"Yes, if you could do it. But is he ill?" asked the doctor, smiling.
"Not yet; but he's going to be. He'll have the fever, Mary says."
"O! It's what Mary says, is it?" said the doctor, kissing her. "Well, then, I don't think you need trouble your little head much about it. Tell me what you have been learning this morning," he added, by way of turning her thoughts to another subject.
But Milly was not to be put off so easily. "I can't learn my lesson this morning," she said. "I must think about Bob and Jack, and how I can help them."
"But it will be time enough to think about that when they are ill," said the doctor, again smiling.
"But Mrs. Ship's two little girls are ill now, and Mary said she wanted some one to help her. Do you think I could help a little bit?"
"What do you think you could do?" asked the doctor in an amused tone. He was unusually cheerful this morning, and loved to hear Milly talk.
"I think I could light the fire—I've seen Bob do it a good many times—and I could go after water. Mother said that I helped her when I brought the water for her. I learned to wash cups and saucers before I came here, and I could do that."
"But I'm afraid this wouldn't help these poor people much," said the doctor, speaking more seriously. "If Mary said they wanted help, she meant help of a different sort from what a little girl can give."
Milly looked disappointed. "I wish I wasn't a little girl, then," she said. "Little girls don't seem to be any good in the world, if they can't help when people are ill."