her voice was quite
gone. Only when Betty put her ear close down to the trembling lips
could she hear the words.

"Hope!" murmured the sick woman hoarsely. "Hope--have you seen her?"

"Yes, she asked for you, too." Betty tried to nod brightly. "I'm
going to do a few things here first and get you both something to
eat, and then I'm going for a doctor."

Miss Charity sank back, evidently satisfied, and Betty hurried out to
the kitchen. The wood box was well-filled and she had little
difficulty in starting a fire in the stove. Like the rest of the farm
homes, the only available water supply seemed to be the pump in the
yard, and Betty pumped vigorously, letting a stream run out before
she filled the teakettle. She thought it likely that no water had
been pumped for several days.

There was plenty of food in the house, though not a great variety,
and mostly canned goods at that. Betty, who by this time was really
faint with hunger, made a hasty lunch from crackers and some cheese
before she carried a basin of warm water in to the two patients and
sponged their faces and hands. She wanted to put clean sheets on the
beds, but wisely decided that was too much of an undertaking for an
inexperienced nurse and contented herself with straightening the
bedclothes and putting on a clean counterpane from the scanty little
pile of linen in a bottom drawer of the washstand in Miss Hope's
room. She was slightly delirious for brief intervals, but was able to
tell Betty where many things were. Neither of the sisters seemed at
all surprised to see the girl, and, if they were able to reason at
all, probably thought she was a neighbor's daughter.

When Betty had the two rooms arranged a bit more tidily, and she was
anxious to leave them looking presentable for she planned to send the
doctor on ahead while she found Bob and brought him out with her, she
brushed and braided her patients' hair smoothly, and then fed them a
very little warm milk. Neither seemed at all hungry, and Betty was
thankful, for she did not know what food they should have, and she
longed for a physician to take the responsibility. She had given each
a drink of cool water before she did anything else, knowing that they
must be terribly thirsty.

She stood in the doorway where she could be seen from both beds when
she had done everything she could, and the two sisters, if not
better, were much more comfortable than she had found them.

"Now," she said, "I'm going