"Why, I can run up there for yer, jus' 's well 's not," he nodded.
"Oh! Will you?" she brightened. "I'll be so glad! But won't it be too much trouble?"
"Not a bit!" he returned glibly. Then his pinched face shaded. "If I can git back before she comes down," he hesitated, wavering between kindness and fear. "I guess I can," he decided, and put on this hat.
"If Dr. Dudley is n't there," Polly told him, "please ask for Miss Lucy Price. She'll do just as well. She's the nurse in our ward."
"I'll do it up all straight," he exulted, stepping briskly with the importance of his errand. But as his hand touched the knob, another's was before it. His wife opened the door.
"Where you goin', 'Rastus Bean?" she demanded.
"I—I was just goin' out for a little walk," he faltered.
"A walk!" she snapped. "If you've got your chores done, you'd better walk into bed!"
Without a word he disappeared in an adjoining room, while his wife lifted the stove cover, to see if his tasks had been faithfully performed.
Polly's forlorn hope vanished with the little man; but no tears came until she was on her pillow, shut from all eyes. Then they gushed forth in a flood.