"A nobody?" he smiled. "I should be one if I allowed it to annoy me. My little girl, I wish I could make you see how trivial, how inconsequent such things are. No human being is a 'nobody' who is faithful to the best that is in him. It doesn't make much real difference what people say of us, as long as we keep an honest heart and serve God and our fellow travelers according to our highest knowledge. Life is too brief to spend much thought on taunts or slander. We have too much else to do. I suppose it is scarcely possible for a person that does anything worth doing to get through life without sometimes being talked about unpleasantly and misrepresented. Do you know what Shakespeare says about that? 'Be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny.' "But there comes mother! Run, get your hat and coat, and we'll have our ride." CHAPTER IV COUSINS Contrary to the physicians' fears, Erastus Bean's condition improved day by day. Polly went often to see him, delighting the little man with her small attentions and her ready sympathy. It was on a Monday morning that he found out the letter had been missing from the rosewood box, and he was at once perturbed over the loss. "Jane must 'a' put it some'er's else, some'er's else," he complained, over and over, although Polly begged him not to worry. "It doesn't matter so very much if I don't know who those relations are," she assured him, "and anyway we may find the letter sometime." "Yer don't s'pose the Doctor said anything to Jane about it?" he queried suddenly, his eyes sharp with anxiety. "Oh, no! I guess not," Polly replied easily. "Wal, yer won't let him, will yer?" he pleaded. "Cause I'll sure find it soon's I git home, an' Jane, she's kind o' cranky, yer know! But she's got her good streaks, Jane has! She brought me a bowl o' custard th' other day--that was proper nice o' Jane!" His wrinkled face lighted at remembrance of the unexpected kindness. Polly smiled in response, while she wondered vaguely if Aunt Jane really loved the little man whom she ordered about with the authority of a mother. "It's too bad 'bout that letter," Mr. Bean rambled on. "Yer'd ought to find out who them relations be--an' 'fore they have time to die. Folks go off so quick now'days, an' mebbe, if they only knew yer, they'd leave you some o' their prope'ty so's you could live like a queen--ther' ain't no tellin'." "I don't b'lieve I'd like to live like a queen," laughed Polly. "But," she admitted, "I should love some own cousins. I wouldn't wonder if you'd find the letter when you go home. I feel just as if you would, and--oh, my! I didn't know it was so near nine o'clock!" as a distant _cling-clang_ made itself noticed. "That's the last bell! Good-bye!" And Polly whirled off, Mr. Bean gazing the way she went long after her blue plaid had vanished from his sight.