the cat in terror, and hid, so that no one could find her. Then Aunt Kate’s little poodle waddled up to the cage. “Bow-wow!” barked the parrot. And they couldn’t drag the poodle out of the coal-cellar that night!

Sonny Boy lay awake that night longer than he had ever lain awake a night in his life, planning how to rid himself of that parrot and get his white mice again.

In the morning Aunt Kate sent out for all the daily papers, but there was no advertisement of a lost parrot in them. The parrot, with her cage muffled, was shut up in the back attic, but Aunt Kate had a nervous headache.

Sonny Boy felt sure that she was wishing she had borrowed some other one of the Plummers who wouldn’t have brought a parrot, and he was very unhappy. When Aunt Kate sat down at her desk to write an advertisement for a girl who changed a parrot for a cage of white mice, Sonny Boy stole up to the attic and got the parrot, and slipped out at the front door. He did not know the name of the station where Lena and her nurse had stopped, but he knew that it was the next station to the city, and that there was a children’s hospital there.

When Aunt Kate had said they couldn’t find the little girl without advertising, as they did not know her last name, Sonny Boy had been too bashful to tell her he thought he could.

But of course any little Poppleton boy knew what tongues were made for, and Sonny Boy felt he could make things come out right if that parrot would only keep still!

He had learned the way to the station and was hurrying on when a newsboy’s cry about the war aroused Polly.

She shouted all her war-cries, and such a crowd gathered that Sonny Boy was forced to turn into a side street and run.

But fortunately the side street led to the station, and once on board the train Polly became quiet.

He got out at the station where Lena had left him, the day before, and inquired for the children’s hospital.

There was no children’s hospital, he was told, but there was a children’s ward in the big general hospital on the hill, which the station-agent pointed out to him.

He rang timidly at the great door of the hospital, then waited a long time.

“Hurry up! Hurry up!” shrieked Polly. And a man, looking very much astonished, opened the door.

“I want to see a boy named Otto,” said Sonny Boy. “I want to give him his parrot and—”

“Are you his brother?” asked the man. “Only relatives admitted.” And when Sonny Boy shook his head he shut the door.

“‘ARE YOU HIS BROTHER?’ ASKED THE MAN.”

“Cock-a-doodle! Remember the Maine!” screamed Polly.

The man opened the door enough to look at the parrot.

“Please won’t you see if Otto has my white mice?” urged Sonny Boy.

“His sister is here. You might send for her to come out,” said a boy in buttons at the man’s elbow.

The great door was closed again, but in a few moments it opened and Lena’s startled face appeared.

“I didn’t do it on purpose,” she said, her cheeks growing very red. “But I did hope you would like her better, for Otto is just wild over the mice!”

“I don’t like her better!” said Sonny Boy stoutly.

“We think Otto ought to have everything. When you see him you’ll think so, too,” said Lena.

“I sha‘n’t think he ought to have my white mice,” said Sonny Boy firmly.

The girl opened wide the big door, as if it belonged to her.

“Come!” she said, beckoning to Sonny Boy.

Sonny Boy followed Lena through the great door.

The doorkeeper said if he was a friend of hers he might go in for a little while, but the parrot must be kept outside; she was too noisy.

The boy in buttons seemed very willing to take care of Polly. He said he would carry her out upon the grounds and give her an airing.

Lena led Sonny Boy into a large, long room, which she said was the “almost well” room of the children’s ward.

“But we’re afraid Otto never will be well,” she whispered, turning a sad little face toward Sonny Boy, as she opened the door.

“Otto, the mice boy has come to see you!” she said to a white-faced, humpbacked boy, who sat propped up in a chair, at a table, with the cage of mice before him.

The boy drew the cage towards him and placed his thin white hands over it.

“Have you come for them?” he asked, with a sob in his throat.

“Let me show you what they will do!” said Sonny Boy, and sat down opposite him at the table.

Those mice had been trained before Sonny Boy had them, and for two years he and Tom and Trixie had been teaching them. When either of the young Plummers had the mumps or the measles, or there was a long storm, it meant several new tricks for the white mice! and they could now do really wonderful things.

“‘LET ME SHOW YOU WHAT THEY WILL DO.’”

Since the war with Spain had begun, they were taught soldier tricks altogether. And it was so fortunate that some had black spots, for those could be Spaniards!

All the children in the ward who could walk crowded around the table, and the matron and the nurses, too.

It was such a good time that many an ache and pain was forgotten for many minutes. When Sonny Boy let the mice out of the cage and they scampered all over the table, then the children scampered, too—every one who could. Even the matron and the nurses uttered little screams.

But Sonny Boy whistled, and into the cage marched those mice like soldiers! It was really a wonderful sight to see.

And the worn and tired looks were gone from so many children’s faces!

Otto’s poor, shrunken, misshaped body shook with laughter. “I want to know how you trained them!” he said. “I want to train them! I want to do everything that well boys do—that you do! And I’m going to learn! Lena is only a girl, and I never had a brother. I think I could even learn spelling and fractions if you would show me how!”

Sonny Boy blushed. He began to say that he was not much for spelling and fractions himself, but Lena touched his foot.

“Spelling and fractions are nothing! I’ll show you how to do them,” said Sonny Boy stoutly.

“And you’ll show me how to straighten my legs, so I can be a soldier, won’t you?” said Otto.

Sonny Boy moved about uneasily on his bow-legs. “It’s queer! I want to be a soldier, too,” he said. “Yes, I’ll show you, Otto.”

“You’re what I’ve been wanting—a