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LATE in March that year we began to hear that the measles were prevailing in town, and in the course of a week all three of us children and Jane, the house-maid, were taken down with them. Amelia and I were very sick from the first; the others had the disease lightly. Phebe took care of me, and my aunt of Amelia, while a woman from outside who often worked for us attended on the other two.
On the tenth day after my attack I was better, and Phebe left me to myself for what seemed to me a very long time. I heard movements in the other room, and now and then I could distinguish Amelia's voice, and a great longing seized me to see her again. I rose; and putting on such of my clothes as could find, I stole softly into the next room. At first I did not understand the state of things at all. Amelia was sitting up in bed supported in my aunt's arms. The eruption had all disappeared and her eyes looked bright and clear, and she was not much thinner or paler than usual, but I saw that she breathed with difficulty. Dr. Warren stood at one side of the bed with the sick child's hand in his, and Phebe at the other with her handkerchief at her eyes. My aunt was very pale, and now and then a tear rolled down her cheeks.