meals, and take the tray away
again, and very little the poor dear would eat, for I often saw what
come out. It would go to your heart, sir, that it would, for a healthier
appetite than Miss Polly's there ain't in the family. Well, sir, Miss
Helen had a letter from you this morning, saying as how you'd be back by
six o'clock, and after dinner she went up to Miss Polly's door, and I
heard her, for I was walking with baby up and down the passage. It was
beautiful to hear the loving way Miss Helen spoke, Doctor; she was
kneeling down and singing her words through the key-hole. 'Father'll be
home to-night, Polly,' she said--'keep up heart, Poll dear--father'll
be home to-night, and he'll make everything happy again.' Nothing could
have been more tender than Miss Helen's voice, it would have moved
anybody. But there was never a sound nor an answer from inside the room,
and just then Miss Firefly and Master Bunny came rushing up the stairs
as if they were half mad. 'O Nell, come, come quick!' they said,
'there's the step-ladder outside Poll's window, and a bit of rope and
two towels fastened together hanging to the sill, and the window is wide
open!' Miss Helen ran downstairs with a face like a sheet, and by and by
Alice came up and told me the rest. Master Bunny got up on the
step-ladder, and by means of the rope and the bedroom towels managed to
climb on to the window sill, and then he saw there wasn't ever a Miss
Polly at all in the room. Oh, poor dear! he might have broke his own
neck searching for her, but--well, there's a Providence over children,
and no mistake. Miss Polly had run away, that was plain. When Miss Helen
heard it, and knew that it was true, she turned to Alice with her face
like a bit of chalk, and tears in her eyes, and, 'Alice,' she said, 'I'm
going to look for Polly. You can tell Nurse I'll be back when I have
found Polly.' With that she walked down the path as fast as she could,
and every one of the others followed her. Alice watched them getting
over the little turnstile, and down by the broad meadow, then she came
up and let me know. I blamed her for not coming sooner, but--what's the
matter, Doctor?"

"I am going to find Polly and the others," said Dr. Maybright. "It's a
pity no older person in the house followed them; but so many can
scarcely come to harm. It is Polly I am anxious about--they cannot have
discovered her, or they would be home before now."

The Doctor left the nursery, ran downstai