Five Little Peppers Abroad

When the friends of the Pepper family found that the author was firm in her decision to continue their history no further, they brought their appeals for the details of some of those good times that made the "little brown house" an object-lesson.

In these appeals, the parents were as vigorous as the young people for a volume of the stories that Polly told, to keep the children happy in those hard days when her story-telling had to be a large factor in their home-life; and also for a book of their plays and exploits, impossible to be embodied in the continued series of their history, so that all who loved the "Five Little Peppers" might the better study the influences that shaped their lives.

Those requests were complied with; the author realising that the detailed account held values, by which stronger light might be thrown on the family life in the "little brown house."

And now the pressure is brought to bear for a book showing the Little Peppers over the ocean, recorded in "Five Little Peppers Midway." And the author is very glad to comply again; for foreign travel throws a wholly different side-light upon the Pepper family. So here is the book.

It is in no sense to be taken as a story written for a guide-book,--although the author lives in it again her repeated enjoyment of the sights and scenes which are accurately depicted. A "Baedeker," if carefully studied, is really all that is needed as a constant companion to the traveller; while for supplementary helps and suggestions, there are many valuable books along the same line. This volume is given up to the Peppers; and they must live their own lives and tell their own story while abroad just as they choose.

As the author has stated many times, her part is "simply to set down what the Peppers did and said, without trying to make them say or do anything in particular." And so over the ocean they are just as much the makers of their own history as when they first opened the door of the "little brown house" to

MARGARET SIDNEY.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER

I. OVER THE OCEAN II. TWO ENGLISH FRIENDS III. PHRONSIE GOES VISITING IV. STEAMER LIFE V. A FISH STORY AND OTHER THINGS VI. A LITTLE SURPRISE VII. OFF FOR HOLLAND VIII. "WE WILL COME AGAIN AND STAY A WEEK" IX. A BOX FOR THE PEPPER BOYS X. DANGER XI. THE TWO BIRTHDAYS IN OLD HOLLAND XII. THE HENDERSON BOX XIII. "THE CLEANEST PLACE IN ALL HOLLAND" XIV. THE ISLAND OF MARKEN XV. MR. KING DOES HIS DUTY XVI. "LET US FLY AT THOSE BOOKS" XVII. POLLY WROTE A NICE LITTLE NOTE XVIII. BAYREUTH AND OLD FRIENDS XIX. MR. KING HAS A LITTLE PLAN FOR POLLY XX. "I SHOULD MAKE HIM HAPPY," SAID PHRONSIE XXI. ON THE RIGI-KULM XXII. POLLY TRIES TO HELP XXIII. IN THE SHADOW OF THE MATTERHORN XXIV. THE ROUND ROBIN XXV. ON THE MER DE GLACE XXVI. "WELL, HERE WE ARE IN PARIS!" XXVII. "I'VE FOUND HIM!" EXCLAIMED JASPER XXVIII. "WELL, I GOT HIM HERE," SAID THE LITTLE EARL

ILLUSTRATIONS

"Now don't you want to get off?"

He clung to his pear with both hands and ate away with great satisfaction

"Fan-ny!--the Earl of Cavendish!" She could go no further

Phronsie sat opposite him

"Mamsie's got her two bothers," said Polly

"Look at that girl!"

She picked up the skirt of her gown

Phronsie ducked and scuttled in as she could

Five Little Peppers Abroad

I

OVER THE OCEAN

"Dear me," said Polly, "I don't see wherever she can be, Jasper. I've searched just everywhere for her." And she gave a little sigh, and pushed up the brown rings of hair under her sailor cap.

"Don't worry, Polly," said Jasper, with a reassuring smile. "She's with Matilda, of course. Come, Polly, let's you and I have a try at the shuffle-board by ourselves, down on the lower deck."

"No, we can't," said Polly, with a dreadful longing at her heart for the charms of a game; "that is, until we've found Phronsie." And she ran down the deck. "Perhaps she is in one of the library corners, though I thought I looked over them all."

"How do you know she isn't with Matilda, Polly?" cried Jasper, racing after, to see Polly's little blue jacket whisking ahead of him up the companion-way.