"The dickens! You don't say so!" exploded Mr. King. "Well, now, I call
that very clever on your part to have found it out. Very clever indeed,
Mrs. Fisher," he repeated, beaming at her. "And just in time, for it
would have been a dreadful thing, indeed, to have had that poor little
girl left out, and her birthday too! Dear me!"

"It would, indeed," said Mrs. Fisher, heartily, with a shiver at the
mere thought.

"And we might as well have had no celebration in such a case, for Polly
wouldn't have enjoyed a single bit of it--not an atom!" declared old
Mr. King, bringing his walking stick heavily down on the floor.

"What is it--oh, Grandpapa, what is it?" and Polly came hurrying along
the corridor, and Jasper after her.

"Here she comes!" exclaimed Grandpapa, in a fright. "Glad you told me--Hush
--O dear me--I'll take care of the gifts."

"And I'm to do the rest--just the same--Doctor Fisher and I. Remember!"
It was all Mrs. Fisher had time to utter. Even then, Polly caught the
last words in the flurry.

"Oh, what is it, Mamsie--Is anything the matter with Papa-Doctor?" And
her brown eyes filled with alarm at her mother's unusual manner.

"Polly," Mrs. Fisher looked into the brown eyes with a steady glance,
and all the hurry was gone out of her voice, "your father is all right.
And now, run away, you and Jasper." She looked over Polly's shoulder at
him as she spoke. "No, not another word, child." And away Mrs. Fisher