trayed the fact that he had overheard at least part
of their conversation.

Embarrassed, the nurse set down the bowl of water poised perilously on
one arm, and stammered, "I--I beg your pardon, Dr. Shumway. You are
rather late this morning, or am I early? I mean, you--I--we--"

"There, there. Miss Wayne, don't get excited," a laughing voice said
teasingly. "Take heart. Remember, 'the Race is not always to the
Swift.'"

"O, Dr. Dick!" Peace interrupted from the little cot by the window. "Is
that you at last? I've been watching _hours_ for you to come. I've got
the splendidest news to tell. _Gail_ is here,--my sister Gail. I know
you will like her." Then, as her eyes fell upon the great wicker chair
which the doctor was dragging behind him, she straightway forgot all
else, and shrieked ecstatically, "_Dr. Dick_, what have you got there?
Is it for me? A wheel-chair? Oh, oh, oh! Put me in it right away. _Now_
I can go and see some of the other sick folks, can't I?"

CHAPTER XIII

THE LITTLE AUTHOR LADY

"Well, Peace, my dear little Peace, I am afraid the time has come for me
to leave you."

Miss Wayne had entered the sick room noiselessly, and, pausing beside
the wheel-chair, stood looking with tenderly wistful eyes down at the
face of her small charge, who, propped up among her pillows, was
animatedly watching the traffic in the street below.

"O, Miss Wayne," Peace, so engrossed with what she had seen that she did
not catch the significance of the nurse's remark, lifted her bright
shining eyes to the face above her and giggled, "why didn't you come
sooner? You missed the biggest sight of your life. It was _so_ funny!
There was a runaway, and the horse chased across our lawn just as Dr.
Canfield came up the walk. He had his med'cine case in one hand and an
umbrella in the other, and he let out a big yell and began to wave them
both around his head while he danced up and down in front of the horse.
I guess he was trying to keep it out of a garden in the middle of the
yard, but the old beast didn't shoo worth a cent, and the doctor had to
do some lively dodging to get out of its way. He is so short and fat and
pudgy that he did look too funny for anything, hopping around like a
rubber ball and squealing like a pig. He kept a-hollering, 'O, my
cannons, oh, my cannons!' But the horse went straight through the garden
just the same, and now the doctor's down on his knees in the mud digging
up some onions and lo