Belles on their Toes

before Mother comes back," Anne promised. "Come on, now. Get the rest of the food, Ernestine. And bring in some cold cereal, will you, for those who don't want lamb."

    Bill developed a high fever and broke out with spots that afternoon. By the time the doctor arrived, Ernestine and Martha were feverish and pimply. Ernestine wanted to cover herself with cold cream and powder, and still take her examinations, but the doctor put her to bed. By noon the next day, all eleven of us were broken out and bedridden.

3
TROUBLED WATERS, AND OIL

    No catastrophe ever befell any of us but that Tom, sometime in the distant past, had experienced the same trouble, only more so.
    If one of our boys stepped on a nail, Tom would allay fears of lockjaw by (describing how he once had stepped on a spike that went all the way through his foot and into his ankle. Not only that, but he'd take off his shoe and show you the scar.
    When Bill broke out with spots, Tom was the first to discover them and hurriedly ordered Bill to bed.
    "But I don't feel sick," Bill protested. "Just scratchy."
    "Don't tell me nothing," Tom commanaed. "You're sick as a dog."
    "Just scratchy," Bill repeated, scratching himself.
    "I tole you oncst, and I ain't going to tell you again," Tom said. "Get to bed, now. And if you don't stop scratching yourself you'll be out of the Club for a hundret years."
    Only members of Tom's Club were admitted to the kitchen after supper. This was true even before he became cook, because Tom always had presided over the kitchen once the day's duties were done.
    For Club members in good standing, Tom sometimes would play the harmonica, pop com, distribute candy, and perform card tricks. Those who were out of the Club could come no closer to the activities than the back hall. The door was left open, and they were allowed to watch, but not to eat or otherwise participate.
    The older children, while professing scorn for Tom's Club, frequently were found in the kitchen after supper—if they were fortunate enough to be in his good graces. To the younger ones, banishment from the Club was Siberia's steppes.
    Tom's minimum excommunication, when meting out expulsion, was for a hundred years. Actually, this meant only about fifteen minutes, because Tom's heart was soft. The maximum, andthema, was for a thousand years and four days. This might mean an entire evening, although the sentence was often mitigated if one could manage to look repentant enough.
    After Bill had climbed into his pajamas, Tom called Anne to break the news.
    "Oh, Lord," Anne groaned. "That's the last straw! Just when I was beginning to think things might go smoothly."
    "It's all right, Anne," Bill assured her. "I don't feel sick."
    "I hear you scratching under them covers," Tom warned him. "I ain't deef, you know. I ain't blind. I tole you twicst, and I ain't going to tell you again. Mind now!"
    "I better call the doctor," Anne sighed.
    "I could tell you how to dose him," Tom said, "but..."
    "Oh, no you don't," Bill shouted. "I know about your doses."
    "Remember what Dad told you about dosing them," Anne said.
    "I remember." Tom's tone was injured. "I could cure Bill, but I got my orders. I can take a hint."
    Anne leaned over and studied Bill's spots. "It looks like a rash or the hives to me," she said.
    "Hives," Tom grunted. "He's sick as a dog, I tell you. Of course, he ain't as sick as I was oncst when..
    "He ate some of that burned rangoon—" Anne stopped quickly. "Maybe he ate something that didn't agree with him."
    "Didn't agree with him?" Tom asked. And then accusingly to Bill: "Have you been sneaking out and eating down street again? You don't know what goes into the food they give you at them drug stores."
    Bill shook his head.
    "Anyway, it ain't his stomach," said Tom. "I know what it is, all right, but your father give me my orders, so I dassent tell you."
    "He gave them to you the time we had the measles and you said it was scarlet fever, didn't he Tom?" Bill said.
    "That was the time," Tom conceded.
    "Heck, anyone can make a mistake like that, eh Tom?" Bill asked. Bill was one of Tom's defenders, and usually in the Club.
    "You scared Mother half to death," Anne said accusingly.
    "I still ain't sure it wasn't that, neither," said Tom.
    Anne went to telephone Dr. Burton, and Tom paced the floor of the room shared by Frank and Bill.
    "Of course," he muttered for the benefit of those of us who had assembled to see Bill's spots, "I don't know nothing about it. I'm