“Put on the kettle,” added Patty, “and heat blankets; they always do that in emergencies.”
“Don't frighten me to death,” wailed Lilia, “calling me 'a thing of this kind' and an 'emergency.' I don't feel a hit worse than I did in the night.”
“She had neuralgia in her face,” explained Jo; “that must have had something to do with it. She put on some of her liniment, and then dropped off to sleep. Come, darling, let us tuck you in bed again; try to keep up your courage!”
Then there was a hasty consultation in the kitchen 'midst many groans and tears. Bell was an authority on sickness, and she said, with an awestruck face, that it must be a dreadful attack of erysipelas in the very last stages.
“But,” cried Alice, perplexed, “it is all very strange, for why does she have so little pain, and how could her face have turned so black from mortification in one night?”
“Blood-poisoning is very quick and very deadly,” said Patty, who had heard about such a case in her own family.
“Goodness knows what it is,” exclaimed Bell, wringing her hands in nervous terror. “What to do with her I don't know; whether to put bricks to her head and ice to her feet, or keep her head cold and heat her 'extremities,' as father calls them—whether to give her a sweat or keep her dry, or wrap her in blankets, or get the linen sheets. Jo is with her now. If you'll go and wake Uncle Harry, Edith, it is the best thing we can do. Run along with her, too, Patty, and you won't be afraid together.”
Alice and Bell went back presently to Lilia, who looked even worse, now that the room was bright with the glow of the open fire and the pale light of the student lamp.
“You patient old darling!” cried Bell, falling on her knees beside the bed. “We have sent for Uncle Harry and the Doctor, and now you are sure to be all right, for we've taken the thing in good time. Good gracious!! what bottle have I tipped over under this bed!”
“It's my neuralgia liniment,” murmured Lilia, faintly. “I bathed my face in it last night, and put it under there afterward. Don't spill it, for I can't get any more here.”