In the afternoon his mother and Dorothy came to see him. His mother’s eyes were full of tears when she kissed him. He did not see why, for he was getting well fast. He did not feel like crying, he wanted to laugh.
At the end of the week Miss Fleming surprised him with a flying call and a box of red roses and ferns. He did not keep many of the flowers for himself; he persuaded Polly to carry them to the other patients. And then he picked out the very prettiest buds that were left in his vase and coaxed her to take them downstairs.
Those were happy days for Doodles. Everybody was so kind. Polly spent many an hour at his side, talking, telling stories, or singing. His mother and Blue came once a week, and the Gaylords and the Flemings frequently. And at the bedtime hour, if Polly were not there, Miss Eden would tell him wonderful fairy tales, often repeating his favorite one, of which he never tired,—about “King Ingewall’s daughter” who ferried the river on the backs of her “little grey geese,” and who finally came to the end of her troubles, as every good princess should.
One tiny fear, however, would sometimes creep in to spoil his joy,—what if, after all, he should never walk! Thus far he had been lifted from bed to chair, and back again, much as before the operation, and he wondered when he was to try his feet.
One morning he was terrified to see Dr. Dudley with a pair of crutches. Were these to be the end of his hopes?
“Only for a while, little man,” explained the Doctor, answering the pitiful question in the boy’s eyes. “They will try your strength, and at the same time keep you from strain. Suppose we see how they go!”
To the surprise of Doodles, he found that he could use the crutches very well, and he went across the room and back, breathlessly joyful.
“May I go down the hall?” he cried.
“Certainly. I want you to walk about.” And with a word of caution to the nurse, he waved the lad a gay good-bye.
That day held only pleasure for Doodles. Polly ran in several times. Dorothy was there in the afternoon, and before she went came Miss Fleming with Daphne and Blue.