do. Don't you know that the day of the medicine-closet in the
bath-room and the department-store patent-remedy counter is over? We've
got sanatoriums now instead of family doctors. In other words, we put in
good sanitation systems and don't need the plumber and his repair kit."

"The pharmacy?" I said between my teeth.

"Closed also. No medicine, Minnie. That's our slogan. This is the day
of prophylaxis. The doctors have taken a step in the right direction
and are giving fewer drugs. Christian Science has abolished drugs and
established the healer. We simply abolish the healer."

"If we're not going to use the spring-house, we might have saved the
expense of the new roof in the fall," I said bitterly.

"Not at all. For two hours or so a day the spring-house will be
a rest-house--windows wide open and God's good air penetrating to
fastnesses it never knew before."

"The spring will freeze!"

"Exactly. My only regret is that it is too small to skate on. But
they'll have the ice pond."

"When I see Mr. Moody skating on the ice pond," I said sarcastically,
"I'll see Mrs. Moody dead with the shock on the bank."

"Not at all," he replied calmly. "You'll see her skating, too." And with
that he went to bed.

CHAPTER XXIV

LIKE DUCKS TO WATER

They took to it like ducks take to water. Not, of course, that they
didn't kick about making their own beds and having military discipline
generally. They complained a lot, but when after three days went by with
the railroad running as much on schedule as it ever does, they were all
still there, and Mr. Jennings had limped out and spent a half-hour at
the wood-pile with his gouty foot on a cushion, I saw it was a success.

I ought to have been glad. I was, although when Mrs. Dicky found they
were all staying, and that she might have to live in the shelter-house
the rest of the winter, there was an awful scene. I was glad, too, every
time I could see Mr. Thoburn's gloomy face, or hear the things he said
when his name went up for the military walk.

(Oh yes, we had a blackboard in the hall, and every morning each guest
looked to see if it was wood-pile day or military-walk day. At first,
instead of wood-pile, it was walk-clearing day, but they soon had the
snow off all the paths.)

As I say, I was glad. It looked as if the new idea was a success,
although as Doctor Barnes said, nobody could really tell until new
people began to come. That was the real test. They had