"Poor Maddy! I dread tellin' her the most, she was so sure," grandpa
whispered, as he stopped before the office door, where Maddy waited
for him.

But Maddy's disappointment was keener than his own, and so after the
sorrowful words, "and I failed, too," he bent himself to comfort the
poor child, who, leaning her throbbing head against his shoulder,
sobbed bitterly, as in the soft spring twilight they drove back to the
low red cottage where grandma waited for them.




CHAPTER V.

THE RESULT.


It was Farmer Green's new buggy and Farmer Green's bay colt which,
three days later than this, stopped before Dr. Holbrook's office. Not
the square-boxed wagon, with old Sorrel attached; the former was
standing quietly in the chip-yard behind the low red house, while the
latter with his nose over the barnyard fence, neighing occasionally,
as if he missed the little hands which had daily fed him the oatmeal
he liked so much, and which now lay hot and parched and helpless upon
the white counterpane Grandma Markham had spun and woven herself.
Maddy might have been just as sick as she was if the examination had
never occurred, but it was natural for those who loved her to impute
it all to the effects of excitement and cruel disappointment, so there