a
of the tragedy could be had. The small girl was carried in to Julia's
bed, where she lay half-conscious, moaning; great bubbles of blood
formed from an ugly skin wound in her lip, and her little frock was
stained with blood. As an attempt to remove her clothes only roused her
to piercing screams, Julia and Miss Pierce gave up the attempt, and fell
to bathing the child's forehead, which, with the baby curls pushed away
from it, gave a ghastly look to the little face.

"Well, you've killed her, Miss Pierce!" said Miss Toland, beside herself
with nervousness. "That's a dying child, if I ever saw one. That ruins
_this_ Settlement House! That ends it! Poor little thing!"

"I was at the board," said Miss Pierce, white-lipped, and in a low tone.

"I don't care where you were," said Miss Toland. "There, there, darling!
I pay you to watch these children! It's a fine thing if a child is going
to be killed right here in the house! Where was Miss Watts?" she broke
off to ask.

"Miss Watts is at home, sick," Miss Pierce said eagerly. "And I was at
the board, when some of those bigger boys set a bench up on top of
another bench. I heard the noise and turned around; this child--poor
little Maude Daley, it is--was standing right there, and got the full
weight of both benches as they fell."

"This boy is back," said Julia, coming from the front door, "and he says
that Doctor White is out and Doctor McGuire is out, too!"

"Great heavens!" Miss Toland began despairingly. "No doctor! of course,
eleven o'clock they're all out on morning rounds! And the child's
mother, where is she? Am I the only person here who can do something
except sit around and say 'I'm sorry, I'm sorry!'"

"She has no mother, and her grandmother's out," Julia said soothingly.
"Miss Toland, if I telephone do you think I can catch Doctor Studdiford
at the City and County?"

"A two hours' trip from Sausalito!" Miss Toland said scornfully. "You
must be crazy, that's all! No! Go into Mission Street--"

"I don't mean in Sausalito," Julia said firmly; "he's at the City and
County on Wednesday mornings, you know. I could get him there."

Miss Toland stared at her unblinkingly for a second.

"Yes, do that!" she said then. "Yes, that's a good idea!" And as Julia
ran to the telephone she called after her, "Yes, that's a very good
idea!"

Julia's heart thumped as she called the big institution, thumped when
after a long wait a crisp voice, out of utter silence, sa