"Doctor," cried Captain Rayburn, "telephone to the stables for a comfortable old horse and sleigh, will you? Celia, girl, we'll go, too."
"And I'll look after Ellen," said Mrs. Fields, before anybody could mention the baby. "Go on, all of you."
"May we all come back to supper with you?" asked Doctor Churchill, giving her a glance with which she was familiar of old.
"If you'll send for some oysters I'll give you all hot stew," she said, and received such a chorus of applause that she mentally added several items to the treat.
"Now I can enjoy my fun," whispered Charlotte to Celia, as she brought her sister's wraps, and pulled on her own rough brown coat. "Such a jolly uncle, isn't he?"
"The best in the world. Wear your white tam, dear, and the white mittens. They look so well with your brown suit. Tie the white silk scarf about your neck--that's it. Now run. I'm so afraid somebody will call the doctor out and spoil it all."
Charlotte ran, and found the doctor waiting impatiently, two pairs of skates on his arm. He hurried her away down the street.
"We must get all there is of this," he said. "I feel as if I could skate fifty miles and back again. Do you?"
"Indeed I do. I've wanted to get up and run round the block between every two stitches all day."
"They say the river is good for three miles up. That will give us just what we want--a sensation of running away from the earth and all its cares. And when we get back we'll be ready for Fieldsy's stew."