Nearing a neighboring town, their road led through a street bordered with miserable dwellings and swarming with sinister men and women and ragged, pinched-faced children. Polly looked at them with pity. The car swerved suddenly, to avoid a crossing team, and Jozy uttered a wild “Oh!” Polly glanced back at her charges with a reassuring smile. “My handkerchief!” screamed Jozy, pointing to the little square of white that had fluttered away from her. But already an eagle-eyed youngster had pounced upon the flyaway. With a joyful grin she brought it to the car. “Oh, thank you!” cried the owner in a relieved voice. Evan was starting up again when Polly arrested him. “Just a minute!” she said. Something in the girl’s wistful little face attracted her. “Would you like a ride?” she asked, throwing open the door. The black eyes widened. The child drew a step nearer, then stopped with a dazed expression. She must have been mistaken! “Will you come?” Polly held out her hand. Nothing further was needed. In a short moment the little one was wedged between Polly and Evan, her face radiant with pleasure. Wonder-eyed youngsters popped out from everywhere and closed in about the car. The driver waved them off, there was a bur-r-r-r-r, and the automobile disappeared around the next corner. “It’s ezac’ly like flyin’, ain’t it?” piped a rapturous voice at Polly’s elbow. “Do you like it?” smiled Polly. The child looked up with an ecstatic wag of the head. “Oh!” she burst out, leaning forward and waving her hand excitedly, “there’s Dolly Merrifield! An’ she saw me a-ridin’! She waved to me! Did you see her?” “Yes,” smiled Polly, having glimpsed at the window of a small gray house a tiny waving hand and a little white face in a halo of fluttering yellow curls. “I’m so glad she saw me a-ridin’,” the eager voice went on. “I’ve wanted to an’ wanted to, till it seemed ’s if I couldn’t stan’ it. An’ now I’m in an’ goin’!” She sighed delightedly. “Haven’t you ever been in an automobile before?” was Polly’s somewhat surprised question. The small head shook vigorously. “How’d yer s’pose I’d git in?” she scorned. “Ther’ ain’t none of ’em stop, ’cept the grocery boy an’ the water-pipe man an’ such, an’ they say, ‘You let me ketch yer in that car, an’ I’ll hand yer over t’ the p’lice--now d’ yer hear!’ An’ you bet I ain’t goin’ t’ take no such chances ’s that! Johnny Hurley did, one day, whopped right in over the door, an’ the man give him a lickin’, ’cause he was his cousin--my, didn’t he! Johnny couldn’t set down straight all day.” Presently there came another outburst. “Oh, wouldn’t Dolly Merrifield like this!--Do you know Dolly?” Polly shook her head. “Oh, you oughter! Say”--the brightness faded from the little face--“wouldn’t you’ve took her to ride ’stead o’ me if you’d known her? I guess I’d oughter let Dolly go--I didn’t think. Honest, I didn’t! But I guess I’d oughter.” She sighed heavily at this prodding of conscience.