ety pounds; and Mrs. Darling, height six feet one inch; no, I
'll try not to despise small things, thank you!"

"Well, if there 's a vocation, it will 'call,' you know, Polly. I 'd
rather like you for an assistant, to drive my horse and amuse my
convalescents. Bless my soul! you 'd make a superb nurse, except"--

"Except what, sir?"

"You 're not in equilibrium yet, my child; you are either up or down,
generally up. You bounce, so to speak. Now, a nurse must n't bounce;
she must be poised, as it were, or suspended, betwixt and between, like
Mahomet's coffin. But thank Heaven for your high spirits, all the
same! They will tide you over many a hard place, and the years will
bring the 'inevitable yoke' soon enough, Polly," and here Dr. George
passed behind the girl's chair and put his two kind hands on her
shoulders. "Polly, can you be really a woman? Can you put the
little-girl days bravely behind you?"

"I can, Dr. George." This in a very trembling voice.

"Can you settle all these details for your mother, and assume
responsibilities? Can you take her away, as if she were the child and
you the mother, all at once?"

"I can!" This more firmly.

"Can you deny yourself for her, as she has for you? Can you keep
cheerful and sunny? Can you hide your fears, if there should be cause
for any, in your own heart? Can you be calm and strong, if"--

"No, no!" gasped Polly, dropping her head on the back of the chair and
shivering like a leaf. "No, no; don't talk about fears, Dr. George.
She will be better. She will be better very soon. I could not live"--

"It is n't so easy to die, my child, with plenty of warm young blood
running pell-mell through your veins, and a sixteen-year-old heart that
beats like a chronometer."

"I could not bear life without mamma, Dr. George!"

"A human being, made in the image of God, can bear anything, child; but
I hope you won't have to meet that sorrow for many a long year yet. I
will come in to-morrow and coax your mother into a full assent to my
plans; meanwhile, fly home with your medicines. There was a time when
you used to give my tonics at night and my sleeping-draught in the
morning; but I believe in you absolutely from this day."

Polly put her two slim hands in the kind doctor's, and looking up with
brimming eyes into his genial face said, "Dear Dr. George, you may
believe in me; indeed, indeed you may!"

Dr. George looked out of his office window, and mused