s knee.

"I think he has it," Pearl said, "he's actin' just like what Pa did,
and he's in awful pain, I know, only he won't let on; and we must get
the doctor or he might die before mornin', and then how'd we feel?"

Tom hesitated.

"Remember, Tom, he has a father and a mother and four brothers, and a
girl called Thursa, and an uncle that is a bishop, and how'd we ever
face them when we go to heaven if we just set around and let Arthur
die?"

"What is it, Pearl?" Mrs. Motherwell said coming into the room, having
heard Pearl's excited tones.

"It's Arthur, ma'am. Come out and see him. You'll see he needs the
doctor. Ginger tea and mustard plasters ain't a flea-bite on a pain
like what he has."

"Let's give him a dose of aconite," Tom said with conviction; "that'll
fix him."

Mrs. Motherwell and Pearl went over to the granary.

"Don't knock at the door," Pearl whispered to her as they went. "Ye
can't tell a thing about him if ye do. Arthur'd straighten up and be
polite at his own funeral. Just look in the crack there and you'll see
if he ain't sick."

Mrs. Motherwell did see. Arthur lay tossing and moaning across his bed,
his letter pad and pencil beside him on the floor.

Mrs. Motherwell did not want Tom to go to Millford that night. One of
the harvesters' excursions was expected--was probably in--then--there
would be a wild time. Besides, the two-dollar bill still worried her.
If Tom had it he might spend it. No, Tom was safer at home.

"Oh, I don't think he's so very bad," she said. "We'll get the doctor
in the morning if he isn't any better. Now you go to bed, Pearl, and
don't worry yourself."

But Pearl did not go to bed.

When Mrs. Motherwell and Tom had gone to their own rooms, she built up
the kitchen fire, and heated a frying-pan full of salt, with which she
filled a pair of her own stockings and brought them to Arthur. She
remembered that her mother had done that when her father was sick, and
that it had eased his pain. She drew a pail of fresh water from the
well, and brought a basinful to him, and bathed his burning face and
hands. Arthur received her attentions gratefully.

Pearl knew what she would do. She would run over and tell Jim, and Jim
would go for the doctor. Jim would not be in bed yet, she knew, and
even if he were, he would not mind getting up.

Jim would go to town any time she wanted anything. One time when she
had said she just wished she knew whether Camilla had her new sui