On the corner of High Street, the wind being somewhat blusterous, Dot managed to run into somebody; but she clung to the flowers nevertheless.
"Hoity-toity!" ejaculated a rather sharp voice. "Where are you going, young lady?"
"To—to the horsepistol," declared the muffled voice of the matter-of-fact Dot.
"Hospital! hospital!" gasped Tess, in horror. "This is Miss Pepperill."
"Ah! So it is Theresa and her little sister," said the teacher. "Humph! A child who mispronounces the word so badly as that will never get to the institution itself without help. Let me carry those flowers, Dorothy. I am going past the Women's and Children's Hospital myself."
"Thank her, Dot!" hissed Tess. "It's very kind of her."
"You can carry the flowers, Miss Pepperill," said the smallest Corner House girl, "if you want to. But I want Mrs. Eland to know I brought some as well as Tess."
The red-haired lady laughed—rather a short, brusk laugh, that might have been a cough.
"So you are going to see your Mrs. Eland, are you, Theresa?" she asked her pupil.
"Yes, Miss Pepperill. We always see Mrs. Eland when we go to the hospital," said Tess. "But we like to see the children, too."