be a harum-scarum boy, Mrs. Shaw began to take great pride in her son,
and he, missing grandma, tried to fill her place with his feeble mother.

"Yes, dear, you are all I could ask," and Mrs. Shaw looked up at him
with such affection and confidence in her eyes, that Polly gave Tom the
first approving look she had vouchsafed him since she came.

Why Tom should look troubled and turn grave all at once, she could
n't understand, but she liked to see him stroke his mother's cheek so
softly, as he stood with his head resting on the high back of her chair,
for Polly fancied that he felt a man's pity for her weakness, and was
learning a son's patient love for a mother who had had much to bear with
him.

"I 'm so glad you are going to be here all winter, for we are to be
very gay, and I shall enjoy taking you round with me," began Fanny,
forgetting Polly's plan for a moment.

Polly shook her head decidedly. "It sounds very nice, but it can't be
done, Fan, for I 've come to work, not play; to save, not spend; and
parties will be quite out of the question for me."

"You don't intend to work all the time, without a bit of fun, I hope,"
cried Fanny, dismayed at the idea.

"I mean to do what I 've undertaken, and not to be tempted away from
my purpose by anything. I should n't be fit to give lessons if I was
up late, should I? And how far would my earnings go towards dress,
carriages, and all the little expenses which would come if I set up for
a young lady in society? I can't do both, and I 'm not going to try,
but I can pick up bits of fun as I go along, and be contented with free
concerts and lectures, seeing you pretty often, and every Sunday Will is
to spend with me, so I shall have quite as much dissipation as is good
for me."

"If you don't come to my parties, I 'll never forgive you," said Fanny,
as Polly paused, while Tom chuckled inwardly at the idea of calling
visits from a brother "dissipation."

"Any small party, where it will do to wear a plain black silk, I can
come to; but the big ones must n't be thought of, thank you."

It was charming to see the resolution of Polly's face when she said
that; for she knew her weakness, and beyond that black silk she had
determined not to go. Fanny said no more, for she felt quite sure that
Polly would relent when the time came, and she planned to give her
a pretty dress for a Christmas present, so that one excuse should be
removed.

"I say, Polly, won't you give some of