Ephraim was to buy me more if I needed, though
mother thought I should not. But what I did have were in the saddlebags
on Stiffleg's back."

"And he marched off to glory with them, the old soldier, eh? Well,
that's soon remedied. There are lots of stores in Los Angeles and lots
of girls your size. I'll get a nurse to fix you out, when she can,
and now, back to Ephraim and good-by."

CHAPTER XVII

THE FINDING OF ANTONIO

For Jessica Trent there followed weeks of a quieter life than she had
lived even at isolated Sobrante. "The behavior," which was to be a
test of her stay, proved so pleasing to the hospital residents that some
of them wondered how they had ever gotten along without her helpful,
happy presence.

Very quickly she lost her first vague fear of the place and learned
to hear in the once alarming ambulance gong the signal of relief to
somebody. She modulated her voice to the prevailing quietude of the
house and her footfalls were as light as the nurses themselves. To
many a sufferer, coming there in dread and foreboding, the sight of
a child familiar and happy about the great building brought a feeling of
comfort and homelikeness which nothing else could have given. She was so
apt and imitative that Ephraim often declared:

"All you need, Lady Jess, is a cap and apron to make you a regular
professional. Take care of me better'n any of 'em, you do; and I'll
be a prime experience for you, that's a fact. Another of the good things
come out of my fool riding, I s'pose. You'll be able to nurse the
whole parcel of us, when you get back to Sobrante. Beat Aunt Sally all
hollow, 'cause you trust a bit to nature and not all to--picra."

"But you're not ill, Ephraim Marsh. You're just broken. So you don't
need medicine. All you need is patience. And your nourishments, regular."

"I get them all right; but--_patience!_ Atlantic!"

The old man sighed. It was weary work for him, the hardest he had ever
done, to lie so motionless while he was so anxious to be active. He
really suffered little and he had the best of care. Still, he sighed
again, and, unfortunately, Jessica echoed the sigh. Then he looked at
her keenly and spoke the thought which had been in his mind for a long
time:

"Captain, you must go home. There's twenty to need bossing there and
only one poor old carcass here."

Poor Lady Jess! She tried to answer brightly as was her habit, but that
day homesickness was strong upon her, and at ment