th.

"And when you are strong enough," said she, "and the house purged of the
contagion, your cousins from Sussex shall come and stay a while here
with you, and afterwards you shall go with them to their town house, and
see the sights of London. And now," she added, looking out of the
window, "I spy the good doctor a-coming. Make the best of thyself, dear
heart, lest he bleed thee and drench thee yet again, which I know in my
heart thou'rt too weak for it. But what do these doctors know of babes?
Their medicines are for strong men."

The idea of bleeding was not pleasant to Dickie, though he did not at
all know what it meant. He sat up in bed, and was surprised to find that
he was not nearly so tired as he thought. The excitement of all these
happenings had brought a pink flush to his face, and when the doctor, in
a full black robe and black stockings and a pointed hat, stood by his
bedside and felt his pulse, the doctor had to own that Dickie was almost
well.

"We have wrought a cure, Goody," he said; "thou and I, we have wrought a
cure. Now kitchen physic it is that he needs--good broth and gruel and
panada, and wine, the Rhenish and the French, and the juice of the
orange and the lemon, or, failing those, fresh apple-juice squeezed from
the fruit when you shall have brayed it in a mortar. Ha, my cure pleases
thee? Well, smell to it, then. 'Tis many a day since thou hadst the
heart to."

He reached the gold knob of his cane to Dickie's nose, and Dickie was
surprised to find that it smelled sweet and strong, something like
grocers' shops and something like a chemist's. There were little holes
in the gold knob, such as you see in the tops of pepper castors, and the
scent seemed to come through them.

"What is it?" Dickie asked.

"He has forgotten everything," said the nurse quickly; "'tis the good
doctor's pomander, with spices and perfumes in it to avert contagion."

"As it warms in the hand the perfumes give forth," said the doctor. "Now
the fever is past there must be a fumigatory. Make a good brew, Goody,
make a good brew--amber and nitre and wormwood--vinegar and quinces and
myrrh--with wormwood, camphor, and the fresh flowers of the camomile.
And musk--forget not musk--a strong thing against contagion. Let the
vapor of it pass to and fro through the chamber, burn the herbs from the
floor and all sweepings on this hearth; strew fresh herbs and flowers,
and set all clean and in order, and give thanks that yo