73
"Captain Sonny Boy Plummer." 79

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A GREAT SURPRISE FOR THE PLUMMERS

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SONNY BOY

CHAPTER I

A GREAT SURPRISE FOR THE PLUMMERS

Mamma Plummer read a letter at the dinner-table before she touched her
soup. She had been having visitors and had not had time to look at it
before. And she was always in a hurry to hear from Aunt Kate.

Aunt Kate! All seven of the young Plummers pricked up their ears.

Aunt Kate was "the right kind," as Tom Plummer said. She remembered all
the young Plummers' birthdays, and even when she was in Europe sent home
beautiful presents that arrived in Poppleton on the very day. A present is
so much better on the very day.

"Aunt Kate is lonesome, in her new house, without any young people," said
Mamma Plummer, at last. "She wants to borrow one of you children for six
months."

There was a chorus of delight from the young Plummers. Mamma Plummer
sighed a little. People were always saying, "How many there are of the
Plummers," but Mamma Plummer never thought there were too many.

"Probably she wants one of us," whispered Dorothy, who was sixteen, to
Polly, who was eighteen.

Sydney, who was fifteen, waited eagerly. He thought Aunt Kate might have
heard of the picture on the barn door and mean to give him a chance to
become a great artist. Any one could see that the picture meant a man on
horseback, with a pipe in his mouth, and that the man was Michael, their
gardener, even if Tom did pretend to think it was the town pump.

Oliver stood up on a round of his chair; he was short, and he had such a
little, squeaky voice that he had to get up high to make people notice
him.

"She _may_ want one of the youngsters," said Polly doubtfully. "She said
Trixie was a quaint child."

"I'm not a quaint child," said Trixie, as if her feelings were hurt. "And
I'm not the one who can leave home just as well as not. So many things
disagree with Bevis, and the Bantam rooster pecks my chicks."

"You sha'n't go," said Papa Plummer, patting her head. They all knew that
Trixie was a home body. Once, when she tried to stay at Aunt Sarah's, they
had to bring her home in the middle of the night.

"If she wants me," said Tom, "I'm her man." But Tom was eating his dinner
just as if nothing