CHAPTER X.
THE END OF THE WORLD.
Dotty shuddered. It seemed so unearthly and horrible to be awake at night; to see a lamp burning, and Katie looking so very white. It was the strawberries which had made her ill, as Miss Polly confessed. When that good but ignorant woman had gone down stairs, Dotty had much ado to keep from screaming outright.
"I thought somebody would die," said she to herself; "but I didn't s'pose it would be Katie. O, Katie, Katie Clifford! you're the cunningist child. We can't have you die!"
"Somebody leave me alone," moaned Katie; "and 'twas you'n the Polly woman. I don't love anybody in this world!"
"Darling! I didn't mean to," said Dotty, "now honest. Polly said, 'O, dear! she was going to die'; but I might have known she wouldn't. She told a wrong story—I mean she made a mistake."
"You was naughty," said Katie, "velly naughty; but you didn't mean to."
"No, Katie; 'twas Polly that was naughty."
"The krilt got off o' me," said Katie, picking at the tufted coverlet; "and then I was sick."
"Miss Polly said it was the strawberries, darling; and the cream poured over them so thick."