"Oh, dear me!" cried Jasper, aghast, "I can't, Polly; you can do it much
better."
"Misery me!" exclaimed Polly, "I couldn't do it in all this world," and she
looked so distressed that Jasper hastened to say:
"Come along then, Pick, and help me out, and I'll try."
But Picketing protesting that he didn't know any more how to write such a
notice than Prince lying on the rug before the fire, Jasper in despair drew
up a sheet of paper, and wrote in big staring letters and with a great
flourish, clear across the top of the page:
"ATTENTION."
"Goodness me!" cried Pickering, his pale eyes following Jasper's pen, "it
looks like a fire-alarm summons."
"Or just like Miss Salisbury when she's going to say something quite ugly
and horrid," said Alexia, with a grimace.
"Oh, Alexia!" said Polly.
"Well, it does," said Alexia; "you know for yourself, Polly, she always
stands up quite stiff on the platform and says, 'Attention, young ladies!'
Oh, I quite hate the word, because we all have to look at her."
"Well, it does good service then," said Jasper coolly, "since it makes you
do the very thing wanted."
"And we wouldn't mind looking at her," said Alexia, running on with her
reminiscences, "if she didn't make us do every single thing she says."
"That's too bad," said Jasper, with a laugh, and flourishing away on the
second line of the notice.
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