lly, "quick as ever he could, I tell you;
but 'twasn't good like this, Phronsie."

"Did he have two bugs?" asked Phronsie, eying suspiciously the second
morsel of dry toast that Polly was conveying to her mouth.

"Well, he would have had," replied Polly, "if there'd been bugs enough;
but there were nine other chicks, Phronsie."

"Poor chickies," said Phronsie, and looked lovingly at the rest of the
toast and butter on the plate; and while Polly fed it to her, listened
with absorbed interest to all the particulars concerning each and every
chick in the Henderson hen-coop.

"Mother," said Polly, towards evening, "I'm going to sit up with Ben
to-night; say I may, do, mother."

"Oh no, you can't," replied Mrs. Pepper; "you'll get worn out; and then
what shall I do? Joel can hand him his medicine."

"Oh, Joe would tumble to sleep, mammy," said Polly, "the first
thing--let me."

"Perhaps Phronsie'll let me go to-night," said Mrs. Pepper,
reflectively.

"Oh, no she won't, I know," replied Polly, decisively; "she wants you
all the time."

"I will, Polly," said Davie, coming in with an armful of wood, in time
to hear the conversation. "I'll give him his medicine, mayn't I, mammy?"
and David let down his load, and came over where his mother and Polly
sat sewing, to urge his rights.

"I don't know," said his mother, smiling on him. "Can you, do you
think?"

"Yes, ma'am!" said Davie, straightening himself up.

When they told Ben, he said he knew a better way than for Davie to
watch; he'd have a string tied to Davie's arm, and the end he'd hold in
bed, and when 'twas time for medicine, he'd pull the string, and that
would wake Davie up!

Polly didn't sleep much more on her shake-down on the floor than if she
had watched with Ben; for Phronsie cried and moaned, and wanted a drink
of water every two minutes, it seemed to her. As she went back into her
nest after one of these travels, Polly thought: "Well, I don't care, if
nobody else gets sick; if Ben'll only get well. To-morrow I'm goin' to
do mammy's sack she's begun for Mr. Jackson; it's all plain sew-in',
just like a bag; and I can do it, I know--" and so she fell into a
troubled sleep, only to be awakened by Phronsie's fretful little voice:
"I want a drink of water, Polly, I do."

"Don't she drink awfully, mammy?" asked Polly, after one of these
excursions out to the kitchen after the necessary draught.

"Yes," said Mrs. Pepper; "and she mustn't have any more;