I. The Sick Baby
“Ruth, I wish you would stop at Doctor Marcy’s office on your way to school,” said Mrs. Duwell a few days later, “and ask him to come to see the baby. The little thing has a high fever.”
“Oh, dear, I hope baby won’t be sick!” exclaimed Ruth, kissing her mother good-by.
All the morning she remembered her mother’s troubled look. At noon she did not stop to talk with the girls, but hurried home as fast as she could.
Wallace was there before her, though, having run all the way. He met her at the door.
“Ruth,” he whispered, “I met Doctor Marcy as he came out, and he says that the baby has pneumonia,[B] and it is a bad case. Mother doesn’t know I am home. Can’t we get some lunch ready to take to her?”
“Yes, indeed,” replied Ruth, tiptoeing into the kitchen. “You put the kettle on the fire and I’ll make some tea and milk toast.”
Mrs. Duwell looked very pale and weary when the children appeared with the lunch tray.
“I didn’t know you were home, Ruth,” she whispered, stepping into the hall. “How quietly you must have worked, children.”
“Is there anything else we can do to help?” asked Wallace.