Chapter I: Preface

I often run down to Badgertown and into the little brown house to talk things over with the Peppers, and every single time they one and all tell me they don’t think I have told enough about David.

It quite cut me to the heart the other day to hear Polly say mournfully, “You’ve made a book about Ben and one about Phronsie, and you’ve told all about Joel’s Adventures, and stories that I made up; and you never let Davie have a book--and he is _our Davie_.”

“Oh, I will, Polly--I will!” I promised. And she laughed gleefully, and Ben smiled in great satisfaction, and Joel said: “Whickets! Now, Dave, you’re going to have a book all to yourself.” And Phronsie crowed and gurgled, and made a cheese right in the middle of the old kitchen floor. As for Mother Pepper, the look she gave me, well--wasn’t I glad that I had promised!

But David ran up to me and whispered, “I’d rather you made another book about Joel.”

“I can’t, Davie,” I whispered back, “the children all over the country have been teasing me for years to give them a book about you. And now as all the rest of the Pepper family want it, why, you see, I just _must_ write it.”

“O dear!” said David.

Polly ran over to our corner. “Dear Margaret Sidney,” she begged, clasping her hands, “_please_ tell all about Davie when he was a little boy. That’s what we want; because you see you told ever so much more about the rest of us than you did about him. And Davie was always just splendid! Why, he was our Davie!”

So now here is “Our Davie Pepper,” just as the Little Brown House people wanted me to write it.

MARGARET SIDNEY.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I DAVIE AND OLD MAN PETERS 1

II MRS. PEPPER ATTENDS TO THE MATTER 15

III THE DARK CLOUD OVER THE LITTLE BROWN HOUSE 30

IV SUNLIGHT THROUGH THE CLOUD 47

V ON THE MAYBURY ROAD 68

VI BACK TO MAMSIE 84

VII “GOOD-BY, CHILDREN” 101

VIII “OLD FATHER DUBBIN” 118

IX THE OLD BOOK BOX 134

X MARY POTE HELPS 149

XI “I’D TRY TO LEARN” 163

XII HOP O’ MY THUMB 177

XIII “DON’T HURT HIM” 192

XIV IN THE PARROTT PLAYROOM 206

XV “AND SEE MY SLATE” 223

XVI AT GRANDMA BASCOM’S 239

XVII THE FISHING PARTY 255

XVIII DANGER 269

XIX “POLLY KISSED IT!” SAID DAVIE 282

XX JOEL’S COMPANY 296

XXI AT FARMER BROWN’S 312

XXII THE BEAUTIFUL DAY 326

XXIII THE UNINVITED GUEST 341

XXIV GREAT-GRANDMOTHER PEPPER’S BEADS 355

XXV JIMMY 370

XXVI THE CIRCUS 384

XXVII MORE ABOUT THE CIRCUS 398

XXVIII DAVID’S CAP 421

XXIX THE STORY IN THE SHOE-SHOP 441

XXX THE LETTER 456

XXXI WORKING HARD TO KEEP CHEERY 474

ILLUSTRATIONS

“My! don’t you hear the logs crackle,
and isn’t this blaze perfectly beautiful!” (Page 124) _Frontispiece_

FACING
PAGE

“He told me to write things that folks asked for on
the slate,” said David 188

“You may pick out the one you like best,” said Miss Parrott 234

“Dave caught that. Dave caught that all by himself!” 272

Pretty soon he was stitching away and cobbling at a great
rate, Davie swinging his stocking-foot 434

They all held their breath to catch every word, and Davie
began 490

OUR DAVIE PEPPER