on't they call the doctor?"

"I don't know. She's going to scald me to death, and I s'pose you know
I'm sick," whined Flaxie, sinking down on the doormat, where the light
of the lamp shone full upon her, and Mrs. Hunter saw--what she might
have seen before, if she had not been so nervous--that the little girl
wore a checked flannel nightie, and her feet were done up in poultices.

Of course she must have come away without any one's knowing it, that
cold night, with the snow falling too! It was she that was crazy,
instead of Aunt Charlotte.

"How could the child have got out of the house?" thought Mrs. Hunter.

But the question was now, how to get her back again?

"Come, Flaxie," said she, in a soothing tone, "let me wrap you up in a
shawl and take you home pickaback,--there's a good girl!"

"But I don't want auntie to scald me."

"She shan't, dear. If she has got the tea-kettle, I'll take it away from
her."

"Honest?" asked Flaxie, piteously.

But she forgot her terror as soon as she was mounted pickaback, and
thought herself the "country cousin" taking a ride on a holder.

All this while everybody in the Allen half of the house was up and
hunting for the lost child. Milly was crying bitterly; Johnny had come
in from the barn, where he had pulled the hay all over; and Uncle Ben,
who had just returned from his journey, was starting out on the street
with a lantern.

Just then Mrs. Hunter walked in, and dropped Flaxie into Aunt
Charlotte's arms, saying:

"Here, I've brought you a poor sick child."

Then there was such a commotion that Flaxie was more bewildered than
ever, and at sight of Uncle Ben she screamed wildly. It was his coming
home about ten minutes before that had frightened her, in the first
place, by waking her from a bad dream; and she had slipped out of bed,
and out of the open front door, before any one missed her.

"There! there! darling, don't cry," said Aunt Charlotte, hushing her in
her arms, while Mrs. Hunter heated a blanket.

"I've done something _orful_," said Flaxie in her auntie's ear. "I'm so
sorry; but I stole a horse and sleigh! _Don't_ tell, auntie! I put 'em
behind that door."

"Well, never mind it, dear; you didn't mean to," said Aunt Charlotte,
smiling in spite of her heavy heart. Then she turned to Uncle Ben, who
stood by, looking puzzled, and asked him in a whisper if he "didn't
think he ought to go for the doctor"?

"Oh, by all means," said Mrs. Hunter, beginning to