ple hastily,
heaving a sigh of satisfaction to think that there was something useful
for him to do.

"If Rumple is going to make the water hot, can't I come into the bedroom
to help you with Rupert?" asked Sylvia, for Nealie looked thoroughly
worn out.

"I will call you if we want more help, meanwhile you might make the poor
doctor some tea, for I do not believe he has had a real meal since
breakfast, and it is very hard for him to find his home invaded in such
a fashion. But where are the children?" asked Nealie, looking round in a
bewildered fashion.

"We have put them to bed in the wagon; they were so very tired,"
answered Sylvia. "Now I will get the doctor man such a nice supper that
he will feel he is to be congratulated on his household of visitors,
even though one of them is in possession of the only bed in the house.
Oh, Nealie, what an awful situation it is, and whatever shall we do if
we can't find dear Father?"

"Don't, dear, I dare not think about that or anything else until Rupert
is better, and then God will show us what to do," said Nealie, putting
her hand out with such an imploring gesture that Sylvia was instantly
ashamed of herself, and set about being as cheerful as possible in order
to keep up the courage of her sister.

"Oh, we shall get through all right of course, and after all it is just
a part of our adventures; anything is better than stagnating I think,
and we have not been in much danger of that lately!"

Nealie went back to the bedroom, while Sylvia and Rumple did their very
best in the outer chamber, where the confusion almost defied
description. But their days of living in the wagon had fitted them for
managing comfortably where anyone else would have been bothered by the
muddle all around.

As it was, Rumple's fire was burning in grand style, and the various
pots and kettles on the stove were beginning to show signs of being
nearly ready to boil, when the doctor came out of the inner room to get
something from the medicine cupboard in the corner.

"Will you please sit down and take your supper, now that you are here?"
asked Sylvia rather timidly, for to her way of thinking this doctor had
a very disagreeable face; but that was, perhaps, because she was
prejudiced against him through the dreadful disappointment which had met
them at the end of their journey.

"I do not think that I can stay for food just now; your brother needs
me," he began, in a tone which certainly was brus