s four pounds
went in that direction. And Polly read Mrs. Beaton's Cookery-book with
such assiduity, and Maggie carried out her directions with such implicit
zeal and good faith, that really most remarkable meals began to grace
the Doctor's board. Pastry in every imaginable form and guise, cakes of
all descriptions; vegetables, so cooked and so flavored, that their
original taste was completely obliterated; meats cooked in German,
Italian, and American styles; all these things, and many more, graced
the board and speedily vanished. The children became decidedly excited
about the meals, and Polly was cheered and regarded as a sort of queen.
The Doctor sighed, however, and counted the days when Nell and Mrs.
Power should once more peacefully reign in Polly's stead. Nurse asked
severely to have all the nursery medicine bottles replenished. Firefly
looked decidedly pasty, and, after one of Polly's richest plum-cakes,
with three tiers of different colored icings, Bunny was heard crying the
greater part of one night. Still the little cook and housekeeper bravely
pursued her career of glory, and all might have gone well, and Polly
might have worn a chastened halo of well-earned success round her brow
for the remainder of her natural life, but for the catastrophe of which
I am about to speak.

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday the family fared richly, and the
household jogged along somehow, but on Friday morning Dr. Maybright
suddenly surprised his girls by telling them that unexpected business
would call him to London immediately. He could not possibly return
before Monday, but he would get a certain Dr. Strong to see after his
patients, and would start for town by the mid-day train.

The Doctor's portmanteau was quickly packed, and in what seemed a moment
of time after the receipt of the letter he had kissed his family and
bidden them good-by. Then her four younger sisters and the boys came
round Polly with a daring suggestion.

"Let's sit up late, to-night, and have a real, jolly supper," they
begged. "Let's have it at nine o'clock, up in the large garret over the
front of the house; let it be a big supper, all kinds of good things;
ginger-beer and the rest, and let's invite some people to come and eat
it with us. Do Poll--do Poll, darling."

"But," said Polly--she was dazzled by this glorious prospect--"I
haven't got a great deal of money," she said, "and Nurse will be very
angry, and Helen won't like it. For you know, c