ose stood before her talking
rapidly with one hand laid in the friendliest manner on the skeleton's
shoulder. Every word both the Doctor and Rose uttered hit the good lady
in her weakest spot, and as she looked and listened a long array of
bottles and pill-boxes rose up before her, reproaching her with the
"ignorance and want of thought" that made her what she was, a nervous,
dyspeptic, unhappy old woman.

"Well, I don't know but you may be right, Alec, only I wouldn't carry
it too far. Women don't need much of this sort of knowledge, and are not
fit for it. I couldn't bear to touch that ugly thing, and it gives me
the creeps to hear about 'organs,'" said Aunt Myra, with a sigh and her
hand on her side.

"Wouldn't it be a comfort to know that your liver was on the right side,
auntie, and not on the left!" asked Rose with a naughty laugh in her
eyes, for she had lately learnt that Aunt Myra's liver complaint was not
in the proper place.

"It's a dying world, child, and it don't much matter where the pain
is, for sooner or later we all drop off and are seen no more," was Aunt
Myra's cheerful reply.

"Well, I intend to know what kills me if I can, and meantime, I'm going
to enjoy myself in spite of a dying world. I wish you'd do so too, and
come and study with uncle, it would do you good, I'm sure," and Rose
went back to counting vertebrae with such a happy face, that Aunt Myra
had not the heart to say a word to dampen her ardour.

"Perhaps it's as well to let her do what she likes the little while
she is with us. But pray be careful of her, Alec, and not allow her to
overwork," she whispered as she went out.

"That's exactly what I'm trying to do, ma'am, and rather a hard job
I find it," he added, as he shut the door, for the dear aunts were
dreadfully in his way sometimes.

Half an hour later came another interruption in the shape of Mac, who
announced his arrival by the brief but elegant remark,

"Hullo! what new game is this?"

Rose explained, Mac gave a long whistle of surprise, and then took a
promenade round the skeleton, observing gravely,

"Brother Bones looks very jolly, but I can't say much for his beauty."

"You mustn't make fun of him, for he's a good old fellow, and you'd be
just as ugly if your flesh was off," said Rose, defending her new friend
with warmth.

"I dare say, so I'll keep my flesh on, thank you. You are so busy you
can't read to a fellow, I suppose?" asked Mac, whose eyes were bet