Every day now Miss Twining had a visit from Polly, and every day she had to tell her that she had not heard from Mr. Parcell.
"He is only waiting till he has read the book through," Polly assured the disappointed author. "Or maybe he is coming to tell you how much he thinks of it—you'd like that better, shouldn't you?"
"I don't mind which way, if only he doesn't scorn it and says something," was the half-smiling reply.
But as the days and weeks passed, and brought no word from the recipient of "Hilltop Days," Polly hardly knew how to comfort the sorrowful giver. She began to wish that she had not urged Miss Twining to send the book to Mr. Parcell. She even suggested making some errand to the house and asking, quite casually, of course, how they liked Miss Twining's book, but the little woman so promptly declared Polly should do nothing of the sort that the plan was given up at once.
At the cordial invitation of Dr. Dudley and his wife, Miss Sterling and Miss Twining spent a delightful afternoon and evening at the Doctor's home.
"I feel as if I had been in heaven!" Miss Twining told Polly the next day. "It carried me back to my girlhood, when I was so happy with my mother and father and my sisters and brother. My sisters were always stronger than I, and Walter was a regular athlete; but they went early, and I lived on." She sighed smilingly into Polly's sympathetic face. "It is queer the way things go. They were so needed! So was I," she added, "as long as mother and father lived; but now I don't amount to anything!"
"Oh, you do!" cried Polly. "You write beautiful poetry, and you don't know how much good your poems are doing people."
"I can't write any more—yes, I can!" she amended. "Miss Sniffen didn't tell me not to write. I needn't let them pay me any money—I might order it sent to the missionaries! Why,"—as the thought flashed upon her,—"I could have them send the money anywhere, couldn't I? To anybody I knew of that needed it! Oh, I will! I'll begin this very day! Polly Dudley, you've made life worth living for me!"
"I haven't done anything!" laughed Polly. "That is your thought, and it is a lovely, unselfish one!"
"It would never have come to me but for what you said! How can I ever thank you!"