"Walked by the road on this scorching day!"
Miss Merriam turned to the doctor.
"This is one of the unexpected events we were just talking about. Little Paterno is four and too large for that little woman to carry, and far too small and weak to take that long walk on his own legs even on a more suitable day than this, and the Tsanoff twins are just holding on to life by the tips of their fingers!"
She sat down in despair. Dr. Watkins looked serious.
"Is there any way of heading them off or bringing them back. Can we reach them anywhere by telephone?"
"No one knows where they can have gone. It seems it must have been about an hour and a half ago that they started and I should think they'd be back before long if they're able to come back--"
"--under their own steam!" finished the doctor with a doubtful smile.
"Let's go to the grove and see the women and children there and perhaps the others will be in sight by the time you've finished your examination."
They turned toward the pines whose thick needles cast a heavy shade upon the ground and gave forth a delicious fragrance under the rays of the sun. As they disappeared Mrs. Schuler went out on the platform where the carpentering operations were going on.
"I'm so disturbed about those women," she said, "I've come to see what you're doing to divert my mind from them."