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FIVE LITTLE PEPPERS AND THEIR FRIENDS

By MARGARET SIDNEY

AUTHOR OF "FIVE LITTLE PEPPERS ABROAD," "A LITTLE MAID OF CONCORD TOWN,"
"SALLY, MRS. TUBBS," ETC.


Illustrated by Eugenie M. Wireman


[Illustration: "What are you doing, Phronsie, sitting down in the middle
of the stairs?"--(See page 46.)]




  To my daughter Margaret,
    who to her friends embodies
    "Polly Pepper" in her
    girlhood, I dedicate most
    lovingly this book.




PREFACE.


  There were so many interesting friends of the Five Little Peppers,
  whose lives were only the faintest of outlines in the series ending
  when Phronsie was grown up, that a volume devoted to this outer
  circle has been written to meet the persistent demand.

  Herein the author records many happenings that long ago Ben and Polly,
  Joel and David told her. And even Phronsie whispered some of it
  confidentially into the listening ear. "Tell about Rachel, please,"
  she begged; and Margaret Sidney promised to write it all down some
  day.

  And that day seems to have arrived in which it all should be recorded
  and the promise fulfilled. For the Five Little Peppers loved their
  friends very dearly, and