she heard
nothing David must be better.

It was during the short absence of Miss Price, one afternoon, that
Elsie Meyer complained of the disagreeable liniment on her hip.

"It's just horrid! I can't stand it a minute longer!" she fretted.
"Say, Polly, I wish you'd spray some of that nice-smellin' stuff
around--what do you call it?"

"The resodarizer, I guess you mean," responded Polly, with more
glibness than accuracy.

"Yes, that's it," Elsie returned. "Hurry up and use it, before
High Price gets back!"

"Perhaps I'd better wait and ask her," she hesitated.

"No, don't! Miss Lucy always lets you take it," Elsie urged.

"Yes, I know," doubtfully. Then she went to the shelf in the
dressing-room, where the atomizer box stood.

"There is n't a drop in it," she said, holding the bottle to the
light. "Miss Lucy must have forgotten to fill it after I used it
last time." Then, spying a small phial on the shelf, close to
where the box had been, "Oh I guess she left it for me to fill!"
And, unscrewing the chunky little bottle from the spraying
apparatus, she soon had it half full.

Elsie smiled in blissful anticipation of the refreshing perfume,
but as the spray fell near her she greeted it with a torrent of
cries.

"Ugh, ugh! O-o-h! take it away!"

Then Polly, too, puckered her face in disgust. "Why, I must have
put--"

"What are you doing with that atomizer?" interrupted Miss
Price's voice. "How came kerosene oil in here? Have you been
spraying it around?"

"I did n't know it was kerosene," answered Polly meekly. "I
s'posed it was the resodarizer--"

"Deoderizer, child!"

"Oh, yes, I get it twisted! It's that kind that smells so
nice."

Miss Price gave a little laugh. "Well, this does n't smell
nice."

"I'm sorry," mourned Polly. "I don't see how a kerosene bottle
came up there--oh, I know! Miss Lucy was putting some on her
watch, the other day, and she was called off--I remember! She
must have left it there."

"But the bottle is labeled," Miss Price replied, fetching it
from the table where Polly had set it down. "Can't you read?"

"If course I can!" she answered, a little indignant at the
question. "I guess I was thinking of--something else," she
ended.

"David" had been on her tongue, but she kept the name back.

"Don't you know that you should always have your mind on what you
do? It is a mercy that you did not get hold of anything worse."

"I could n't," Polly protested. "The poi