[An Old-fashioned Girl by Louisa May Alcott]@TWC D-Link book
An Old-fashioned Girl

CHAPTER VII
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Mrs.Shaw forgot her nerves, and put up some ginger-bread with her own hands; Mr.Shaw kissed Polly as if she had been his dearest daughter; and grandma held her close, whispering in a tremulous tone, "My little comfort, come again soon"; while Katy waved her apron from the nursery window, crying, as they drove, away, "The saints bless ye, Miss Polly, dear, and sind ye the best of lucks!" But the crowning joke of all was Tom's good-by, for, when Polly was fairly settled in the car, the last "All aboard!" uttered, and the train in motion, Tom suddenly produced a knobby little bundle, and thrusting it in at the window, while he hung on in some breakneck fashion, said, with a droll mixture of fun and feeling in his face, "It 's horrid; but you wanted it, so I put it in to make you laugh.

Good-by, Polly; good-by, good-by!" The last adieu was a trifle husky, and Tom vanished as it was uttered, leaving Polly to laugh over his parting souvenir till the tears ran down her cheeks.

It was a paper bag of peanuts, and poked down at the very bottom a photograph of Tom.

It was "horrid," for he looked as if taken by a flash of lightning, so black, wild, and staring was it; but Polly liked it, and whenever she felt a little pensive at parting with her friends, she took a peanut, or a peep at Tom's funny picture, which made her merry again.
So the short journey came blithely to an end, and in the twilight she saw a group of loving faces at the door of a humble little house, which was more beautiful than any palace in her eyes, for it was home..


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