any importance
when the old doctor warned her to lie still and rest. The fierce pain was
eased by getting off her feet and she was so glad to rest that she took
his advice, but she had had no illness and little experience with chronic
ailments. He hoped to pull her through without the threatened disaster,
but warned her solemnly.

"I'm glad we have you where you can't carry anything more out of that
confounded hole in the ground," he said savagely. "You'd never quit till
you were down, anyhow. Now don't you lift that child, no matter whether he
cries or not."

He took John aside and talked to him seriously about his wife, and
demanded that there be a hired girl procured. John listened as seriously
and went to the kitchen and got the supper and prepared for breakfast. He
worked diligently and took Elizabeth a dainty bite to eat, but when the
question of a girl came up, he had his own say about that.

"I'll do the work in this house till you can get around yourself, but I
never intend to look for a girl in this country again. You'll be stronger
after a bit and then you can look for one."

He put Jack's nightgown over his little head and buttoned it in the back
while he talked.

"This 'll pass over, and You'll be better in a week's time. I don't care
if you have two girls, so I don't have to hunt them. Here, Jack, let me
slip that shoe off."

"I can't seem to get well, though, with the drag of the housework on my
mind," the girl said drearily.

Elizabeth wanted a woman in the kitchen. She lay without speaking for a
moment, thinking that as usual she was unable to get the thing that her
own judgment demanded. John would wash his dishes clean and keep the
cooking and sweeping done as well as she, but she knew that the first day
she would be out of bed she would be dragged to the kitchen to consult and
oversee continually.

"Doctor Morgan said I might not be able to get around much all summer,"
she ventured, exaggerating the words of the old doctor somewhat in her
determination to get help at all costs that would leave her free to get
well.

"At least you can wait and see," John replied indifferently, already
concerned with his own problems. He pushed Jack from his lap and sat lost
in thought.

Elizabeth made it a rule never to argue unless there was hope of righting
things. To say one word more was to lose her temper and that she tried not
to do. The girl was really very ill; her head ached, and her body was sor