g steps with one jump, flew across
the hall, and into the spare room!

There, at last, after all these hours of painful anxiety and fright,
there, so near, that by simply opening an unused door, they would have
found her--lay Ernestine.

As Kittie burst into the room, Ernestine tossed her arms above her head,
and uttered that feeble moan again; and too astonished to utter a word
of any kind, Kittie saw that she was unconscious, that her face was
scarlet with fever, and that the dazed, wide open eyes recognized
nothing.

She never exactly remembered how she got down stairs, and told Bea; or
how it happened that Kat was with them when they went back; she only
knew that Bea threw down her handkerchief, and worked swift and silent,
that she helped, and that Kat flew off again to bring Mrs. Dane, and was
back in just a moment, for that lady, being so forcibly impressed with
an idea that something was wrong, had started over, and met Kat just a
few minutes after she came tearing out of the gate.

It did not take long to get Ernestine into her own bed, to bathe her
burning hands and face, and smooth her tangled hair, that lay all over
the pillow like stray sun-beams. She submitted passively to all of it,
and appeared to notice no one, except now and then to turn her eyes to
Mrs. Dane, with a puzzled, pleading look, and mutter with a wistful
longing: "It isn't so, is it? I know it isn't;" then would drift into
some unintelligible murmurings, or lay quiet with no expression of any
kind in her face.

"She was perfectly well yesterday," said Bea, in answer to Mrs. Dane's
questions. "She came up stairs singing, about four o'clock, and that was
the last we saw of her until just now, when Kittie found her."

"Poor child! What did you do all night?"

"We sat up until twelve o'clock, and it seemed like a week nearly, Olive
said, and we all hoped that she had gone to spend the night with you,
and that is what kept us from giving up entirely. We were having a
little argument when she left us," added Bea, dropping her eyes, but
feeling that a little explanation was necessary. "So we thought perhaps
she went off without saying anything, so as to frighten us."

Kittie looked at Bea in curious amazement. She was so rejoiced that
Ernestine was found, that she wondered why Bea should still be so white
and tremble, and sit down every once in a while, as though too faint to
stand. Finally concluding that it was fatigue and worrying, Kit