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At once she felt stronger. “Is the sun up?” she asked. Her voice was weak, and somewhat hoarse.

“Would you like to see the sky?” asked her father. And without waiting for her eager nod, crossed to the front window and drew aside the heavy silk hangings.

Serenely blue was the long rectangle framed by curtains and casing. Across it not a single fat sheep was straying.

“Moth-er!”

“Yes, darling?”

“Is—is always the same piece of Heaven right there through the window?”

“No. The earth is turning all the time—just as your globe in the school-room turns. And so each moment you see a new square of sky.”

The Doctor nodded with satisfaction. “Um! Better, aren’t we?” he inquired, smiling down.

She returned the smile. “Well, I am,” she declared. “But—I didn’t know you felt bad.”

He laughed. “Tell me something,” he went on. “I sent a bottle of medicine here yesterday.”

“Yes. It was a little bottle.”

“How much of it did Jane give you? Can you remember?”

“Well, first she poured out one teaspoonful—”

The Doctor had been leaning again on the foot of the white-and-gold bed. Now he fell back of a sudden. “A teaspoonful!” he gasped. And to Gwendolyn’s father, “Why, that wretched girl didn’t read the directions on the bottle!”

There was another silence. The two men stared at each other. But Gwendolyn’s mother, her face paler than before, bent above the yellow head on the pillow.

“After I drank that teaspoonful,” went on Gwendolyn, “Jane wouldn’t believe me. And so she made me take the other.”

“Another!“—it was the Doctor once more. He pressed a trembling hand to his forehead.

Her father rose angrily. “She shall be punished,” he declared. And began to walk to and fro. “I won’t let this pass.”

Gwendolyn’s look followed him tenderly. “Well, you see, she didn’t know about—about nursery work,” she explained. “‘Cause before she came here she was just a cook.”

“Oh, my baby daughter!” murmured Gwendolyn’s mother, brokenly. She bent forward until her face was hidden against the silken cover of the bed. “Mother didn’t know you were being neglected! She thought she was giving you the best of care, dear!”

“Two spoonfuls!” said the Doctor, grimly. “That explains everything!”

“Oh, but I didn’t want to take the last one,” protested Gwendolyn, hastily, “—though it tasted good. She made me. She said if I didn’t—”

“So!” exclaimed the Doctor, interrupting. “She frightened the poor little helpless thing in order to get obedience!”

“Gwendolyn!” whispered her mother. “She frightened you?”

The gray eyes smiled wisely. “It doesn’t matter now,” she said, a hint of triumph in her voice. “I’ve found out that P’licemen are nice. And so are—are Doctors”—she dimpled and nodded. “And all the bears in the world that are outside of cages are just Puffy Bears grown up.” Then uncertainly, “But I didn’t find out about—the other.”

“What other?” asked her father, pausing in his walk.

The gray eyes were diamond-bright now. “Though I don’t really believe it,” she hastened to add. “But—do wicked men keep watch of this house.”

“Wicked men?” Her mother suddenly straightened.

“Kidnapers.”

This innocent statement had an unexpected effect. Again her father began to stride up and down angrily, while her mother, head drooping once more, began to weep.

“Oh, mother didn’t know!” she sobbed. “Mother didn’t guess what terrible things were happening! Oh, forgive her! Forgive her!”

The Doctor came to her side. “Too much excitement for the patient,” he reminded her. “Don’t you think you’d better go and lie down for a while, and have a little rest?”

A startled look. And Gwendolyn put out a staying hand to her mother. Then—”Moth-er is tired,” she assented. “She’s tireder than I am. ‘Cause it was hard work going round and round Robin Hood’s Barn.”

The Doctor hunted a small wrist and felt the pulse in it. “That’s all right,” he said to her mother in an undertone. “Everything’s still pretty real to her, you see. But her pulse is normal,” He laid cool fingers across her forehead. “Temperature’s almost normal too.”

Gwendolyn felt that she had not made herself altogether clear. She hastened to explain. “I mean,” she said, “when moth-er was carrying that society bee in her bonnet.”

Confusion showed in the Doctor’s quick glance from parent to parent. Then, “I think I’ll just drop down into the pantry,” he said hastily, “and see how that young nurse from over yonder is getting along.” He jerked a thumb in the direction of the side window as he went out.