y anxious to find them, and have
been looking for them ever since we came to Chicago. You see, they
have run away from home, Jennie, and their parents are terribly
worried about them."
"Maybe they were ill-treated at home," Jennie Albert said, gloomily.
"Oh, they were not!" cried Bess, eagerly. "We know better. Poor old Si
Snubbins thinks just the world and all of Celia."
"And Mrs. Morton is one of the loveliest women I ever met," Nan added.
"The girls have just gone crazy over the movies."
"Over acting in them, do you mean?" asked the girl who "did stunts."
"Yes. And they can't act. Mr. Gray says so."
"Oh, if they were no good he'd send them packing in a hurry," groaned the
sick girl, holding her head with both hands. "I sent them over to him
because I knew he wanted at least _one_ extra."
"And he did not even take their address," Nan explained. "Do you know
where they live?"
"No, I don't. They just happened in here. I know that they recently moved
from a former lodging they had on the other side of town. That is really
all I know about them," said Jennie Albert.
Meanwhile Walter had been quietly handing in the packages to his sister
and Bess. The oil stove was deftly filled by the good-hearted boy before
he lifted it and the can of oil inside.
When the big lamp was lit the chill of the room was soon dispelled.
Little Inez opened the packages eagerly, chattering all the time to
Jennie Albert about the good things the young folks from Washington Park
had brought.
But the sick girl, after her little show of interest in Nan's
questioning, quickly fell back into a lethargic state. Nan whispered to
Inez and asked her about the doctor she had seen for Jennie.
"Is he a good one?" she asked the child. "And will he come here if
we pay him?"
"He's a corker!" exclaimed the street waif. "But he's mighty busy. You
got to show him money in your hand to get him to come to see anybody. You
know how these folks are around here. They don't have no money for
nothin'--least of all for doctors."
She told Nan where the busy physician was to be found, and Nan
whispered to Walter the address and sent him hurrying for the man of
pills and powders.
Until the doctor returned with Walter the girls busied themselves
cleaning up the room, undressing the patient, and putting her into bed
between fresh sheets, and making her otherwise more comfortable. There
was a good woman on this same floor of the old tenement hou
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