



Produced by Heather Clark, Mary Meehan and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net









                             BEN PEPPER

                         BY MARGARET SIDNEY

AUTHOR OF "FIVE LITTLE PEPPERS AND THEIR FRIENDS," "A LITTLE MAID
OF CONCORD TOWN," "OLD CONCORD," "HESTER, AND OTHER NEW ENGLAND
STORIES," ETC.


    _ILLUSTRATED BY
    EUGENIE M. WIREMAN_

    BOSTON:
    LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO.

    PEPPER
    TRADE MARK
    Registered in U. S. Patent Office.

    COPYRIGHT, 1905,
    BY HARRIETT M. LOTHROP.

    PUBLISHED, AUGUST, 1905.

    _Twentieth Thousand_

    Norwood Press:
    Berwick & Smith Co., Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.




[Illustration: THEN SHE HOPPED AWAY FROM POLLY AND MADE A LITTLE CHEESE
RIGHT ON THE SIDEWALK.]




PREFACE


It was quite impossible that the detailed records presented through the
later Pepper books, of the doings and sayings of the "Little Brown
House" family, should omit Ben. He, the eldest-born of Mother Pepper's
brood, and her mainstay after the father died, the quiet,
"steady-as-a-rock boy," as the Badgertown people all called him, with
lots of fun in him too, because he could not help it, being a Pepper,
was worthy of a book to himself.

So the hosts of readers of the Pepper Series decided, and many of them
accordingly be-sought the author to give Ben a chance to be better
known. He was always so ready to efface himself, that it was Margaret
Sidney's responsibility, after all, to bring him more to the front, to
be understood by all who loved his life in the earlier records.

So Margaret Sidney, despite Ben's wishes, has written this latest
volume. To do it, Polly and Joel and David and Phronsie have told her
most lovingly the facts with which it is strewn. Most of all, Mother
Pepper-Fisher contributed to the new book, out of a heart full of
gratitude and love for her Ben.

MARGARET SIDNEY.




CONTENTS


I. THE CHRISTMAS SHOPPING EXPEDITION

II. BEN'S PLAN

III. HAPS AND MISHAPS

IV. "IT'S JOEL'S OLD LADY"

V. "THE PRESENTS ALL GO FROM SANTA CLAUS"

VI. BEN GOES SHOPPING WITH MADAM VAN RUYPEN

VII. "WHERE'S PIP?" AND JASPER TURNED BACK

VIII. "ANY ONE WHO WANTS TO PLEASE JASPER," SAID BEN, "HAD BETTER TAKE
UP THIS CHAP"

IX. WHAT A HOME-COMING

X. "I'LL LOVE HER JUST FOREVER!"

XI. AN AFTERNOON CALL

XII. VAN

XIII. THE BIG BOX

XIV. THE CHILDREN IN THE MOUNTAIN CABIN

XV. THE MINISTER LOOKS AFTER HIS PARISHIONERS

XVI. WHO WILL HELP?

XVII. "NOW WE CAN HAVE OUR CHRISTMAS!"

XVIII. TELLING ALL THE NEWS

XIX. JOCKO

XX. REPAIRING DAMAGES

XXI. THE POSTPONED CHRISTMAS MORNING

XXII. AROUND THE CHRISTMAS TREE

XXIII. THE SLEIGHING PARTY

XXIV. JASPER AND BEN

XXV. IT WAS POLLY WHO HEARD IT FIRST

XXVI. "COULD YOU TAKE HIM, BEN?"

XXVII. "MR. KING, WHO IS THAT PIP YOU HAVE HERE?"

XXVIII. BEN DECIDES THE MATTER FOR HIMSELF




ILLUSTRATIONS


Then she hopped away from Polly and made a little cheese right on the
sidewalk

"O dear me," wailed Polly, burrowing deeper within the folds of the
black alpaca apron

And the first person he ran up against was a small boy, his hands full
of little wads of paper bundles

"See what you've done; that's castor oil"

There was an awful pause, every one staring at the smooth layer of brown
paper

"Did you ever see such sweet little fingers?" said Polly




Ben Pepper




I

THE CHRISTMAS SHOPPING EXPEDITION


"Oh,