"Perhaps you were 'scared,' like Magdalene," she chuckled. "I do wish you could see her! She is the funniest little German girl! She had appendicitis, and the doctors sent for father. He knew right off she couldn't live without an operation, and he told her father and mother, and then he went and talked to her. He didn't tell her she'd die, for she's only six years old; but he said she couldn't ever go out to play, or have any more good times, unless they took her to the hospital to cure her. And she looked up at him, just as sober, and said, 'I'm scared! I'm scared!'--not a thing else! They brought her up here in the ambulance, and she never said a word all the way. But when she got downstairs, where there were lots of doctors and nurses, father happened to go near her, and she looked straight up into his face, and said, 'I'm scared! I'm scared!' Poor little thing! I should think she would have been; but she is so funny." "Did she come out all right?" "Oh, yes, of course!--father performed the operation. The next day when he saw her she was looking as happy as could be, and he asked her if she was scared, and she didn't speak, only just shook her head this way, and grinned." Polly's curls waved vigorously. "After a few days she grew worse, and they had a consultation, and three or four doctors were there. Father thought she looked frightened, and he asked her if she was scared, and she bowed her head hard--oh, she is so funny! I just carried her one of my roses, and I'm sure she liked it, but she didn't say a single word." "I have a fellow-feeling for that little girl," smiled Mr. Westwood. "I know all right what it is to be 'scared,' and it isn't pleasant." As Polly's lips parted for a response, her eyes fell upon the watch which the young man was still fingering. "Oh, my!" she exclaimed, "I forgot all about school! Good-bye!" And she flashed away. At dinner she told where she had left her eighth rose. "I am glad you happened in there," returned the Doctor. "He seems to be a fine young fellow, a chemist, just out of college. He came up from New York to see a friend, and while he was assisting with some chemical work he was temporarily blinded by an explosion. He is coming on all right; but for a few days I have noticed that he has seemed rather gloomy. Go again! You will do him good." Several times during the next week Polly obeyed her father's injunction, and accepted Mr. Westwood's repeated invitations. With every visit the two became better friends, and Polly waited almost as eagerly as the patient himself for the day when his bandaged eyes should be released. Only in Polly's heart there was not a little regret mingled with her anticipated joy, for that would herald Mr. Westwood's going away. Still she would not let the disturbing thought detract from her present pleasure, and she ran in and out of the young man's room in a happy, quite-at-home fashion.