"I've been talking to him. He was standing just where you are now."
Mrs. Batholommey instinctively started. In fact, despite her age and bulk and the fact that she was built for endurance rather than for speed, she jumped high into the air, with an incredible lightness and agility, and came to earth several feet away from the spot Willem had designated.
"At least," explained the boy, "he seemed to be about there. But he seemed to be everywhere."
Recovering her smashed self-poise, Mrs. Batholommey frowned with lofty majesty, tempered by womanly concern.
"You are feverish again," she said. "I hoped you were all over it. You're light-headed, you poor little fellow."
Kathrien, the bed being re-made, hurried downstairs to get Willem.
"His mind is wandering," said Mrs. Batholommey. "He imagines all sorts of ridiculous, impossible things."
Kathrien dropped into a chair by the fire and gathered the fragile little body into her lap.
"Yes," went on Mrs. Batholommey, "he is out of his head. I think I'll run over and get the doctor."
"You need not trouble to," said Peter Grimm. "I have sent for him. Though he doesn't know it. He is coming up the walk."