to the hospital to-day," she told them, as she clipped
the ends of the stems and broke off two or three great thorns. "That
is, most of you," she amended. "Let me see, you, and you, and you,"
she decided, laying aside three big beauties. Their number was
doubled, and then she hesitated.

"Mother, you wouldn't keep more than three, would you?"

Mrs. Dudley looked up from the grapefruit she was cutting.

"That is a good number to look at," she smiled.

"So I think," Polly agreed; "but they can have only one apiece over
at the hospital. One alone is pretty, though," she mused. "I'd leave
only one for us, but if Leonora should come, she might be afraid I
didn't care for them. No, I think eight will have to do, and it will
be better to give to those that have to lie abed, won't it?"

Only waiting for her mother's approval, she went on:--

"There's Reva and Ottoine and Mary up in the children's ward, and old
Mrs. Zieminski, and that funny little Magdalene, and Gustav and Miss
Butler--that makes seven," counting them slowly on her fingers. "I
don't know who I will give the eighth to--there are plenty of folks,
only I'm not acquainted with them. Never mind, anybody'll be glad of
one of these lovelicious roses, and I'll see when I get there."

"How does it feel to be eleven?" broke in the Doctor's happy voice.

"Why, I was eleven day before yesterday," laughed Polly. "I've had
time to get used to it."

"But that was a birthday, and yesterday was a party day; it is when
you get back to the everydayness that you begin to feel things."

"It isn't a bit different from ten," she declared. "Yes, a little,
because I have all these roses to give away. Aren't they sweet?" She
held them up for her father to sniff.

"Come to breakfast!" was the gentle command from the dining-room, and
Polly skipped on ahead, cautioning the Doctor to be sure not to spill
the water from the vase with which she had entrusted him.

The hour before school found Polly and the pink roses on their way to
the big white house. Having the freedom of the hospital almost as much
as Dr. Dudley himself, she flitted in and out whenever she chose,
never in anybody's way, and greeted with smiles from nurses and
patients.

Her errand this morning carried her first to the children's
convalescent ward, where she was so eagerly seized upon that she
escaped only by pleading her additional flowers to distribute, and
school time not far away.

With the eighth rose