"But her hair doesn't curl," objected the lady. "I would never adopt a girl whose hair doesn't curl. She would be a nuisance instead of a pleasure." "Ah really!" from Dr. Weston. The children were still unconscious of their audience. Peter was widening the tunnel at one end and at the other the eager babies were crowding together, peering through at the youthful civil engineer. "Ith He in there?" queried one. "Cose He's in here," announced Peter. "He's everywhere in the world-- but He won't git you. He'll just be good to you an' love you an' maybe give you candy, 'cept'n I'd rather have pancakes." "He shall have them!" cried the eager lady. "He shall have all he wants! Little boy," she asked, impulsively leaning over Peter, who had seated himself in the sand the better to proceed with his excavating, "dear little boy, wouldn't you like to come and live with me and be my little boy?" Peter looked up startled and distressed. Polly dropped the child with the bumped knee and flew to Peter's side. "I'll be so good to you and love you as though I were your own mother. You can have a pony to ride and a bicycle and skates--" "Gee whilikins!" exclaimed Peter. "I will adopt you--" "'Dopt me! No you won't! I didn't know you meant to 'dopt me. Me'n Polly ain't ever gonter git 'dopted. We's gonter jes' live along here till we gits growed up an' maybe our mother won't be dead an' will come find us. Me'n Polly has to be together all the time," an expression of agony on his face. "Don't we, Polly?" "Yes, yes, Peter darling!" "Well you would hardly stand in your brother's light," spoke the lady a bit sharply. "It would certainly be to his advantage to come and live with me and my husband. He would take our name and be brought up exactly as though he were our own." "But his own name is a good name," spoke Polly, holding her cropped head proudly. "Peter Waller is a very fine name. I have heard my mother say so often." "Oh, you have! Well it is no better than Peter Thraves would be. My name is Mrs. Thraves, child." The little girl was not a bit impressed. "And mine is Miss Mary Washington Waller, Polly for short," spoke Polly, her head still up. There was a look of breeding about the child and at the same time a hint of battle in her blue eye and her firm little mouth. Dr. Weston could not help smiling at Miss Mary Washington Waller. "I am going to adopt your brother because I have taken such a fancy to him. He is so sweet and pious and I am going to raise him to be a preacher." With that Peter set up such a yell as had never been heard before in the Hathaway garden. He flung himself in Polly's arms and burst into a storm of tears.