The doctors decided that another doctor, a surgeon, Dr. Warfield Firor, should operate on me. I didn't know about it until Mommy came over to my bed, which was next to hers, to tell me the doctor wanted to move a little bit of insides over a little to make me feel better.

She talked to me, and then I wasn't afraid. She found my nurse, Mrs. Mary Thomas, who is like Mommy. I wasn't afraid when we went up in the elevator together for the operation.

I was very peaceful when I came down. I felt better. The pain was almost gone in my left leg.

Granddaddy came every day to see me. He brought me presents, and he tried a new treatment of B12 in a needle.

A friend of his, Mr. Stephen Seth, gave me a small television set to put in front of my bed. I saw all of my favorite programs. Another friend, Dr. Grant Ward, wanted to help me.

Betty Conklin, Mommy's friend, came to see us. She brought Charles, her son. She brought me flowers. I was very happy to see her and to see Charles. I showed them the charm necklace I had strung and the green and white plastic belt Daddy and I wove together.

One day a friend of Granddaddy's, Dr. Hundley, who was a doctor, came to examine me. Afterwards, Mommy went out in the hall to talk to him.

All of a sudden, she came back in. She looked very, very queer. I asked her, "What's wrong, Mommy?" She said, "Nothing, nothing, my lamb."

Then she seemed to be gasping a little for breath, and she started to sing to me. She sang "Kiss Me Again." She kissed me and straightened my sheets and loved me with her look.

After this, I started to get out of bed and get in a wheelchair, and I went for treatments with an x-ray machine.

That doctor, Dr. Whitmer B. Firor, was very nice to us too. Everybody was. I went with Mrs. Thomas and Mommy and Daddy several days from the hospital.

Then they said I could go home. I had to take all my presents with me because they were memories from friends. But I left the Viewmaster Aunt Celeste sent me with the Johnston's Children's Ward, where I first was, because I had one I bought myself. I thought they would like it. I took all the presents Granddaddy's friends gave me.

Mrs. Malone called every day to send me her love, and she sent notes. She and her husband, Dr. Malone, who taught at Daddy's University, sent me a frog vase with a plant in it. I liked it, because I could think about the sound frogs make on summer nights near 602, down in the valley.

Mommy and I made friends in the hospital. Mr. Marye, who was at the Maryland Historical Society, came to see me one day. He and I talked about cats and how cats and cows are holy in some countries. We read it in a Life magazine. We talked about India and my Sweet Meat Bells of Sarna hanging on my bed.

Eloise Lee was there too. Mommy went in to see her often and talked about me to her. She couldn't do anything because she had twisted her back, and she had to lie there. She was glad to have company. Mommy told me about her, and one day I rode past in the wheelchair and waved to her.

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