CHAPTER XIV.
EDGAR DISCOURSES OF SCARLET RUNNERS.
One day, in the middle of October, the mail brought Polly two letters: the first from Edgar, who often dashed off cheery scrawls in the hope of getting cheery replies, which never came; and the second from Mrs.
Bird, who had a plan to propose.
Edgar wrote:--.

.

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"I have a new boarding-place in San Francisco, a stone's throw from Mrs.Bird's, whose mansion I can look down upon from a lofty height reached by a flight of fifty wooden steps,--good training in athletics! Mrs.Morton is a kind landlady and the house is a home, in a certain way,-- "But oh, the difference to me 'Twixt tweedledum and tweedledee! "There is a Morton girl, too; but she neither plays nor sings nor jokes, nor even looks,--in fine, she is not Polly! I have come to the conclusion, now, that girls in a house are almost always nuisances,--I mean, of course, when, they are not Pollies.

Oh, why are you so young, and so loaded with this world's goods, that you will never need me for a boarder again?
Mrs.Bird is hoping to see you soon, and I chose my humble lodging on this hill-top because, from my attic's lonely height, I can watch you going in and out of your 'marble halls;' and you will almost pass my door as you take the car.