CAROLS

"THIS is the worst time of all the yeah to be sick," fretted the Little
Colonel, pausing in her restless journey around the room. She had been
pacing from window to fireplace in the nurse's office, and from
fireplace to window again, watching the clock and the slowly westering
sun, as if watching would hasten the day to its close.

Miss Gilmer, who was placidly knitting, changed needles without looking
up. "That is what people always say. I've never yet found one whose
calendar had a time when illness would be convenient."

"But now, just befoah the holidays, a thousand things are waiting to be
done. I'm behind a whole week with my studies, and my Christmas presents
that I'm going to make are scarcely begun. You haven't even let me look
at the material. I feel like a caged lion, and I'd like to roah and claw
and ramp around till I'd smashed my bah's."

"You'll have your liberty soon," laughed Miss Gilmer. "I think it will
be safe to let you go down to the dining-room this evening, and I'll
give you your honourable discharge in the morning. But, if I were in
your place, I would make no attempt to catch up with the classes this
term. I would lock the unfinished presents away in a drawer, and not
give any this Christmas. You ought to spend the holidays as quietly as
possible, doing nothing but rest."

Lloyd turned toward her with an exclamation of dismay.

"Oh, Miss Gilmer! That's impossible! We've planned for a gayer Christmas
vacation than we've evah had befoah. Every day will be full to the brim.
And I _must_ make up the recitations I have missed. I've had such good
repoah'ts all term that I can't beah to spoil everything right at the
end. When I was in bed, feeling so bad, I made up my mind I wouldn't
worry about them, but now I feel as good as new, only a little weak, and
one always feels weak aftah fevah. It's to be expected. You know I
wasn't dangerously ill."

"No," admitted Miss Gilmer, "but your little illness has left you with
less strength than you think you have. You are like an ice-pond that is
just beginning to freeze over. A very light weight will break it
through at that stage, but if there is no strain until it has frozen
properly, it can bear the weight of the most heavily loaded wagons."

Lloyd slipped into a chair and stared dismally at the fire.

"But I am strongah than you think, Miss Gilmer. Except one time when I
had the measles, I'd never been sick in my life till last week. I d