drifted along for another
month, and then Phil settled the question for himself by having a slight
hemorrhage. It was evident that something must be done, and speedily--but
what? Dr. Carr wrote to various medical acquaintances, and in reply
pamphlets and letters poured in, each designed to prove that the
particular part of the country to which the pamphlet or the letter
referred was the only one to which it was at all worth while to consign an
invalid with delicate lungs. One recommended Florida, another Georgia, a
third South Carolina; a fourth and fifth recommended cold instead of heat,
and an open air life with the mercury at zero. It was hard to decide what
was best.

"He ought not to go off alone either," said the puzzled father. "He is
neither old enough nor wise enough to manage by himself, but who to send
with him is the puzzle. It doubles the expense, too."

"Perhaps I--" began Katy, but her father cut her short with a gesture.

"No, Katy, I couldn't permit that. Your husband is due in a few weeks now.
You must be free to go to him wherever he is, not hampered with the care
of a sick brother. Besides, whoever takes charge of Phil must be prepared
for a long absence,--at least a year. It must be either Clover or myself;
and as it seems out of the question that I shall drop my practice for a
year, Clover is the person."

"Phil is seventeen now," suggested Katy. "That is not so very young."

"No, not if he were in full health. Plenty of boys no older than he have
gone out West by themselves, and fared perfectly well. But in Phil's
condition that would never answer. He has a tendency to be low-spirited
about himself too, and he needs incessant care and watchfulness."

"Out West," repeated Katy. "Have you decided, then?"

"Yes. The letter I had yesterday from Hope, makes me pretty sure that St.
Helen's is the best place we have heard of."

"St. Helen's! Where is that?"

"It is one of the new health-resorts in Colorado which has lately come
into notice for consumptives. It's very high up; nearly or quite six
thousand feet, and the air is said to be something remarkable."

"Clover will manage beautifully, I think; she is such a sensible little
thing," said Katy.

"She seems to me, and he too, about as fit to go off two thousand miles by
themselves as the Babes in the Wood," remarked Dr. Carr, who, like many
other fathers, found it hard to realize that his children had outgrown
their childhood. "However, t