Sylvia could not wait, and put one of the sweets in her mouth, and to that Henry owed his respite. Sylvia, eating peppermint, was oblivious to leather.
Henry went through into the bedroom and put on another coat before he sat down at the dinner-table.
Sylvia noticed that. “What did you change your coat for?” said she.
Henry shivered as if with cold. “I thought the house seemed kind of damp when I came in,” he said, “and this coat is some heavier.”
Sylvia looked at him with fretful anxiety. “You've got cold. I knew you would,” she said. “You stayed out late last night, and the dew was awful heavy. I knew you would catch cold. You had better stop at the drug store and get some of those pellets that Dr. Wallace puts up.”
Again was Henry's way made plain for him. “Perhaps I had,” said he, eagerly. “I'll go down and get some after dinner.”
But Horace innocently offered to save him the trouble. “I go past the drug store,” said he. “Let me get them.”
But Sylvia unexpectedly came to Henry's aid. “No,” she said. “I think you had better not wait till Mr. Allen comes home from school. Dr. Wallace says those pellets ought to be taken right away, just as soon as you feel a cold, to have them do any good.”
Henry brightened, but Rose interposed. “Why, I would love to run down to the drug store and get the medicine,” she said. “You lie down after dinner, Uncle Henry, and I'll go.”
Henry cast an agonizing glance at Horace. The young man did not understand in the least what it meant, but he came to the rescue.