“—­under their own steam!” finished the doctor with a doubtful smile.

“Let’s go to the grove and see the women and children there and perhaps the others will be in sight by the time you’ve finished your examination.”

They turned toward the pines whose thick needles cast a heavy shade upon the ground and gave forth a delicious fragrance under the rays of the sun.  As they disappeared Mrs. Schuler went out on the platform where the carpentering operations were going on.

“I’m so disturbed about those women,” she said, “I’ve come to see what you’re doing to divert my mind from them.”

“We’re going to make two of these seats, one for your office and the other for the veranda,” said Ethel Brown, standing erect and putting a hand upon her weary back.  The rest of the young carpenters stopped their work and wiped their perspiring foreheads while they explained the construction of the piece of furniture to their friend.

“This long narrow box is the seat, you see.  It’s a shoe case, and it’s just the right height for comfort.  Roger has put hinges on the cover, so you can use it for a chest and keep rugs and cushions inside.”

“That’s about as simple as it could be.  Does it take all of you to help Roger do that?”

“O, that’s only a part of the entire affair.  We’re making these two sets of shelves to go at the ends of the seat.”

“I see.  A great light breaks on me!”

“They’re to be fastened to the ends of the seat.”

“Not for keeps.  That’s Ethel Blue’s patent.  She said it would be awkward to move about if it were all built together, so we’re making it in three parts, and we’re going to lock them together with hooks and screw eyes.”

“That is clever!  Then if you want to you can use these sets of shelves for little bookcases in another room or you can fasten on one of them and not the other.”

“Ethel Blue and I thought we’d make pink cushions for your office if you’d like them.”

“I think they’d be charming.  That pink room raises my spirits when—­”

“—­when you get blue?” suggested Roger.

“I’ll have to go there now to get revived if those women who walked to town don’t turn up soon,” and the Matron went to the corner of the house whence she could see the lane that led from the road.  “If they come home ill I’ll have to ask you to make two bed trays,” she suggested as she peered across the grass.

“How do you make them?”

“Ask Ethel Blue.”

“Merely put legs on a light board so that the weight of the plates will be lifted from the sick person’s legs as he sits up in bed.”

“What’s to prevent the plates sliding off?”

“Nothing if he’s much of a kicker, I should say,” laughed Roger; “but you could put a little fence an inch or two high at the back and sides and keep them on board.”

“You’d better begin them right off,” said Mrs. Schuler dryly, “for here they come.”