"What is it, what has happened?" cried Happie, catching the little girl as she half fell over the threshold when she opened the door.
"Mama, oh, poor, poor mama!" wailed Laura, clutching at Happie.
"What?" gasped Happie, turning so white that Ralph sprang to help her.
"She has been sent home in a carriage. Oh, oh, I came along just in time to see her. I ran up when the man rang the bell," moaned Laura.
Miss Bradbury came forward with a kind of collected haste. "Laura," she said sternly, "stop your hysterics. I have no patience with hysterics. As though there were anything dreadful about being sent home in a carriage! Ralph, come with me. We will go down and help Mrs. Scollard up-stairs."
Ralph Gordon brushed past the frightened Scollard girls, and followed Miss Bradbury instantly. When they returned it was very slowly, and the janitor of the house, with a stranger who had been passing, was helping them. They were carrying Mrs. Scollard, and Margery and Happie clutched each other, and Laura ran away to hide, fearing to look.
Their mother's face was ashen, and her eyes were closed. Polly began to cry, and Penny fled to Snigs for comfort; for the first time in her life her sisters were not equal to giving it.
"This way," said Miss Bradbury leading. The men laid Mrs. Scollard on her own bed, and withdrew.
Her eyes fluttered and opened. "Don't be frightened, children," she said. "I'm only tired."
"What doctor shall I fetch?" asked Ralph. "And isn't there something Snigs could get from the drug store in the meantime?"