She was. And with outspread arms she received them all, her homely face one big welcoming smile. CHAPTER XV THE FIRST DAY A half-dozen wheel-chair girls and boys were ranged along the wide veranda, all smilingly alert to their new surroundings. Polly, seated on the top step of the stairs that faced the south, looked dreamily off to the hills--thinking of David. Russell Ely came suddenly into her line of vision, and her eyes followed him, a trim young figure in the morning sunshine. “Hullo!” he called presently, “come and show me the rest of it!” “I can’t,” Polly answered. “Dr. Abbe will take you all over.” He came nearer. “I didn’t ask Dr. Abbe,” he objected quietly; “I asked you.” Polly smiled and moved nearer the post as he dropped to the step beside her. “I have to stay with the children,” she explained. “All the time?” queried the young man. “Nearly.” He shook his head. “Don’t believe I’d like it.” “It is much more satisfactory,” she returned, “than watching time all day.” Russell looked at her keenly; but her eyes still kept to the hills. “Miss Dudley, what does that mean?” Grissel pointed upward, stretching sidewise in a vain attempt to see the words over the entrance. “Oh! ‘Sunrise Chalet’?” “Yes’m--I mean, Miss Dudley. Clementina said it was ‘Sunrise something’--she didn’t know what.” “It is the name of the house,” Polly explained. “All the houses up here have names or inscriptions. We’ll go to see them some day.” “What do they have ’em for?” persisted Grissel. “And what does ‘shallay’ mean?” “I’ll tell you all about it, honey,” broke in Benedicta, appearing in the doorway. She moved a chair towards the child, and sat in it, pulling her sleeves down and buttoning them about her wrists.