--Jasper, you take Mrs. Gray," and the others falling in, away they all
went down to the big dining room, to their own special table in the
centre.

"I do so love what Joey sent me, and Ben and Davie," breathed Polly,
for about the fiftieth time, patting her little money-bag which she had
hung on her belt. Then she looked at the new ring on her finger very
lovingly, and the other hand stole up to pinch the pin on her trim
necktie, and see if it were really there. "Oh, Jasper, if the boys were
only here!" she whispered, under cover of the chatter and bustle around
the table.

"Don't let us think of that, Polly," Jasper made haste to say; "it will
make father feel so badly if he thinks you are worrying."

"I know it," said Polly, pulling herself out of her gloom in an
instant, to be as gay as ever, till the big sombre dining room seemed
instinct with life, and the cheeriest place imaginable.

"What good times Americans do have!" exclaimed a lady, passing the
door, and sending an envious glance within.

"Yes, if they're the right kind of Americans," said her companion,
wisely.

All that wonderful day the sun seemed to shine more brightly than on
any other day in the whole long year. And the two girls who had the
birthday together, went here and there, arm in arm, to gladden all the
tired, and often discontented, eyes of the fellow-travellers they
chanced to meet. And when finally it came to the dusk, and Polly and