stood in a draught in his nightgown for quite a long time. And we damped
his day-shirt with the nail-brush before he put it on. But all was vain.
They always tell you that these things will give you cold, but we found
it was not so.

So then we all went over to the Park, and Dicky went right into the
water with his boots on, and stood there as long as he could bear it,
for it was rather cold, and we stood and cheered him on. He walked home
in his wet clothes, which they say is a sure thing, but it was no go,
though his boots were quite spoiled. And three days after Noel began to
cough and sneeze.

So then Dicky said it was not fair.

'I can't help it,' Noel said. 'You should have caught it yourself, then
it wouldn't have come to me.'

And Alice said she had known all along Noel oughtn't to have stood about
on the bank cheering in the cold.

Noel had to go to bed, and then we began to make the medicines; we were
sorry he was out of it, but he had the fun of taking the things.

We made a great many medicines. Alice made herb tea. She got sage and
thyme and savory and marjoram and boiled them all up together with salt
and water, but she _would_ put parsley in too. Oswald is sure parsley is
not a herb. It is only put on the cold meat and you are not supposed to
eat it. It kills parrots to eat parsley, I believe. I expect it was the
parsley that disagreed so with Noel. The medicine did not seem to do the
cough any good.

Oswald got a pennyworth of alum, because it is so cheap, and some
turpentine which every one knows is good for colds, and a little sugar
and an aniseed ball. These were mixed in a bottle with water, but Eliza
threw it away and said it was nasty rubbish, and I hadn't any money to
get more things with.

Dora made him some gruel, and he said it did his chest good; but of
course that was no use, because you cannot put gruel in bottles and say
it is medicine. It would not be honest, and besides nobody would believe
you.

Dick mixed up lemon-juice and sugar and a little of the juice of the red
flannel that Noel's throat was done up in. It comes out beautifully
in hot water. Noel took this and he liked it. Noel's own idea was
liquorice-water, and we let him have it, but it is too plain and black
to sell in bottles at the proper price.

Noel liked H. O.'s medicine the best, which was silly of him, because it
was only peppermints melted in hot water, and a little cobalt to make
it look blue. It was all