The operation was successful. The
little one will live."

"Ah, yes, I know," sighed the woman. "But it was such a relief to know
the ordeal was ended that I couldn't bear the joy of the news. I am all
right now. When can we see our girl?"

Quickly the good news was flashed over the wires to the anxious hearts
in Martindale, "Operation successful. Peace will walk again." And great
was the rejoicing everywhere.

Only Peace herself seemed undisturbed, taking everything as a matter of
course, obeying the nurse's orders, and asking no questions concerning
her own welfare, though she asked enough about other people's affairs to
make up, and soon became a source of unending amusement to the hospital
attendants, who made every excuse imaginable to talk with this dear
little, queer little patient in her room.

Peace was in her element. Nothing suited her quite so well as to make
new friends, and she was delighted at the interest the busy nurses and
doctors displayed in her case. "Why, Miss Wayne," she sighed
ecstatically one day when she had been in the hospital for a month, "I
know the name of every nurse and doctor in this building, and pretty
near all the patients. The only trouble with them is they change so
often I really can't get much acquainted before they go home. I'm just
wild to get into that wheel-chair which Dr. Dick has promised me as soon
as I get strong enough; for then I can go visiting the other sick folks,
can't I? Dr. Dick says I can, and I'm crazy to see what they look like.
I can't tell very well from what the nurses say about their patients
just what they look like. I try to 'magine while I'm lying here all day,
but you know how 'tis,--the ones who have the prettiest names are as
homely as sin usually; and the pretty ones have the homely names.

"There's the little lady down the hall who keeps sending me jelly and
things she can't eat. The head nurse, Miss Gee,--ain't that an awful
funny name? I call her Skew Gee, because her first name is Sue. Well,
she told me that this lady has been in the hospital four years. _Four
years!_ Think of it! And that she never says a cross word to anyone, but
when the pain gets bad she sings until it's better. No wonder that man
loved her and wanted to marry her even if she will always be an
invalid."

"What do you know about love and marriage?" teased the nurse, laying out
fresh linen and testing the water in a huge bowl by the bed.

"I know I'd have married her, to