t qualm at rest.
And, of course, good news would come from Sidney in the morning.

But courage has a way of ebbing in spite of one. It was dark and very
cold when a forlorn little figure appeared beside Elliott's bed.

"I can't go to sleep. Trudy's asleep. I can hear her. I think I am
going to cry again."

Elliott sat up. What should she do? What would Aunt Jessica do?

"Come in here and cry on me."

Priscilla climbed in between the sheets and Elliott put both arms
around the little girl. Priscilla snuggled close.

"I tried to think--the way you said, but I can't. _Is_ Sidney--"
sniffle--"going to die--" sniffle--"like Ted Gordon?"

"No," said Elliott, who a minute ago had been afraid of the very same
thing. "No, I am perfectly positive he is going to get well."

Just saying the words seemed to help, somehow.

Priscilla snuggled closer. "You're awful comforting. A person gets
scared at night."

"A person does, indeed."

"Not so much when you've got company," said Priscilla.

The warmth of the little body in her arms struck through to Elliott's
own shivering heart. "Not half so much when you've got company," she
acknowledged.

CHAPTER XI

MISSING

Sure enough, in the morning came better news. Father Bob's face, when
he turned around from the telephone, told that, even before he opened
his lips.

"Sidney is holding his own," he said.

You may think that wasn't much better news, but it meant a great deal
to the Camerons. "Sidney is holding his own," they told every one who
inquired, and their faces were hopeful. If Father Bob had any fears,
he kept them to himself. The rest of the Camerons were young and it
didn't seem possible to them that Sidney could do anything but get
well. Last night had been a bad dream, that was all.

The next morning's message had the word "better" in it. "Little" stood
before "better," but nobody, not even Father Bob, paid much attention
to "little." Sidney was better. It was a week before Mother Jess wrote
that the doctors pronounced him out of danger and that she and Laura
would soon be home. Meanwhile, many things had happened.

You might have thought that Sidney's illness was enough trouble to
come to the Camerons at one time, but as Bruce quoted with a twist in
his smile, "It never rains but it pours." This time Bruce himself got
the message which came from the War Department and read:

You are informed that Lieutenant Peter Fearing has been reported
mi