“And I’ll love to be borrowed!” cried Polly, “for this has been a fine visit.  Just think how much I have to tell when I am at home, and Lena and Rob and Leslie and Harry come up and ask: 

“’Did you have a nice time Polly?  Where did you go?  What did you do while you were away,’ and I’ll hardly know where to begin, because there’s so much to tell.”

They ran down to the beach “Just to say ‘Good-bye’ to the waves,” Rose said.

“Look!” she cried.  “The waves never danced prettier.”

It was with a light heart that Rose let Uncle John help her into the automobile beside Polly.  She was to have two long rides with him, and, oh, the secret that she had promised loyally to keep!

“He will fix it so he can be with me part of the time, some of the time!” sang her happy little heart, and her eyes brightened and her cheeks grew pinker with the thought.

She laughed and chattered with Polly all the way, and the long ride seemed all too short, for before she dreamed that they were near the old Atherton house, they turned in at the driveway, and Nora, who had seen them coming, stood smiling a welcome from the doorway.

They made a happy party at lunch, and Aunt Rose was so evidently glad that Rose had returned that the little girl felt almost guilty when she thought of the secret that Uncle John had given her to keep.

“It isn’t that I don’t want to stay here; I mean it isn’t just that.  It’s that I can stay here, and be happier because I have Uncle John now, and he loves me, and, oh, he’s planning, just simply planning to—­”

Just as she reached that point Uncle John commenced to tell a very funny story, and in the laughter that greeted it she, for the moment, forgot the secret.

Uncle John said nothing of his plan to Aunt Rose.  Indeed, he was not quite ready to do that.  He knew Aunt Rose Jerusha Atherton too well to tell a part of any plan to her.  He knew that she wished her little namesake to be always with her, and he wisely intended to say nothing of his wish regarding Rose until his scheme was complete.

“Then,” thought Uncle John, “I’ll have my way.  I usually do!” and he smiled as if the thought amused him.

Rose felt that the house seemed less gloomy than she had thought, but she knew that it was Uncle John and Princess Polly who helped to make it cheery.

And when, in the afternoon, they were once more speeding over the shady roads toward Sherwood Hall, it seemed as if every day since she had first met Uncle John had been a holiday.

It was Polly who interrupted her dreaming.

“Why, Rose Atherton!” she said, “I said ‘Good-bye’ to your two Aunts and to Nora and to Lester Jenks, but I never thought to say it to Evangeline!  I didn’t want to talk to her, but I did mean just to say ‘Good-bye.’”

“Well, I guess you needn’t mind,” said Rose.  “It may be you’d ought to have said it, but she never’d let you go without writing an old poem, and p’raps it would have been a long one.”