ands horribly, and
I didn't know what to put on them. What can I do? Kitty, do do
something; she is in frightful pain, and she was so plucky."

Even in her great pain Anna looked up gratified by this praise.
Kitty gently lifted her hands and looked at them, then laid them down
again with a little shocked cry, for the whole of the palms and the
fingers were covered with burns.

"Oh you poor, poor thing!" she cried.--"Dan, do creep down to the
surgery, and bring up the bottle of carron oil. You will find it on the
floor by the window. Father always keeps it there.--O Anna," putting
her arms round her cousin's quivering shoulders, "how you must be
suffering! I am _so_ sorry. I wish I could bear it for you."

Anna was almost beyond speaking, but she laid her head back against
Kitty's arm with a sigh of relief. "O Kitty, I am so glad to have done
something for you--that's all I think of. I don't mind the pain.
You have done so much for me, and I--I wanted to make it up to you
somehow."

"Don't you ever think of that again," said Kitty solemnly. "You have
saved Dan's life, perhaps all our lives, and that wipes out everything.
But oh! poor Dan, won't he be in a scrape to-morrow when this is all
found out!"

"But it won't be found out," said Anna. "We can easily get rid of the
paper, and the mark on the curtain won't show unless one looks for it;
and, you see, it won't be taken down till the winter is over, and
then--"

"But your hands," cried Kitty. "How can we explain about your burns?"

"Oh--h," said Anna slowly, as she tried to think of some plan, "I will
just say it is an accident--I needn't explain."

"But I shall," said Kitty firmly. "I am not going to have any
deceitfulness. We will all stand together, but you aren't going to
suffer for Dan. Dan wouldn't stand it, and I should be ashamed of him
if he did."

Anna did not answer, and Kitty thought she had won. Dan returned with
the oil, and from his own drawer produced a generous supply of torn
handkerchiefs.

"How did you find out about the fire?" questioned Kitty, as she bound up
the poor hands as skilfully as she knew how. Her "skill" would have
made a surgeon or a nurse smile, but the result was soothing and
comforting.

"I woke up suddenly and thought I smelt burning; then I was sure I did,
and I got out and opened my door and saw a bright light shining under
Dan's door." Here Anna had the grace to blush, for she remembered
another o