Down-stairs in the kitchen, three frightened girls clung to one
another, crying bitterly as they heard poor Carol's piercing screams.

"It is pneumonia," said the doctor, after an examination. And he
looked at Prudence critically. "I think we must have a nurse for a few
days. It may be a little severe, and you are not quite strong enough."
Then, as Prudence remonstrated, "Oh, yes," he granted, "you shall stay
with her, but if it is very serious a nurse will be of great service.
I will have one come at once." Then he paused, and listened to the
indistinct sobbing that floated up from the kitchen. "Can't you send
those girls away for the night,--to some of the neighbors? It will be
much better."

But this the younger girls stubbornly refused to do. "If you send me
out of the house when Carol is sick, I will kill myself," said Lark, in
such a strange voice that the doctor eyed her sharply.

"Well, if you will all stay down-stairs and keep quiet, so as not to
annoy your sister," he consented grudgingly. "The least sobbing, or
confusion, or excitement, may make her much worse. Fix up a bed on the
floor down here, all of you, and go to sleep."

"I won't go to bed," said Lark, looking up at the doctor with agonized
eyes. "I won't go to bed while Carol is sick."

"Give her a cup of something hot to drink," he said to Fairy curtly.

"I won't drink anything," said Lark. "I won't drink anything, and I
won't eat a bite of anything until Carol is well. I won't sleep,
either."

The doctor took her hand in his, and deftly pushed the sleeve above the
elbow.

"You can twist my arm if you like, but I won't eat, and I won't drink,
and I won't sleep."

The doctor smiled. Swiftly inserting the point of his needle in her
arm, he released her. "I won't hurt you, but I am pretty sure you will
be sleeping in a few minutes." He turned to Fairy. "Get her ready for
bed at once. The little one can wait."

An hour later, he came down-stairs again. "Is she sleeping?" he asked
of Fairy in a low voice. "That is good. You have your work cut out
for you, my girl. The little one here will be all right, but this twin
is in nearly as bad shape as the one up-stairs."

"Oh! Doctor! Larkie, too!"

"Oh, she is not sick. But she is too intense. She is taking this too
hard. Her system is not well enough developed to stand such a strain
very long. Something would give way,--maybe her brain. She must be
watched. She must