"So you shall, till we hear what the doctor says. If she's got the whoops she can't go back to school and she'll not be very welcome at Mrs. Murdoch's, I'll venture to say."
It was about noon that the doctor's buggy drove up. Sylvy, who had been giving Mrs. Snyder a helping hand in the kitchen, caught sight of the doctor's white horse. "Hyar come Dr. Sullivan," she said. "I knows that white horse of his'n."
Eleanor ran to the window. "It is Dr. Sullivan, and he is coming here. There is some one with him; I wonder who it is."
"Miss Murdoch?"
"No, not Cousin Ellen; it is a man; I see his hat."
"Don't run out in the cold hall," Mrs. Snyder warned her. "The doctor will ride around to the side porch and I'll take him into the settin'-room. I'm glad there's a good fire in there, for it's snapping cold this morning."
Eleanor waited till she heard the doctor's hearty voice say: "I'll have you up for kidnapping, Mrs. Snyder. Where's that little girl of mine? Bless her heart, why didn't she come tell me her troubles? Here is somebody she'll be glad to see, if I'm not mistaken."
At this Eleanor ran in to see, not only her friend the doctor, but her dearly loved Uncle Heath. With a cry of joy she threw herself into the arms of the latter, forgetting every one else.
"Here, here," cried the doctor, "I want some of those kisses; don't give them all away. Look here, baby, what's all this row about, anyhow? What did you cut and run for?"
Eleanor hung her head, and then, by dint of questioning, they reached the root of the matter. The two men looked at each other, and the doctor said under his breath: "I'd like to have the dosing of that boy for about a week."