_supposed_ you had come for an idea," said Polly, as naturally as
if her wares had consisted in tape and buttons.

Offering her visitor the only fairly comfortable chair in the room,
she seated herself by the window, near which was one of the draped
barrels with her work-basket on top.

"You won't mind my sewing, please," she said, picking up a bit of
embroidery; "I can think better that way."

The new customer meanwhile was wondering whether Miss Polly would
guess that he had come partly from curiosity, and partly with that
other far more daring motive of finding a way to do her a service.
And yet, who could tell? Perhaps she _could_ give him a hint; perhaps
she _was_ the youthful sibyl people seemed half inclined to believe
her.

"Miss Polly," he said, leaning forward in his chair, with his elbows
on his knees,--"Miss Polly, I've got an awful lot of money, and I
don't know what to do with it."

Mere words had not often the power of staying Polly's needle, but at
this astounding declaration she actually let her work fall in her lap,
and gazed with wide-eyed wonder at the speaker.

"Yes," he went on, "I really want to do some good with it, and I've
tried in lots of ways and I've never hit it off. I should just like to
tell you about some of the things I've made a fizzle of in the last
year,--if it wouldn't bore you?"

"Oh, no, it wouldn't bore me; nothing ever does. Only,--I can't
understand it. Why, I think I could give away _a thousand dollars a
year_ just there at home, where we used to live, and every dollar of
it would be well spent!"

"Yes, Miss Polly," he said very meekly, "but, you see, what I've got
to consider is _two hundred thousand_ dollars a year!"

He looked positively ashamed of himself, and Polly did not wonder. She
had given a little gasp at mention of the sum; then she shook her head
with decision. Polly knew her limits.

"I haven't any ideas big enough for that" she said. "I should as soon
think of advising the President of the United States!"

"Well, if you won't advise me about mine, perhaps you will tell me
what you are going to do with your own riches. You said you were
getting rich, did you not? You know," he added, "it isn't necessary to
make the map of a State as big as the State itself."

"You have ideas, too," Polly remarked appreciatively, resuming her
embroidery.

"But you have not told me how you are going to use your riches."

"Oh, I'm going to use mine for education."