protested that it would be all right, but Margery was firm.

"No, Willie, I did pick half of them, that's all there is about it, and
you mustn't pretend I didn't. . . . Oh, oh, I wonder do I look as sick
as I feel?"

Willie scanned her colorless face and, under the delusion that sick folk
desire to look as nearly well as possible, said: "No, you're looking all
right." The expression of indignant protest which his cheerful remark
excited showed him his mistake, and he added, rather lamely: "You do
look kind of thin, though."

"Thin!" Margery snorted. "Why, Willie Jones, if you were one-half as
sick as I am this minute, why, you--you'd be dead long ago! O-oh! My
head, and my stummick, and my finger, too! But my finger's not as bad as
my head and my stummick. Oh, how I wish that Effie was here!"

"Effie?"

"Yes, Effie. She'd have me well in two minutes."

"I hope you don't think we'll find Effie when we get home."

"Why not?"

"Don't you remember what she said when we started out? Don't you know
she said she was going to her brother's house because we called her a
hired girl?"

For the moment Margery had forgotten, and now, at this sudden reminder,
she was so overcome she had to sit down for a few moments and rest on
the curbstone.

"Oh," she groaned, "you don't think she really meant it, do you, Willie?
What'll I do if she's not there? There's no one else knows how to make
me thr'up like Effie! She always does it for me. Why, I'll just die, I
know I will, if she's not there!"

"I'm sorry, Margery, but even if she is there, I don't think she'll do
anything for you this time. She's pretty mad at both of us."

"Willie Jones," Margery said, with sudden determination, "you've got to
do something. You've just _got_ to!"

"What?"

"You've got to apologize to Effie for calling her a hired girl."

"Well, ain't she a hired girl?" Willie protested.

It was the same question Margery had asked herself earlier in the day.
Now, however, she was ready to answer it differently.

"No," she said firmly, "she's not a hired girl. She stays with us
because she loves us and wants to take care of us. Once a lady sneaked
in and tried to get Effie away from us, and do you know what Effie did?
She chased the lady out of the yard! So you see she's our true friend
and just like one of the family, too. Now you're not friends with a
person you call a hired girl, are you? Effie was just right not to let
us call her that. Why, do y