nce as he bustled into the
room after tying his horse to the fence outside.

"Oh, Dr. Willis, I'm so glad you've come!" exclaimed Nan, as the doctor
came in and drew off his gloves.

"Just a bit of luck that I was able to get here so soon," the doctor
responded. "I was just going out on another call when a girl rang me up
from the school and told me of the accident. She was so excited that she
stuttered, but I managed to make out what she was driving at and hurried
over at once. Where is the patient?"

They took him into the room, and he made a quick but thorough
examination.

"No bones broken," he announced, and the girls drew a sigh of relief.
"But there's a bad sprain and she won't be able to get around for a
couple of weeks."

He bandaged the injured ankle and prepared some medicine, which he left
with careful directions to the girls.

"I'll drop in again to-morrow," he said. "Sorry that I can't take you
girls back and drop you at the Hall, but she oughtn't to be left alone.
I can take one of you, though," and he looked inquiringly from one to
the other.

"You had better go, Bess," said Nan promptly.

"What! and leave you alone?" cried Bess. "Indeed not."

"But we can't both go."

"I am not going to leave you, Nan. We'll both stay."

"Well, it won't be for so very long anyway," remarked Nan. She turned to
the physician. "It is very good of you to ask us."

"It sure is," added Bess, quickly. And then she added, with a cloud on
her face, "You are sure Mrs. Bragley is going to get over it?"

"Oh, yes, she'll get over it. But it will take time," answered the
doctor; and a few minutes later the medical man took his departure.

"He certainly is a nice man," said Nan, as she and her chum watched him
go.

"A man one is bound to have confidence in," added Bess.

He had not been gone five minutes when there was a sound of sleighbells,
and a cutter, drawn by a spirited horse, dashed up to the gate. The
girls peered through the windows, but in the dark, which had now fully
settled down, could not identify the newcomer. A moment later there as a
knock at the door, and, on opening it, Walter Mason came in with a rush,
accompanied more sedately by an elderly woman with a kindly, capable
face.

"Why, Walter!" exclaimed Nan, and a close observer might have noted her
heightened color. "How splendid it was of you to get here so quickly."

Bess had it on the tip of her tongue to say that she could guess why he
h