"Why, Lloyd," said Mrs. Sherman, coming up just then in time to hear Lloyd's song and Eugenia's answer, "you are surely not teasing one of your guests! I am surprised!" To every one's astonishment, Lloyd flopped over in the hammock, and, covering her face with her arm, began to cry. "What is the matter, little daughter?" asked Mrs. Sherman, in alarm, sitting down in the hammock beside her and stroking the short soft hair soothingly. She had never known Lloyd to be so sensitive to a slight reproof. "Mother didn't mean to scold her little girl. I was only surprised to hear you saying anything unpleasant to a guest of yours." "You-you'd have said it, too!" sobbed the Little Colonel, "if Eu-Eugenia had been so mean to you all mawnin'! She's been t-talkin so hateful and cross--" "I have _not_!" cried Eugenia. "You began it, and you have tried to pick a quarrel ever since we came out here, and Joyce has kept nagging at me, too. You've both made me feel so miserable and unhappy that I wish I'd never set eyes on you and your horrid old Kentucky!" Here, to Mrs. Sherman's still greater surprise, Eugenia fumbled for her handkerchief and began mopping up the tears that were streaming down her face. "Really, girls, I am distressed!" exclaimed Mrs. Sherman. "Is there anything serious the matter that you have been quarrelling about, or are you only ill and nervous?" "I nevah was so mizzible in all my life," said Lloyd. "My throat is soah and my eyes ache, and I can't help cryin' if anybody looks at me." "That's just the way I feel," said Eugenia, still dabbing her eyes with her handkerchief, "and my head aches, besides." "I think we are all three taking bad colds," said Joyce, from her hammock. "I haven't reached the crying stage yet, but I'm fast on the way toward it. Betty will be the only one able to go to the party to-night, and our tissue-paper dresses are _so_ pretty." Mrs. Sherman looked from one flushed face to another with a puzzled expression. "I don't know what to think," she said, "but if I were not sure that you have been no place where you possibly could have been exposed, I should be afraid that you are all taking the measles. Doctor Fuller told me the other day that there are several children in the gypsy camp down with it, and one poor little baby had died. It didn't have proper attention. Why, what is the matter, girls?" Mrs. Sherman paused, having seen a startled glance pass from Lloyd to Eugenia. "Surely you haven't been near any of those people, have you? Passed them on the road, or met them at the station at any time?" There was a long pause in which nobody answered, and in which Betty could hear her heart beat fast. "Lloyd, answer me," insisted Mrs. Sherman. "Eu-Eugenia won't l-let me!" sobbed the Little Colonel. "She made us all p-promise not to tell." Eugenia's face turned pale, but she lifted her head defiantly as Mrs. Sherman turned to her, calling her name.