"What are you kicking me like that for, Bob?"

And then Mother laughed a little and sighed and said:--

"Very well, then. Only let me be sure you do know which way the
trains come--and don't walk on the line near the tunnel or near
corners."

"Trains keep to the left like carriages," said Peter, "so if we keep
to the right, we're bound to see them coming."

"Very well," said Mother, and I dare say you think that she ought
not to have said it. But she remembered about when she was a little
girl herself, and she did say it--and neither her own children nor
you nor any other children in the world could ever understand
exactly what it cost her to do it. Only some few of you, like
Bobbie, may understand a very little bit.

It was the very next day that Mother had to stay in bed because her
head ached so. Her hands were burning hot, and she would not eat
anything, and her throat was very sore.

"If I was you, Mum," said Mrs. Viney, "I should take and send for
the doctor. There's a lot of catchy complaints a-going about just
now. My sister's eldest--she took a chill and it went to her
inside, two years ago come Christmas, and she's never been the same
gell since."

Mother wouldn't at first, but in the evening she felt so much worse