arly in the morning everybody in the ward wore a
decoration.

About ten o'clock Dr. Dudley appeared, and Polly and Elsie hurried
to pin a posy in his buttonhole. Elsie had chosen a pink and
Polly a blue blossom, and one little girl held them in place while
the other pinned them fast, the Doctor sending telegraphic
messages over their heads to Miss Lucy.

"Now, let me see," he began, after he had returned thanks for
his sweets; "think I can squeeze in seven or eight of them?"
nodding to the nurse.

"They're none of them very bulky," she laughed.

"Fell strong enough for an auto ride, Elsie?" he twinkled.

"Me?" gasped the little girl. "You don't mean me, do you?"

"If your name is Elsie Meyer, you're the one," he replied.

"Oh, my! O-h, m-y!" she cried. "Polly! Polly! He's goin' to
take me to ride!" And she whirled Polly round and round in her
excited joy.

"Cornelius and Moses," he counted, "and Elsie and Polly,"--
his eyes had reached the little girl with a crutch, whose pale
face was growing pink and paler by turns,--"and Leonora and
Brida," he went on; "that makes six."

"Oh, me too?" squealed Brida delightedly, clutching her chair
for support in the trying moment.

Leonora said nothing, only gazed at the Doctor as if she feared he
would vanish, together with her promised ride, if she did not keep
close watch.

"There are only two more for whom I dare risk the bumpety-bumps,"
laughed Dr. Dudley. "Corinne, I think you can bear them, and
perhaps we can wedge in Isabel."

"Oh, we can hold her!" volunteered Elsie.

"Sure, we can!" echoed Cornelius.

"No, I want to thit in Polly'th lap," lisped the midget, edging
away from the others, and doing her best to climb to Polly's arms.

Polly clasped the tiny one tight, smiling her promise, to full of
joy in her friends' happiness for any words.

"I'll give you fifteen minutes to prink up in," the Doctor told
them; and away they scampered, Polly halting by David's cot long
enough to wish he "were going too."

The eight were downstairs within the specified time, and they
whirled off in the big motor car, which seated them all
comfortably without crowding anybody. Very demure they were,
passing along the city streets, but in the open country their
delight found vent in shouts and squeals and jubilant laughter.
Dr. Dudley chose a route apart from the traveled highways, leading
through woods and between blossoming fields.

"Could we get out and pick just