don't move it's
sure death; and somebody has to shake me to bring me out of it."

Dotty turned pale.

"Miss Polly, O, please, I'd rather sleep with Katie!"

"But how would you feel to have me die in the night?"

"O, dear, dear, dear," cried Dotty; "let me go for the doctor this
minute!"

"Why, child, I haven't got it now, and perhaps I shan't have it at all;
but if I do, I shall groan, and that's the way you will know."

Dotty ran into the shed, threw her apron, still sticky with starch, over
her head, and screamed at the wood-pile.

"O, if grandma were only at home, or Ruth, or Abner!"

"Why, what's the matter, little Goody-Two-Shoes?" said a manly voice.
Abner had just come from his day's work in the meadow.

"Polly's here," gasped Dotty. "She's afraid she's going to die in the
night, and she wants me to shake her."

Abner leaned against a beam and laughed heartily.

"Never you fear, little one! I have heard that story about Polly's dying
in the night ever since I can remember; and she hasn't died yet. You
just say your prayers, dear, and go to sleep like a good little girl,
and that's the last you'll know about it till morning."

So saying, he caught Dotty by the shoulders, and tossed her up to the
rafters. The child's spirits rose at once. It was such a comfort to have
that strong Abner in the house in case of accidents.

She said her prayers more earnestly than usual, but it was nearly five
minutes before she fell asleep. The last thing she heard was Miss Polly
singing a very mournful hymn through her nose; and, while she was
wondering why it should keep people alive to shake them, she passed
into dreamland. Very little good would such a heavy sleeper have done if
Miss Polly had had an ill turn. It was Polly who was obliged to shake
Dotty, and that rather roughly, before she could rouse her.

"Where am I? Who is it?" said she. "O, Miss Polly, are you dead?"

"Hush, child; don't speak so loud; or you'll wake Abner. Little Katie is
sick, and I want you to stay with her while I go down stairs and light a
fire."

CHAPTER X.

THE END OF THE WORLD.

Dotty shuddered. It seemed so unearthly and horrible to be awake at
night; to see a lamp burning, and Katie looking so very white. It was
the strawberries which had made her ill, as Miss Polly confessed. When
that good but ignorant woman had gone down stairs, Dotty had much ado to
keep from screaming outright.

"I thought somebody would die," s