without Mrs. Hunter having to
look after her. She won't do another day's work for a good long time--and
mind, I say, You'll lose her yet if you don't keep that child off her till
she has a chance to get well."

As Doctor Morgan drove away he said meditatively:

"Think I got him that time. Blamed fool!"

CHAPTER XIX

"HER WAGES, FOOD AND CLOTHING SHE
MUST ACCEPT"

Luther Hansen was at the door when John returned, and they entered the
sitting room together. Jack was leaning against the bedroom door, and
John, who remembered Doctor Morgan's parting advice, went to close it. The
baby ran to his mother, escaping the outstretched hands of the father, who
was after him, but the child had miscalculated the opposition this time
and was taken firmly into John's arms and lifted free from the bed.

"Tell Luther to come to me," Elizabeth whispered.

"Doctor Morgan said----" John began.

"Tell Luther to come to me," Elizabeth repeated, putting every particle of
strength she had into her voice so that by having Luther hear her John
would be obliged to comply.

Luther came without having to be told.

"Luther, could you get Hepsie back for me, if you told her Mother Hunter
was gone and would not come back?" she asked, falling back into a whisper
from sheer weakness.

Luther bent to catch her words. Elizabeth's illness showed plainly in her
pinched face this morning; he would have done anything she asked of him.

"Of course," he answered cheerfully.

Luther really did not know whether Hepsie could be had, but he meant to
have her if she was not already at work somewhere else. He listened to the
directions and promised without equivocation that Hepsie would come. He
understood that for some reason the thing Elizabeth asked of him she could
ask of him alone, but was careful to couch his replies so that that fact
was not indicated even to her.

When it was arranged, Elizabeth closed her weary eyes as a sign that she
wished to be alone, and the men retired from the room, leaving her in the
first real peace she had known since her illness began. With Hepsie in the
house, she could look forward to the days to come with less dismay. She
resolved that if she did get the girl back that she would keep her as long
as there were hired men to cook for. With the assurance that Hugh would
keep John from falling into debt again there would be funds to pay her and
there was as much need of a girl in the kitchen as of men in the f