This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

you'll have us all deef!" or to call in to Mrs. Driggs: "The fern looks kinda pindlin' this mornin', Mis' Driggs. I told you you better not try that plant food on it; that feller sellin' it was too slick."

Mrs. Driggs suddenly stopped rocking and peered out intently.

"For goodness' sake, Myrtle! There's Mr. Green going home at this hour—he must be sick or something."

Myrtle stepped over Hoagland and had a look.

"Say, I bet he is sick; he's all sort of hunched up, and holdin' on to his side." And a few minutes later Mrs. Driggs hurried to the door to let in Kate, who had run across the street bareheaded, with her golf cape thrown around her shoulders.

"Oh, Mrs. Driggs, I wonder if I might use your telephone to call up Doctor Wells? Mr. Green has come home with a feverish cold; he's had it for several days; and now he says he has a bad pain in his side, and I thought I'd feel so much easier in my mind if Doctor Wells had a look at him, though he vows—and declares he won't see the doctor if he does come; he says he feels too sick to be bothered. How do, Hoagland?"

Hoagland looked up with a glazed expression.

"Tell Mrs. Green you don't feel so good, either. He's all bunged up with a head cold; everybody has them just now. I kept him home from school to-day,