. A light shone under
Sarah's door. He knocked, then tried the knob. It was locked.

"Open the door, Sarah," he said quietly.

"Go away!" quavered Sarah, tears in her voice.

Doctor Hugh remembered the communicating door and strode through
Rosemary's room. Shirley was fast asleep in her older sister's bed.
Sarah had not thought to fasten the door between the rooms and she
looked up startled, as her brother came in. She had not undressed,
and she sat on the floor, the kittens in her lap. The dog and the
rabbits and the rooster were all back in their places.

"This settles it!" said the doctor adamantly. "There's only one way
to deal with you, Sarah, and that is to come down like a ton of
bricks. You can't keep any pets for two months--that's final."

"Any more pets?" suggested Sarah.

"I said any pets," was the reply. "If you can find homes for these,
well and good; if you can't, I'll try to dispose of them for you.
But to-morrow morning, they go away. And now you'll have to help me
get them down cellar."

When Sarah finally understood that she was to be deprived of all her
pets at once, she wept miserably. No amount of tears or storming or
wheedling or pleading, however, could alter Doctor Hugh's decision.
Even Winnie suggested that one kitten be kept, but to no avail.

"Sarah must learn she can not do as she pleases and escape the
consequences," he said to Rosemary, who came to him on Sarah's
behalf. "Half way measures don't go with her, I find, so I've had to
be drastic. I'm sorry, too, Rosemary, but I believe I am making the
future easier for one strong-willed little girl."

He found homes among his farm patients for all the animals and saw
to it that Sarah went with him to carry the pets to their new
abodes. She felt much better when she saw that they were to be well
cared for, but it was a long time before she would go near the empty
rabbit hutch in the side yard. Jack, who discovered that she avoided
it, chopped it up at last for kindling wood for Winnie and Sarah was
silently grateful. She missed her pets inexpressibly, but the rest
of the household, it must be confessed, enjoyed their absence
thoroughly. Sarah and her animals had absorbed the foreground for
many hectic weeks.

CHAPTER XXIV

A MYSTERY SOLVED

The brief month of February was starred for the Willis family by the
little mother's birthday. She was steadily improving, according to
her own letters and the reports from the doctor