



Produced by Annie R. McGuire








[Illustration: HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE]

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VOL. III.--NO. 124. PUBLISHED BY HARPER & BROTHERS, NEW YORK. PRICE FOUR
CENTS.

Tuesday, March 14, 1882. Copyright, 1882, by HARPER & BROTHERS. 1.50 per
Year, in Advance.

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[Illustration: "TEASING TOM."]




POLLY GARDNER AND THE DRAW-BRIDGE.

BY JULIA K. HILDRETH.


Polly Gardner had been spending her vacation with Aunt Mary in the
country. She would have been "perfectly happy" but that her father and
mother were obliged to remain in the city. It was five weeks since she
had seen them, and it seemed to Polly like five months.

One lovely afternoon Polly sat on the horse-block idly kicking one foot
backward and forward, watching Aunt Mary as she drove off on a visit to
a sick neighbor. Birds were singing, bees were humming, and the slender
branches of the great gray-green willows that shadowed the road moved
softly with every light puff of wind. Away off in the field over the
hills Polly could hear the ring of the mowers' scythes. Everything was
so pleasant and peaceful that she wished her parents were there to enjoy
it with her.

Just as Aunt Mary was hidden from sight by a bend in the road