"I will, Polly," said Davie, coming in with an annful of wood, in
time to hear the conversation. "I'll give him his medicine, mayn't I,
mammy?" and David let down his load, and came over where his
mother and Polly sat sewing, to urge his rights.

"I don't know," said his mother, smiling on him. "Can you, do you
think?"

"Yes, ma'am!" said Davie, straightening himself up.

When they told Ben, he said he knew a better way than for Davie
to watch; he'd have a string tied to Davie's arm, and the end he'd
hold in bed, and when 'twas time for medicine, he'd pull the string,
and that would wake Davie up!

Polly didn't sleep much more on her shake-down on the floor than
if she had watched with Ben; for Phronsie cried and moaned, and
wanted a drink of water every two minutes, it seemed to her. As
she went back into her nest after one of these travels, Polly
thought: "Well, I don't care, if nobody else gets sick; if Ben'll only
get well. To-morrow I'm goin' to do mammy's sack she's begun for
Mr. Jackson; it's all plain sew-in', just like a bag; and I can do it, I
know----" and so she fell into a troubled sleep, only to be
awakened by Phronsie's fretful little voice: "I want a drink of
water, Polly, I do."

"Don't she drink awfully, mammy?" asked Polly, after one of these
excursions out to the kitchen after the necessary draught.

"Yes," said Mrs. Pepper; "and she mustn't have any more; 'twill