kle. I think it is sprained. If you could get off my boot."

She tried to lift it, but let it drop with a cry of pain.

"I'll bet it's sprained, and a sprain is wus than a break. I had one
twenty years ago come Christmas, and went with my knee on a chair two
weeks, and on crutches three," was Mrs. Biggs's consoling remark, as she
held the lamp close to the fast-swelling foot, to which the wet boot
clung with great tenacity.

"Oh, I can't bear it," Eloise said, as the process of removing her boot
commenced; then, closing her eyes, she lay back upon the cushions,
while one after another, Mrs. Biggs, Howard, Jack, and Tim worked at the
refractory boot.

It was such a small foot, Jack thought, pitying the young girl, as he
saw spasms of pain upon her face, where drops of sweat were standing. He
wiped these away with Mrs. Biggs's apron, lying in a chair, and smoothed
her hair, and took one of her clenched hands in his, and held it while
the three tried to remove the boot.

"'Tain't no use,--it's got to be cut off,--mine did. Tim, bring me the
butcher knife,--the sharpest one," Mrs. Biggs said.

Eloise shuddered, and thought of the only other pair of boots she
had,--her best ones, which were to have lasted a year. But there was no
alternative. The boot must be cut off, and Jack continued to hold her
hands while, piece by piece, the wet leather dropped upon the floor.

"Now for the stockin'; that'll come easier," Mrs. Biggs said.

"Must you take that off now?" Eloise asked, her maidenly modesty
prevailing over every other feeling.

Howard and Jack understood, and went to the window, while the stocking
followed the fate of the boot; and when they came back to the couch
Eloise's foot was in a basin of hot water, and Mrs. Biggs was gently
manipulating it, and declaring it the worst sprain she ever knew, except
her own, which, after twenty years troubled her at times, and told her
when a storm was coming.

"Ought she to have a doctor?" Jack asked, and Mrs. Biggs replied, "A
doctor? What for, except to run up a bill. I know what to do. She'll
have to keep quiet a spell; wormwood and vinegar and hot water will do
the rest. Tim, go up garret and get a handful of wormwood. It's the
bundle of 'arbs to your right. There's catnip, and horehound, and
spearmint, and sage, and wormwood. Be lively, and put it to steep in
some vinegar, and bring me that old sheet in the under bureau drawer for
bandages."

She seemed to know what