ejaculated a rather sharp voice. "Where are you going,
young lady?"

"To--to the horsepistol," declared the muffled voice of the
matter-of-fact Dot.

"Hospital! hospital!" gasped Tess, in horror. "This is Miss Pepperill."

"Ah! So it is Theresa and her little sister," said the teacher. "Humph!
A child who mispronounces the word so badly as that will never get to
the institution itself without help. Let me carry those flowers,
Dorothy. I am going past the Women's and Children's Hospital myself."

"Thank her, Dot!" hissed Tess. "It's very kind of her."

"You can carry the flowers, Miss Pepperill," said the smallest Corner
House girl, "if you want to. But I want Mrs. Eland to know I brought
some as well as Tess."

The red-haired lady laughed--rather a short, brusk laugh, that might
have been a cough.

"So you are going to see your Mrs. Eland, are you, Theresa?" she asked
her pupil.

"Yes, Miss Pepperill. We always see Mrs. Eland when we go to the
hospital," said Tess. "But we like to see the children, too."

"Yes," said Dot; "there is a boy there with only one arm. Do you suppose
they'll grow a new one on him?"

That time Miss Pepperill _did_ laugh in good earnest; but Tess
despaired. "Goodness, Dot! they don't grow arms on folks."

"Why not?" demanded the inquisitive Dorothy. "Our teacher was reading to
us how new claws grow on lobsters when they lose 'em fighting. But
perhaps that boy wasn't fighting when he lost his arm."

"For pity's sake! I should hope not," observed Miss Pepperill. In a
minute they came in sight of the hospital, and she added, in her very
tartest tone of voice: "I shall go in with you, Theresa. I should like
to meet your Mrs. Eland."

"Yes, ma'am," Tess replied dutifully, but Dot whispered:

"I don't like the way she says 'Theresa' to you, Tess. It--it sounds
just as though you were going to have a tooth pulled."

Miss Pepperill had stalked ahead with Dot's bunch of flowers. Dot did
not much mind having the flowers carried for her; but she did not
propose letting anybody at the hospital make a mistake as to who donated
that particular bouquet. As they went in she said to the porter, who was
quite well acquainted with the two smallest Corner House girls by this
time:

"Good morning, Mr. John. _We_ are bringing some flowers for the
children's ward, Tess and me. That lady with--with the light hair, is
carrying mine."

Fortunately the red-haired school teacher did not hear this obs