"He'd have been wholly drowned if it hadn't been for you. And so would I," Rob ventured to say.
"What shall we do to him?" persisted the doctor. "He made you suffer; it is only justice that you should select his punishment."
"I shouldn't call that justice," said May decidedly. "I should call it paying him back, and father won't let us think of doing such things. If you please, Doctor Brentwood, I think we'll call it square as it is." She turned to Philip and added, earnestly, "You won't be so hateful again, will you?"
"No," Philip replied, so soberly that May did not doubt his sincerity.
Then somebody was wise enough to realize that the children were courting lung fever and rheumatism. May scampered for home, and was dressed in a dry suit before the General and Phyllis got there, and before Sarah knew anything about it.
When Sarah heard the story she expressed no surprise. "Phyllis and I have thought for some time that Philip knew more about it than he chose to tell," she said.
This cool assertion naturally surprised Phyllis, but a little later she received a second shock of surprise beside which the first faded into insignificance. Sarah gave her a bunch of keys, saying,—
"The keys of the small storeroom. Hereafter you will deal out the stores to the farm hands. Anybody that ferreted out Philip's mischief deserves to have the control of keys." Then, because Phyllis didn't know what to say, she added, "Take them; don't stand there looking as if you hadn't an idea in your head."
"Yes'm," said Phyllis, accepting the keys without another word.