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“What’s that!” shrieked Mrs. Dorcas, rushing to the cellar door. Words cannot describe her feeling when she saw that her nice candle-wicks, the fruit of her day’s toil, were burnt up.

If ever there was a wretched culprit that night, Ann was. She had not meant to do wrong, but that, may be, made it worse for her in one way. She had not even gratified malice to sustain her. Grandma blamed her, almost as severely as Mrs. Dorcas. She said she didn’t know what would “become of a little gal, that was so keerless,” and decreed that she must stay at home from school and work on candle-wicks till Mrs. Dorcas’s loss was made good to her. Ann listened ruefully. She was scared and sorry, but that did not seem to help matters any. She did not want any supper, and she went to bed early and cried herself to sleep.

Somewhere about midnight, a strange sound woke her up. She called out to Grandma in alarm. The same sound had awakened her. “Get up, an’ light a candle, child,” said she; “I’m afeard the baby’s sick.”

Ann scarcely had the candle lighted, before the door opened, and Mrs. Dorcas appeared in her nightdress. She was very pale, and trembling all over. “Oh!” she gasped, “it’s the baby. Thirsey’s got the croup, an’ Atherton’s away, and there ain’t anybody to go for the doctor. Oh, what shall I do, what shall I do!” She fairly wrung her hands.

“Hev you tried the skunk’s oil?” asked Grandma eagerly, preparing to get up.

“Yes, I have, I have! It’s a good hour since she woke up, an’ I’ve tried everything. It hasn’t done any good. I thought I wouldn’t call you, if I could help it, but she’s worse–only hear her! An’ Atherton’s away! Oh! what shall I do, what shall I do?”

“Don’t take on so, Dorcas,” said Grandma, tremulously, but cheeringly. “I’ll come right along, an’–why, child, what air you goin’ to do?”

Ann had finished dressing herself, and now she was pinning a heavy homespun blanket over her head, as if she were preparing to go out doors.

“I’m going after the doctor for Thirsey,” said Ann, her black eyes flashing with determination.

“Oh, will you, will you!” cried Mrs. Dorcas, catching at this new help.

“Hush, Dorcas,” said Grandma, sternly. “It’s an awful storm out–jist hear the wind blow! It ain’t fit fur her to go. Her life’s jist as precious as Thirsey’s.”

Ann said nothing more, but she went into her own little room with the same determined look in her eyes. There was a door leading from this room into the kitchen. Ann slipped through it hastily, lit a lantern which was hanging beside the kitchen chimney, and was out doors in a minute.

The storm was one of sharp, driving sleet, which struck her face like so many needles. The first blast, as she stepped outside the door, seemed to almost force her back, but her heart did not fail her. The snow was not so very deep, but it was hard walking. There was no pretense of a path. The doctor lived half a mile away, and there was not a house in the whole distance, save the meeting house and schoolhouse. It was very dark. Lucky it was that she had taken the lantern; she could not have found her way without it.

On kept the little slender, erect figure, with the fierce determination in its heart, through the snow and sleet, holding the blanket close over its head, and swinging the feeble lantern bravely.

When she reached the doctor’s house, he was gone. He had started for the North Precinct early in the evening, his good wife said; he was called down to Captain Isaac Lovejoy’s, the house next the North Precinct Meeting House. She’d been sitting up waiting for him, it was such an awful storm, and such a lonely road. She was worried, but she didn’t think he’d start for home that night; she guessed he’d stay at Captain Lovejoy’s till morning.