g! Did I frighten you? I mean I want you for my own
dear daughter! I have n't said anything before, because I feared
the woman you have supposed was your aunt would not give you up.
But now that you are free I feel that I must have you? I meant to
speak to Dr. Dudley first; but I could n't wait, dearest! Don't
you want to come and live with me? I know it's a gloomy old
house, but I will make it all over into the sunshiniest home you
ever saw. You shall have everything you wish! I will buy you the
very prettiest pair of Shetland ponies I can find, and the
loveliest little carriage! You can take your friends driving
every day!"

"That would be beautiful," responded Polly, with a faint smile.

"And you shall have the nicest doll house you ever heard of, and
a whole set of furniture for your biggest doll! I'll fit you up
two of the prettiest rooms in the house, and furnish them in white
and blue! You shall have a new piano and take lessons of the very
best master, and next summer we will go abroad and see all the
wonders of Europe! Oh, there's no end to the happy things we'll
do, if you will come and be my little girl! You will; won't you,
Polly?"

"Why, I--don't know!" gasped the child. "You take my breath
away!" She looked actually distressed.

"Poor darling!" The little lady folded Polly in her arms. "Of
course you can't make up your mind all in a minute! I've thought
of it so long, I did n't realize that it was news to you. I'm
such an impatient body! Talk it over with Dr. Dudley, and he will
make things all clear. Now we'll forget it, and finish up these
packages. What do yo suppose Leonora will say to her new
ribbons?"

The voice was gay, so sure was the little lady that Polly,
counseled by the far-seeing doctor, would make quick choice of so
auspicious an offer.

But Polly could not easily be won back to her former blitheness.
She finished her part of the task in an absent-minded manner; yet
by the time she was on her way to deliver her presents she was
more talkative and merry.

So splendid a coach was seldom seen on the poor, narrow street
where Brida lived, and big-eyed babies and listless loungers
watched its progress. Brida was at school; but her mother
received with loud expressions of gratitude and praise the pretty
doll carriage which Polly had brought.

Elsie, in a still narrower, dirtier street, had a similar gift;
while for the others of Polly's hospital friends who had retur