eading into the shop, and went in
boldly. The man who had received them the night before was busily
sorting over heaps of papers, but no one else was near. Elsie went up to
him.

"Donald's ill; he's got the fever, and he must go to the hospital," she
said, in a voice of decision.

"Ha!" said the man, not looking up from his work. "I thought he didn't
seem quite the thing. Your mother'll be round by-and-by, and then you
can tell her about it."

It was not said unkindly, but the complete indifference angered Elsie,
who was burning with impatience for something to be done very quickly.

"She's not my mother," Elsie said, sharply, "and she is not kind to
Duncan. We can't wait; we must go to the hospital directly. Meg'll show
me the way, and then I'll tell the people how bad he is."

"What does Meg know about it?" the man asked, looking into Elsie's face
with a searching glance.

Elsie was sharp enough. "He was very bad in the night, thinking there
were bad men and beasts in the room after him, and he jumped out of bed
and hurt himself. When I banged the wall, Meg came, and picked him up
and put him into bed. She said he'd got the fever like she had when she
went to the hospital."

The man called out, "Meg, come you here!"

[Illustration: "'WHAT DID SHE SAY?' THE MAN ASKED SHARPLY."]

CHAPTER XIV.--A FAIRY TRICK.

The girl came shuffling along with a look of mingled stupidity and
terror on her face. It was scarcely the same one that had bent over the
fevered child.

"This girl called you in the night. What did she want you for? Now tell
me at once," he said, in a stern voice.

Meg looked all round her in a blank, stupid sort of way, letting her
eyes travel over Elsie's face in their wandering.

"What did she say?" the man asked, sharply.

Elsie was in dreadful fear. She had not dared to look at Meg, and let
her know that she had said nothing that could harm her.

And so she waited, with a rapidly-beating heart.

"She called me to pick up the boy. He'd fallen on the floor, and he was
wandering in his head like. She asked me who'd look after him, and I
said he'd have to go to a hospital--leastways, that was where they took
me when I was bad. She asked me a lot o' questions, she did: what sort
of a place this was, and where her mother had gone. I did say there was
lodgers in the house," she said, beginning to whimper like a terrified
child.

"Stop that, you dolt!" the man cried. "Her mother'll be round p