much disturbed and left his branch and hopped about
restlessly because he could not do them too.

From that time the exercises were part of the day's duties as much as
the Magic was. It became possible for both Colin and Mary to do more
of them each time they tried, and such appetites were the results that
but for the basket Dickon put down behind the bush each morning when he
arrived they would have been lost. But the little oven in the hollow
and Mrs. Sowerby's bounties were so satisfying that Mrs. Medlock and
the nurse and Dr. Craven became mystified again. You can trifle with
your breakfast and seem to disdain your dinner if you are full to the
brim with roasted eggs and potatoes and richly frothed new milk and
oatcakes and buns and heather honey and clotted cream.

"They are eating next to nothing," said the nurse. "They'll die of
starvation if they can't be persuaded to take some nourishment. And
yet see how they look."

"Look!" exclaimed Mrs. Medlock indignantly. "Eh! I'm moithered to
death with them. They're a pair of young Satans. Bursting their
jackets one day and the next turning up their noses at the best meals
Cook can tempt them with. Not a mouthful of that lovely young fowl and
bread sauce did they set a fork into yesterday--and the poor woman fair
invented a pudding for them--and back it's sent. She almost cried.
She's afraid she'll be blamed if they starve themselves into their
graves."

Dr. Craven came and looked at Colin long and carefully, He wore an
extremely worried expression when the nurse talked with him and showed
him the almost untouched tray of breakfast she had saved for him to
look at--but it was even more worried when he sat down by Colin's sofa
and examined him. He had been called to London on business and had not
seen the boy for nearly two weeks. When young things begin to gain
health they gain it rapidly. The waxen tinge had left, Colins skin and
a warm rose showed through it; his beautiful eyes were clear and the
hollows under them and in his cheeks and temples had filled out. His
once dark, heavy locks had begun to look as if they sprang healthily
from his forehead and were soft and warm with life. His lips were
fuller and of a normal color. In fact as an imitation of a boy who was
a confirmed invalid he was a disgraceful sight. Dr. Craven held his
chin in his hand and thought him over.

"I am sorry to hear that you do not eat anything," he said. "That will
n