ue saw us, and
Belle forcibly crossed Mamie Sue over and went down the side street
just to keep from meeting us--that was as plain as day. Tony got still
redder and talked fast about Lovelace Peyton to keep from seeming to
notice the way the girls had acted toward us. I held up my head and
did likewise.

Something awful has happened to me or about me in this town and I
don't know what; but it is my duty to put it all out of my mind now
and give my thoughts and cheerfulness to Roxanne and Lovelace Peyton,
while they need me so much. I have made up my mind to forget it.

And it was fun to read to the prostrated medicine-man out of that book
as I did all afternoon. I began with abscesses and got almost as far
as aneurism before the sun began to set. I never saw anybody enjoy
anything as much as Lovelace Peyton did each disease as I read about
it; and the more bloodcurdling the description of the suffering and
more awful the treatment, the more it interested him.

"I bet if I ever get a good sharp knife, I could stick it right in the
pain place in Uncle Pompey's heel so it would bleed all the sore
away," he said with keen enjoyment, as I read to him about the lancing
of carbuncles.

"Oh, Lovey, I almost get the diseases while Phyllis reads about them,"
said Roxanne with a shudder. "Do you like to hear about such awful
things?"

"Yes, I do," answered Lovelace Peyton decidedly. "And I wisht you
would get every one of the diseases in that book, Rosy, so I could
cure you like Phyllis reads--and Uncle Pompey and Doug, too. Only not
Phyllis, 'cause I need her to read the cure to me, while I do it."

While we were all laughing at Lovelace Peyton and talking about the
operations he is going to perform on the inhabitants of Byrdsville as
soon as he gets grown, and deciding what each one is going to have,
the Idol came in and stayed with us until the soft gray twilight began
to come in the windows. He was so lovely and interesting that it was
quite dark when I remembered that I must go home. Then he walked over
through the garden with me, and out there under the stars he told me
what the doctor had told him in the afternoon. Old Dr. Hughes is
afraid to experiment with Lovelace Peyton's eyes, and says that a
specialist must come from Cincinnati to examine them when they take
off the bandages next week. Mr. Douglass has written to the doctor to
see what it will cost, and he doesn't want Roxanne to know about it
until he hears w