but Katy couldn't eat. Her lips were parched and her head ached
violently. The sun began to pour in, the room grew warm. Flies buzzed in
the window, and tormented her by lighting on her face. Little prickles
of pain ran up and down her back. She lay with her eyes shut, because it
hurt to keep them open, and all sorts of uneasy thoughts went rushing
through her mind.

"Perhaps, if my back is really sprained, I shall have to lie here as
much as a week," she said to herself. "Oh dear, dear! I _can't_. The
vacation is only eight weeks, and I was going to do such lovely things!
How can people be as patient as Cousin Helen when they have to lie
still? Won't she be sorry when she hears! Was it really yesterday that
she went away? It seems a year. If only I hadn't got into that nasty old
swing!" And then Katy began to imagine how it would have been if she
_hadn't_, and how she and Clover had meant to go to Paradise that
afternoon. They might have been there under the cool trees now. As these
thoughts ran through her mind, her head grew hotter and her position in
the bed more uncomfortable.

Suddenly she became conscious that the glaring light from the window was
shaded, and that the wind seemed to be blowing freshly over her. She
opened her heavy eyes. The blinds were shut, and there beside the bed
sat little Elsie, fanning her with a palm-leaf fan.

"Did I wake you up, Katy?" she asked in a timid voice.

Katy looked at her with startled, amazed eyes.

"Don't be frightened," said Elsie, "I won't disturb you. Johnnie and me
are so sorry you're sick," and her little lips trembled. "But we mean to