up the doorway.

"Full?" repeated old Oliver, in a tone of questioning.

"Ay! all our cots are full," he replied, "chockfull. There ain't no more
room. We've turned two or three away this morning, when they came at the
right time. This isn't the right time to bring any child here."

"But my little love is very ill," continued old Oliver; "this is the
right place, isn't it? The place where they nurse little children
who are ill?"

"It's all right," said the porter, "it's the right place enough, only
it's brimful, and running over, as you may say. We couldn't take in one
more, if it was ever so. But you may come in and sit down in the hall for
a minute or two, while I fetch one of the ladies."

Old Oliver and Tony entered, and sat down upon a bench inside. There was
the broad staircase, with its shallow steps, which Dolly's tiny feet had
climbed so easily, and it led up to the warm, pleasant nurseries, where
little children were already falling asleep, almost painlessly, in their
cosy cots. Tony could not believe that there was not room for their
darling, who had been so willing to come to the place she knew so well,
yet a sob broke from his lips, which disturbed Dolly in her sleep, for
she moaned once or twice, and stirred uneasily in his arms. The old man
leaned his hands upon the top of his stick, and rested his white head
upon them, until they heard light footsteps, and the rustling of a
dress, and they saw a lady coming down stairs to them.

"I think there's some mistake here, ma'am," said Oliver, his eye
wandering absently about the large entrance-hall; "this is the Hospital
for Sick Children, I think, and I've brought my little grandchild here,
who is very ill indeed, yet the man at the door says there's no room for
her. I think it must be a mistake."

"No," said the lady; "I am sorry to say it is no mistake. We are quite
full; there is not room for even one more. Indeed, we have been obliged
to send cases away before to-day. Who is your recommendation from?"

"I didn't know you'd want any recommendation," answered old Oliver, very
mournfully; "she's very ill, and you could cure her here, and take
better care of her than Tony and me, and I thought that was enough. I
never thought of getting any recommendation, and I don't know where I
could get one."

"Mr. Ross 'ud give us one," said Tony, eagerly.

"Yet even then," answered the lady, "we could not take her in until some
of the cots are empty."

"You