and friends, but it was really
only a short time before doctors arrived and the two little sufferers
were put to bed and their injuries attended to.

Sure enough Dolly's leg was broken, and Dotty had a fractured arm.

Both houses were in a tumult of confusion as surgeons and nurses took
possession and bones were set and splints and bandages applied.

Dolly Fayre took it quietly and seemed almost awestricken, when at last
she realised that she was in her bed to stay for several weeks.

"But it doesn't hurt much," she said wonderingly to Trudy. "Why does it
take so long to get well?"

"Because the bone has to knit, dear, and that is a slow process. I'm
glad it doesn't hurt, but it may at times. The worst, though, is that
you will get very tired lying still so long. But I know what a brave
little girl you are, and we will all do all we can to help and amuse
you."

"Did Dotty break anything?"

"Yes, she broke her left arm. That is not as bad as your breaking your
leg, for she can walk about sooner than you can. But hers is more
painful, so there's small choice in the two accidents."

"Is she yelling like fury?" inquired Dolly, who herself lay placid and
white-faced, though her blue eyes showed the strain she had undergone.

"Yes, she is," and Trudy smiled a little. "You two children are so
different. I wish you would yell a little and not look so patiently
miserable."

"What's Dolly yelling about? Because she hurts so?"

"Partly that; and partly because she's blaming herself for the whole
thing."

"How ridiculous! She isn't a bit more to blame than I am. She proposed
skating, but it was because I ran into her that we fell down. I tried to
steer out but I couldn't."

"Don't think about who is to blame; that doesn't matter. The only thing
to think about is to get well as quick as you can."

"But we can't do anything to help that along; the doctors have to do
that."

"Indeed you can help a lot. If you're patient and quiet and cheerful you
will get well sooner than if you fuss and fret and cry. That might cause
fever and inflammation and all sorts of things."

Trudy was sitting on the edge of Dolly's bed and she smiled lovingly
down at her little sister. "I'm going to take care of you," she went on;
"Mother wants to have a trained nurse, but I think you would like it
better to have me for a nurse, wouldn't you?"

"I'd like it better," and Dolly looked up wistfully, "but I don't want
to bother you too much,