"Now, Uncle, you are just teasing me. Have you ever seen anyone with blue hair?"
"I must admit that I have not. Such a person would soon make her fortune in a dime museum or in a side-show at a circus."
"You know very well, sir, that the promise doesn't mean that a person has to change the color of her hair and lips. Why, no one's face is pure white; and who ever heard of blue lips?"
"Two weeks ago, the lips of a certain person, not a thousand miles away, were as blue as I should ever care to see anyone's, and her face looked as white as the pillow. But I am glad to know that you do not intend to blue your hair. It brightens things up as a sudden burst of sunshine does on a gloomy day. Let me punch up that pillow for you, and then go to sleep just as fast as you can so as to be ready for Aunt Mary and Sister Dominic."
When Mary opened her eyes two hours later, the sound of voices in the next room told her that her visitors had arrived. Presently, her mother peeped in, and finding the little girl awake, propped her up against the pillows and put a fluffy white shawl about her shoulders.
This was Sister Madeline's first visit since Mary had begun to recover.
"I'm so sorry that I didn't know you were here those other times, Aunt Mary. Mother told me afterwards when the bad dreams went away. It seems strange that I had them nearly all the time then, and they never bother me now."
"That is a very good sign that you are much better. You will soon be able to spend the day with us at Maryvale. By the way, Elizabeth, where did you put that famous black bag at which you are always poking fun? Mary will have greater respect for it than you have when she sees what there is in it for her. Now," and Sister Madeline drew from her cloth bag a large oblong package, "can you guess what this is?"
"Some of Sister Wilfred's cookies?"
"Oh, dear, no! But remember that, Sister Dominic, for our next visit. You are so 'cold,' Mary, that I am sure you can never guess. Just see how your little friends spent their library hour last evening."