d up to the jungle and
carried off a load of children. Jimmie and Sally were always in
the load. The back seat was crowded, and a helper sat in front
with the driver and held Sally, while Jimmie sat between. He
liked to sit there, for the driver looked like Her! Only short
instead of tall, and plump instead of thin, and with curly dark
hair, but with the same kind smile.

Here in California the other children were supposed to pick only
outside school hours; but the school was too far from the camp
and there was no bus. So Dick and Rose-Ellen picked peas all day
with their elders.

"The more we earn," Dick said soberly, "the sooner we can get
away from this place."

"The only trouble is," Rose-Ellen answered, "we get such an
appetite that we eat more than we earn, except when we're sick."

The sun blistered Dick's fair skin until he was ill from the
burn; and Rose-Ellen sometimes grew so sick and dizzy with the
heat that she had to crawl into her pea hamper for shade instead
of picking. There was much sickness in this camp, anyway. There
was only one well, and it was not protected from filth. The
flies were everywhere. Grandma boiled all the water, but she
could not keep out the germ-laden flies. The family took turns
lying miserably sick on an automobile-seat bed and wishing for
the end of the pea-picking.

But after the early peas, they must wait for the February peas;
and before they were picked, Jimmie complained that his throat
felt sore. Next day he and Sally both broke out with measles.

Grandma had her hands full, keeping the toddler from running out
into sunshine and rain; but it was Jimmie who really worried her,
he was so sick. And when he had stopped muttering and tossing
with fever, he woke one night with an earache.

"Mercy to us!" Grandma cried distractedly. "We ain't even got
salt enough for a hot salt bag, or carbolic and oil to drop in
his poor blessed ear!"

Indeed that night seemed to all of them like a dark cage,
shutting them away from any help for Jimmie.

Next morning, Miss Pinkerton, the nurse at the Center, came to
see Jimmie. She looked grave as she examined him. "If you
belonged in the county, I could get him into a county hospital,"
she said. "But we'll do our best for him here."

[Illustration: Nursing Jimmie]

Nursing in a tent was a bad dream for patient and nurses. Grandma
kept boiling water to irrigate his ear and sterilize the
utensils, Rose-Ellen tol