"How often, Harry, does that clock chime?" asked Polly.
"It plays music every quarter of an hour."
"How is it, then, that I did not hear the music before?"
"Do you really mean that you have not heard the clock chime all the morning? It has been playing right along. You must have seen that we children stopped playing for a few seconds now and then. At those times we were listening to the music."
The other children gathered about Polly, and when Harry told them about her failure to hear the chimes, they all began to laugh.
Polly could not bear to be laughed at so she cried bitterly; whereupon the other children scampered off.
Harry, however, tried to comfort the weeping child. "Polly," he pleaded, "never mind those children; they do not know any better."
Polly suddenly drew away from him. "I guess you told them things about me! Go away from me! You are a tattle-tale!"
She stamped her foot, and her eyes flashed. Harry turned and walked away sadly.
Suddenly to Polly all nature became very still and lonesome. She was sorry that all the children had gone, and she did not know where to find them. The great clock-tower too had disappeared. She began to be afraid once more. Sitting down on a stone she almost wished herself dead. No one loved her. The sun began to move toward the West and Polly was beginning to feel hungry as well as sad.