"A cherry pudding may!" cried the irrepressible Elsie. "Oh, Miss
Lucy, I won't whine or cry, no matter how bad you hurt my hip when
you dress it--not the teentiest bit! See if I do!"

"Will Polly make up our stories for us?" queried Leonora Hewitt.

"Why, Miss Lucy has made one for all of us," laughed Polly. "We
are to be brave and patient and not make a fuss about anything,
and help everybody else to be happy--is n't that what you
meant, Miss Lucy?"

"Oh," replied the little lame girl, "guess that'll be a hard
kind!"

"Beautiful stories are not often easy to live," smiled the young
nurse; "but let's see which of us can live the best one."

"Polly will!" cried Maggie O'Donnell and Otto Kriloff together.



Chapter II

The Election of Polly

The convalescent ward was finishing its noonday feast when Miss
Hortensia Price appeared. Miss Hortensia Price was straight and
tall, with somber black eyes and thin, serious lips. Many of the
children were greatly in awe of the dignified nurse; but Elsie