The Primrose Ring

h to have come from the throats of healthy children, and it would have sounded happil

Lean; and then she went from crib to crib with a special greeting for each

lyzed and wholly captivating. He had been in Saint Margaret's since babyh

s forehead. "It's just the day for you out on th

bin

ds, too. I've hea

n some one fortunately had mentioned Saint Margaret's, and society was relieved of its burden. In the year he had spent here his Aberdonian burr had softened somewhat and a number of American colloquialisms had crep

he reminded her, blithely. "But 'tis n

l I g

tell ye. L

membered something. "Now you guess what y

rri

sco

dy clapped his h

endars are not kept in Ward C no one knew what this day was; and consequently Susan was grinning all over her pinched, gnome-like little face. M

uess what I dreamt la

me day and claim Susan with open arms. She was the source of many dreams and of much interested conversation and

is time. I dreamt you w

Susan giggled

lay James and John-fellow-Apostles of pain-bound closely together in that spiritual brotherhoo

rs; and I'm not going to get married. Does a

ment; but as it had never happened before, of co

d full for them now? Could not minds like theirs be taught to walk alone, after all? And then she laughed to herself for worrying. Why should the children ever have to do without her-unless-unless something

itself in the folds of the gray uniform. This was Bridget-daughter of the Irish sod, oldest of the ward, general caretaker and best beloved; although i

a pair of thin little arms flew out and c

days when Sandy's back was particularly bad or the Apostles grew over-despondent; and it was Bridget who laughed and sang on the g

roadway manufacturer of cheap artificial flowers. She had done this for three years-since she was five-thereby helping her

that she was the only child in the incurable ward blessed in the matter of a home. Her parents were honest-working Italians who adored her, but who were too ignorant and indu

assed her with a k

rs old-congenital hip

ming under the kiss that he wou

administering nurse, and then sh

p the House Surgeon give

ion of a dog-adoring little brain. But no one was ever inconsiderate enough to hint at his airy fabrication; and Margaret

MacLean had wrestled with the vocabulary on memorable occasions-to no avail; and although she had long since discovered it was a matter of words and not meanings with h

ng her fingers through the perpendicu

hievously; and then he added, with an

remember, the next tim

bless

ht-nex

a?ana; and he seemed as much an alien now as the day he was brought into the ward. And then, because she b

a-serpent of surprising activities, two teeth-grinding alligators, a walrus, and a baby elephant were bathed with considerable difficulty and excitement. It was Sandy who insisted on being the elephant in spite of a heated argument from the

ntly into children, and she delivered a firm but gentle lectu

things." She pushed the cribs and cots all together into a "special" with observation-cars; then, changing into an engineer, and with a call to Toby to jump aboard, she swung hers

hard to understand how wearisome and stupid it grows to be always in one room with an encompassing sky-line of roof-tops

elds guarded by scarecrows. She slowed up at the barnyards that the children might hear the crowing cocks and cluc

bleeted hame i' Aberdeen!" shouted San

ed banks; and on and on until it had grown into a river with little boats and sandy shore and leaping fish. Here the engineer stopped the

so that the engineer could point out each farm and past

ch other." And when they reached the crest she clapped her hands. "Oh, children dear, w

came down through the trees like splashes of gold; and

nto the hall to look up the dinne

d, in the teasing, big-brother tone; bu

pushed back some moist curls that had slipped out from under her cap-engineering was hard work-and the little-girl look came i

ehead in his most professional man

awfully good guess, but it's wrong. I've

-tales on her knee open to the story of "The Steadfast Tin Soldier." As for Ward C, it was supremely happy; its beloved "Miss Peggie" was on duty for the afterno

Lean could feel it without taking her eyes from the book, and, pur

quickly that the Tin Soldier trembled; but he remained firm, he did n

with you a moment?" It was th

f-way, hoping to keep him and whatever he might

aving extra food prepared for them of late, such as fruit and jellies and scones and even ice-cream. I discovered it for mys

ame things to eat; it is not like the other wards where the children stay only a short time. So I thought it would be nice to have somethi

will not countenance. The regular food is good and wholesome, and t

ward the cots, then dropped h

e them a treat when they were not expecting it. As for the extra

ooked closer at the young woman before him. "Do you

urse

n extremely idiotic performance which had bette

foolish notions of throwing away money; and Margaret MacLean went back to the book

cones the nicht, so y

, "Trusterday, ain'

shall we go on

recognized the President's step outside the door. In another momen

condition in life if you should select-hmm-something like Pilgrim's Progress or Lives of the Saints and Martyrs? S

up at him-"but I thought thi

early thirty days each month-with the help of two private secretaries and a luxurious office-to properly attend to all the work resulting t

patiently, "and some arrangement was made for one of the trustees to come and

generally comes an hour before the meeting and reads to them; but to-day she was detained by a-ta

alize what a very serious thing life is to any one in this condition. Instead of that I fear at times that y

very well, sir," they

ever found wanti

e nurse in charge of Ward

the boat, and the paper became more and more limp; then the water closed

Oldest Trustee that floated in. "This, my dear, is t

unbent, for all her seventy years, and her lorgnette raised. As she was speaking a little

at is one of them in the second crib." Her eyes moved on from Sandy to Rosita. "And the fifth patient has such a drea

ad been looking straight ahead with big, conscious eyes, hearing not a word.

he children? They are rather sober this aft

in?" put in the Oldest Trustee

n almost infinitesimal distanc

ldn't know quite w

w pictures for the nurses' room?" the

yance. "We have already seen them. I think you must h

of a woman move quietly from cot to cot, patting each small hand and asking, tenderly, "And what is your name, deari

that?" he asked after

hey have done for me-and say things they will never forgive. My mind-string will just snap, that's all; and every little pestering, forbidden thought that has been

e thoughts, I wager," la

end of the cross-corrid

ee, talking

lum when she was a baby, in almost a dying condition. Every one thought it was an incurable case; the doctors

C turned from the House Surgeon-her hands clenched-while the v

ubtedly she was abandoned. We named her 'Margaret MacLean,' after the hospi

pty, barring the primroses, which were guilelessly nodd