opped midway between the
staircase and the front entrance, her forehead wrinkled in thought.

A maid came from the rear of the house, duster in hand.

"Oh, Mabel!" Polly began in a low tone, "would you mind taking a
message to the Board for me?"

The girl, with a shade of surprise on her face, said, "Certainly,
Miss Polly, I'll take it in. Who shall I give it to?"

"Mrs. Beers--she's president. Tell her, please, that I have
something very important to say to the Board, and ask her if I can
come in now, or pretty soon--whenever it won't interfere with their
business."

The maid knocked and disappeared. In a moment she returned.

"She says you can come now."

There was very evident curiosity mingled with the smiles of
greeting.

"I happened to think," Polly began at once, "that maybe you could
do something to help out matters. I've been up to see Miss
Sterling, and she is feeling pretty bad because she can't curl her
hair to go to her cousin's wedding, and I didn't know but you would
fix things so she can."

"'Fix things'?" scowled the lady at the head of the table. "You
mean, put on an electric attachment?"

"Oh, no!" Polly came near disgracing herself by a laugh. "But
it's against the rule, you know, to curl your hair, and Miss
Sterling asked if she couldn't, just for the evening, and Miss
Sniffen said no."

The ladies gazed at one another, plain surprise on their faces.
Then they looked questioningly at their presiding officer.

"The Board never interferes with the superintendent's rules--"
began Mrs. Beers.

"Unless it is something we especially don't like," put in the
member with a conscience.

The president sent a severe glance down the table.

"I thought, maybe, just for this once, you'd fix it so she
could--she would wet it all out before breakfast." Polly was very
much in earnest.

"There's altogether too much complaint among the inmates," spoke up
a fat woman on Mrs. Beers's left. "They should be made to realize
how fortunate they are to have such a beautiful Home to live in,
instead of finding fault with every little thing and sending people
to try to wheedle us into giving them something different from what
they have."

"Oh, Mrs. Puddicombe!" burst out Polly, "Miss Sterling didn't send
me at all! She doesn't know a thing about it! I never thought of
coming in until I passed the door--then it occurred to me that
maybe you would like to help her out. It's pretty hard to have