For Eleanor Farjeon, One of Martin Pippin's Girls

Martin cocked his head to the side, squinting down his nose at Jocelyn.

She squinted back.

"No kiss but a right-handed one for you, dear Jo." He placed his lips against his palm, and lightly pressed her forehead. She wrinkled her forehead, then tossed her dark head and snorted, in what she hoped was a stiff and prim manner. "why thank you Martin."

Then he turned to Jeniffer, curled up small on a pillow in the corner.

"Do I get a right-handed kiss too, Martin?" Jennifer's pale skin looked rosy in the firelight, and for a moment Martin's eyes weren't periwinkle, but a sober blue.

"Ah, no Jennifer. For you all that is left is the left-hand." He delivered it.

"A left-handed kiss means you will walk cold miles under strange stars, alone and betrayed, Jen." She turned her face down to the kitten purring on her lap, and then looked up with puzzled eyes as Martin added softly, "But you will do some singing."

Done with her grand manner, the hint of pout lingering small by her red mouth, Joceyln chimed in, "And what of a right-handed kiss? Am I as cursed as Jenny?"

Martin laughed. "The bearer of a right handed kiss will swim in the blue water in a bright bay, and.."

"Alone?" Jenny cut in. "Martin, will I be alone?"

He walked over to the the fireplace and stretched his long arms from one end of the mantle to the other. He took the china shepardess and and placed her gently next to the curly-headed china shepard.

"You may be alone, Jo, but not for long. For someone must hold your left-hand, lest it work mischief abroad." Martin caught her eyes, and she met his gaze boldly until he whispered "There are enough lone wayfarers walking this earth Jo."

Then Martin put both hands together.

"What have you got there, Martin?" asked Jen. The kitten's claws were hopelessly entangled in her lace petticoat, but she had noticed the cup of his palms.

"What have I got?" Martin mumbled, looking down in surprise.
"Why, I've got peppermints!"

And so he had. He gave one to Jo and the other to Jen, and when Jo tried to break hers in two so he would not go without, Martin found a third mysteriously tucked into his upper vest-pocket.

(And that is the story of Martin Pippin in the Winter Parlor)