“Oh, no, sir!  I’ve only known him a few weeks, since he was knocked down by a runaway horse, and hurt so badly.  He’s David Collins, and I’m Polly May.  Dr. Dudley took me up to see him, because he needed cheering up; but now he has bad turns with his heart, and I can’t go.  He’s a lovely boy.  It was so good of you to take me to catch the Doctor—­I don’t know what I should have done if you had n’t!  And did n’t your horse go fast!  I never saw a horse go so fast before.  I think he’s beautiful; don’t you?”

“I like him.”  The Colonel smiled down into Polly’s eyes quite as if they were old friends.  “Suppose I take you for a little longer drive—­would your friends mind?”

“Oh, thank you!” Polly began, “I’d love it!” Then she stopped, with sudden recollection.  “I guess I can’t, though—­I’d forgotten all about it!—­I must go back, and finish being punished.”

Colonel Gresham laughed outright, so Polly laughed too.

“I made an awful mistake,” she explained; “I sprayed some kerosene all around, instead of de-sodarizer.”

The Colonel was grave for a polite moment.  Then, “And you did n’t smell it?” he laughed.

“Not till Elsie yelled at me to stop.  I don’t see shy I did n’t.”

“But it seems hardly fair to punish one for a mistake.”

“Well,” confessed Polly, “that was n’t all.  I got mad, and I guess I was pretty saucy to High Price.  She said something about Miss Lucy that I did n’t like, and I told her what I thought—­I just had to!  So she sent me to sit in a chair till she said to get up.  Then when the nurse came for me to catch Dr. Dudley, I was so scared about David that I ran right off, without even asking permission—­I don’t know what she will do to me now!  But you can’t stop for anything when folks are ’most dying, can you?”

“I should say not,” the Colonel replied.  “I reckon she won’t treat you very badly.”

“I don’t care what she does, if David only gets well.  But, oh, how can David’s mother stand it, if he does n’t!  She’s sick, you know, so she could n’t come to see him—­he’s all she’s got, and such a dear boy!  He works to earn money for her when he’s well, sells papers, and everything.  I guess they’re rather poor; but perhaps I ought n’t to talk about that.  Please don’t tell anybody I said it, ’cause I don’t really know.”

“I shall not speak of it,” promised Colonel Gresham gravely.  “But how happens it that you’re at the hospital?  You’re not sick, are you?”

“Not a bit now.  I was hurt, but Dr. Dudley cured me.  I’m on the staff—­that’s why I stay,” Polly explained soberly.

“Oh!  You’re that little girl, are you?”

She nodded.

“I heard something about it at the time.  Well, Lone Star and I will be glad to take you for a drive some other day, when you have n’t any punishment on hand.”  He drew up the horse at the hospital entrance.