tiny brown seeds were sprinkled into the brown earth of the borders, both
the girls were themselves again. Dr. Carr appeared from his retirement
half an hour later. A note had come for him meanwhile, but somehow no one
had quite liked to knock at the door and deliver it.

Elsie handed it to him now, with a timid, anxious look, whose import
seemed to strike him, for he laughed a little, and pinched her cheek as he
read.

"I've been writing to Dr. Hope about the children," he said; "that's all.
Don't wait dinner for me, chicks. I'm off for the Corners to see a boy
who's had a fall, and I'll get a bite there. Order something good for tea,
Elsie; and afterward we'll have a game of cribbage if I'm not called out.
We must be as jolly as we can, or Clover will scold us when she comes
back."

Meanwhile the three travellers were faring through the first stage of
their journey very comfortably. The fresh air and change brightened Phil;
he ate a good dinner, and afterward took quite a long nap on a sofa,
Clover sitting by to keep him covered and see that he did not get cold.
Late in the evening they changed to the express train, and there again,
Phil, after being tucked up behind the curtains of his section, went to
sleep and passed a satisfactory night, so that he reached Chicago looking
so much better than when they left Burnet that his father's heart would
have been lightened could he have seen him.

Mrs. Ashe came down to the station to meet them, together with Mr.
Dayton,--a kind, friendly man with a tired but particularly pleasant face.
All the necessary transfer of baggage, etc., was made easy, and they were
carried off at once to the hotel where rooms had been secured. There they