When he reached the house he entered the side yard, stopped at the pump, washed his hands and dried them on his handkerchief, and drank from the tin cup chained to the pump-nose.  He thought he might enter by the front door and steal into his bedroom and get the other coat, but Sylvia came to the side door.

“Where in the world have you been?” she said.  Henry advanced, smiling, with the peppermints.  “Why, Henry,” she cried, in a voice of dismay which had a gratified ring in it, “you’ve been and bought a whole pound!  I only said to buy a quarter.”

“They’re good for you,” said Henry, entering the door.

Sylvia could not wait, and put one of the sweets in her mouth, and to that Henry owed his respite.  Sylvia, eating peppermint, was oblivious to leather.

Henry went through into the bedroom and put on another coat before he sat down at the dinner-table.

Sylvia noticed that.  “What did you change your coat for?” said she.

Henry shivered as if with cold.  “I thought the house seemed kind of damp when I came in,” he said, “and this coat is some heavier.”

Sylvia looked at him with fretful anxiety.  “You’ve got cold.  I knew you would,” she said.  “You stayed out late last night, and the dew was awful heavy.  I knew you would catch cold.  You had better stop at the drug store and get some of those pellets that Dr. Wallace puts up.”

Again was Henry’s way made plain for him.  “Perhaps I had,” said he, eagerly.  “I’ll go down and get some after dinner.”

But Horace innocently offered to save him the trouble.  “I go past the drug store,” said he.  “Let me get them.”

But Sylvia unexpectedly came to Henry’s aid.  “No,” she said.  “I think you had better not wait till Mr. Allen comes home from school.  Dr. Wallace says those pellets ought to be taken right away, just as soon as you feel a cold, to have them do any good.”

Henry brightened, but Rose interposed.  “Why, I would love to run down to the drug store and get the medicine,” she said.  “You lie down after dinner, Uncle Henry, and I’ll go.”

Henry cast an agonizing glance at Horace.  The young man did not understand in the least what it meant, but he came to the rescue.

“The last time I took those pellets,” he said, “Mr. Whitman got them for me.  It was one Saturday, and I was home, and felt the cold coming on, and I lay down, just as you suggest Mr. Whitman’s doing, and got asleep, and awoke with a chill.  I think that if one has a cold the best thing is to keep exercising until you can get hold of a remedy.  I think if Mr. Whitman walks down to the drug store himself and gets the pellets, and takes one, and keeps out in the open air afterwards, as it is a fine day, it will be the very best thing for him.”

“That is just what I think myself,” said Henry, with a grateful look at Horace.

Henry changed his coat again before leaving, on the plea that it was better for him to wear a lighter one when walking and the heavier one when he was in the house.  He and Horace walked down the street together.  They were out of sight of the house when Henry spoke.