valentines,-piles and piles of them, and out of them all she was huntin

's time to get up if y

a, Martha," she cried, "if you hadn't waked me, I should have got i

t?" aske

" and, sitting up,

d here," was her comment, when she caught her breath. "Some time you'll dream

eiress?" inq

bankful of money," repl

then slipped out of bed, and began to d

dreaming abo

her words had had, little thought what a fine scheme she had set going. If she had, the scheme would certainly never have been carried out, or never have been carried out as Polly planned it. And Polly knew this pe

, going straight to a small bureau that stood between Jane's bed and her own, she cautiously pulled out the lower drawer, and took from it a little toy house. This pretty toy house was nothing more nor less than a child's bank that had been given to Polly one Christmas, and into which she had dropped the pennie

ut the valentines, she consoled herself with the thought of the little paint-box that might soon be hers. But when Martha had said, "Some time you'll dream you're an heiress, and wake up counting your money out," and had told her an heiress meant a girl with a bankful of money, like a flash of lightning came another thought into Polly's mind,

"do sums." She couldn't add these two piles of ten and the "more yet," and she couldn't ask Jane or any one else in the house to do it for her. But what she could do, what she would do, was to slip the whole treasure back into the bank, and take it around to the shop on the corner, the shop where she had seen the paint-boxes, and where she was sure she should also find plenty of valentines. So getting into her little coat

would have missed her, and be hunting for her; perhaps they would be sending a policeman after her. Oh dear! oh dear! And summoning u

busy now?" said t

turned and looked at Polly as she spo

now. Her mother has probab

f the children at the Orphans' Home

, and then insisted still more earnestly that she should be atte

entines the clerk put before her, she shook her head disdainfully. "I

. "How much money hav

nk, and triumphantly

gain,-"all that?

count up to ten, and there's two t

"that makes twenty-five. You've got twenty-five cents. Here are the twenty-five

gher, and there, staring her in the face, was the very little paint-box, with its two brushes and porcelain color plate, and it seemed to say to her: "Come, buy me now; come, buy me now. If you don't, somebody else will get me." And she could buy it now, if onl

er here. "What is it that troubles y

ay for her standing beside her. The lady smiled reassuri

s it? T

ittle paint-box, Jane's valentine, and everything, winding up eagerly with the appeal,-"And wouldn't you

a little girl like you. I dare say, though, that I should have felt

paint-box!"

e paint-box," l

t was so soon to be hers. But presently the rapture faded, and a new ex

inquired. "Doesn't t

rhaps it was that nod that sen

lerk, and tell him you've changed your mind ab

and two more tears f

oing to buy t

entine. Jane didn't ever get a valentine, and

the dear paint-box, and then resolutely turned to the valentines, from which she selected the biggest and "bewt'f'lest" she could fi