“I want you all to know how grateful I am for your kindness to my sister. It is not only that her gain in health is far more than I thought it ever could be--you have put so much brightness into her life! It is something which I cannot frame in words, but I think you will understand.” As he and Dr. Abbe walked across the lawn to the Study, the White Nurse said:-- “What a man he is! And what a boy, too! I think I’d like to hear him preach.” “I know his sermon would be worth while,” asserted Lilith. Polly said nothing. CHAPTER XXII A LITTLE LAME DUCK “I wish Sardis could go to that place where the lovely ducks are,” said Dolly Merrifield the next morning. “You’ll have to tell him about it,” advised Polly. “That won’t be seeing,” sighed Dolly. Polly’s eyes widened with a sudden thought, then narrowed as a plan began to form. “If your brother will stay over until to-morrow, we will drive up to Lairnie Lake and have our lunch there.” “To-day?” cried Dolly ecstatically. Polly nodded. “It is a small pleasure resort,” she explained to the young man, “some forty-five miles to the north.” “Oh, Sardis!” exclaimed the little one, her blue eyes begging for the answer which he hesitated to give. “I ought not,” he began, and then smiled down to the small girl on his knee. “Are the web-footed swimmers on Lairnie Lake very different from those elsewhere?” “Oh, ever so different!” she laughed. “But I’m not going to tell you one word more. He’ll stay, Miss Dudley! I know by his eyes--they are full of nice twinkles.” It was decided that Polly and Lilith, Dolly and her brother, and Dr. Abbe should take a flying trip to the lake which a number of them had visited a week or two previous. Dolly, in an ecstasy of joy, kept things lively until the start. After being dressed for the little journey she was put in her wheel-chair which stood near the edge of the piazza, and, bubbling over as she was with eager delight, she twisted this way and that until Polly was startled by one of her sudden turns. “Oh, Dolly!” she cried, “do sit still! I thought you were going over!” She crossed the piazza and moved the chair back a bit. “I shall not fall,” laughed the child happily. “Wis’ she would!” piped up a little voice three chairs away, “wis’ she would, and be all deaded!” “Why, Marmaduke Bill!” Polly’s voice was shocked. “What a wicked wish!” “Don’t care!” retorted the little boy. “Wis’ she would!” Polly walked over to Little Duke and turned his chair so that it faced the house. “I am sorry that you have such naughty thoughts,” she said in a soft voice. And she left him without the smile or the loving pat with which she was used to delight his heart. “My don’t care! My don’t care!” he pouted. The other children looked on with frightened, wondering eyes. It was seldom that Polly dealt out punishment even in this mild fashion.