E-text prepared by Suzanne Shell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made available by Internet Archive/American Libraries (http://www.archive.org/details/americana) Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 34829-h.htm or 34829-h.zip: (https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/34829/pg34829-images.html) or (https://www.gutenberg.org/files/34829/34829-h.zip) Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive/American Libraries. See http://www.archive.org/details/sickabedlady00abborich THE SICK-A-BED LADY [Illustration: "_That_ will help you remember where your mouth is"] THE SICK-A-BED LADY And Also Hickory Dock, The Very Tired Girl, The Happy-Day, Something That Happened in October, The Amateur Lover, Heart of The City, The Pink Sash, Woman's Only Business by ELEANOR HALLOWELL ABBOTT Author of "Molly Make-Believe" Illustrated New York The Century Co. 1911 Copyright, 1911, by The Century Co. Copyright, 1905, 1907, by P. F. Collier & Son Copyright, 1905, by J. B. Lippincott Company Copyright, 1906, 1907, 1908, 1909, 1910, by The Ridgway Company Copyright, 1910, by The Success Company Published, October, 1911 TO THE MEMORY OF TWO FATHERS CONTENTS PAGE THE SICK-A-BED LADY 3 HICKORY DOCK 33 THE VERY TIRED GIRL 57 THE HAPPY-DAY 89 THE RUNAWAY ROAD 127 SOMETHING THAT HAPPENED IN OCTOBER 161 THE AMATEUR LOVER 195 HEART OF THE CITY 253 THE PINK SASH 291 WOMAN'S ONLY BUSINESS 331 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS "_That_ will help you remember where your mouth is" _Frontispiece_ FACING PAGE With no other object, except to get home 58 The blue ocean was the most wonderful thing of all 96 Instinctively she clasped it to her 146 The four of us who remained huddled very close around the fire 164 "Hello, all you animals!" she cried 244 The lone, accentuated figure of a boy violinist 256 "Is--a--pink--sash--exactly a--a--passion?" 298 "Oh, I wish I had a sister," fretted the boy 364 THE SICK-A-BED LADY