ll give you a thousand dollars
if you'll let me have her!' How do you think he'd like that?"

"Not a bit!" laughed the Doctor. "He might knock me down."

"He ought to!" asserted Polly. "And I don't like it any better than he
would. Mrs. Jocelyn didn't offer me money, but 'twas just the same. I
don't want to be bought!" She turned suddenly. "You don't think I
ought to go, do you, mother?"

"No, indeed!" The tone was emphatic enough to satisfy Polly. "If you
went I think I should have to go, too!"

"When I go, we'll all go!" declared Polly, "and you can tell Mrs.
Illingworth that." Which sent the Doctor off smiling.

Polly cuddled down contentedly in her mother's arms.

"I'm sorry for Patricia," she sighed.

Mrs. Dudley knew Polly, and waited.

"I suppose Mrs. Illingworth is very nice," she went on, a moment
after; "but she isn't cuddly, like you. I asked Patricia once if she
didn't sit in her mother's lap, and she said no, she was too big a
girl. She is hardly any taller than I am. She didn't say it a bit as
if she thought so herself. I guess her mother doesn't want her
beautiful dresses mussed up--that's it! I love Patricia, but, oh, I'm
glad I am not going to live with them!"

Mrs. Dudley bent her head, and whispered soft words of caress,
grateful that to Polly it was given to weigh the things of life in a
true balance.

Patricia mourned with many words over Dr. Dudley's refusal of her
mother's offer; but the friendship of the new cousins was not
lessened, and they were often at each other's homes.

CHAPTER VII

THE BLIZZARD

On a gray morning in early February Dr. Dudley started for New York.

"I shall probably be back on the nine o'clock train," he told his
wife; "but the paper says there is a big snowstorm on the way, and for
fear I may be delayed I have left word for Joe to come and fill up the
heater." Joe was a boy that did odd jobs about the house, and was
familiar with the heater. "He will probably be here early in the
evening," the Doctor went on; "but I can see to it again when I get
home."

Polly went to school with the snowflakes flying around her. Patricia
overtook her on the way.

"Where's David?" she asked.

"He has a cold, and isn't coming," Polly replied. "He telephoned over
just now."

"Oh, that's too bad!" lamented Patricia. "I had set my heart on having
you and him this afternoon. Cousin Lester and Aunt Florence are
coming from Nevada. Mamma heard last night. He is y