding, the bottom and sides of the natural tub were quite too
rocky and rough for her taste, and that she should be in constant
terror of snakes curling round her toes.
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