Tommy smiled at his two boy callers.

“This isn’t working,” he said.  “And I ought to be at work, for it’s Saturday and I do most of my errands then.  But grandmother thought I ought to get warmed through before going out again.”

“I guess that’s right,” said Bert.  “How is your grandmother?  Father told me to ask.”

“She isn’t very well,” Tommy answered.  “In fact, she had to go to bed after I came home.  She says she feels sick.”

“Maybe she ought to have a doctor,” said Bert.

“Don’t let her hear you say that,” whispered Tommy.  “She’s in the next room, and she doesn’t like to think of calling in a doctor.  She says she hasn’t any money to pay him.”

“But that’s not right,” Bert began.  “She ought to——­”

Just then Harry nudged his cousin, and winked his eye in a way Bert understood.  So Bert did not finish what he had started to say.  Instead he remarked: 

“Is there anything we can do for you, Tommy?”

“No, thank you, I guess not,” answered the other.  “I’m all right now, and I don’t believe I’ll take cold.”

When Bert and Harry were outside and on their way home, Bert asked: 

“What did you punch me for in there?”

“I didn’t want you to talk so much about a doctor.  I guess they haven’t any money to pay one.”

“No, I guess they haven’t.”

“But what’s the matter with my paying for one to make a visit?” asked Harry.  “Dad gave me some money to spend when I came on this visit, and I have most of it left.  You’ve been doing all the treating.  And you gave Tommy that suit; so I want to pay for a doctor’s visit.”

“We’ll ask mother about it,” said Bert.  “I guess it would be better to have a doctor see Mrs. Todd.”

Mrs. Bobbsey said it was very kind of Harry to think of using his pocket money to pay for a doctor for the sick.

“But you will not need to,” she said.  “There are physicians paid by the city to visit the poor.  But I think we will have our own Dr. Young call and see her.  The city physicians have enough to do in the Winter when there is so much illness.  I’ll send Dr. Young, and pay him myself.”

Afterward Dr. Young told Mrs. Bobbsey that Mrs. Todd was not dangerously ill.  She needed a tonic, perhaps, and this he gave her.

“But what she needs, most of all,” he said, “is to get into a better house.  It is not healthful down there.  And she needs more and better food.”

“Then I’ll look after her,” said Mrs. Bobbsey.  “I belong to a club, the ladies of which are glad to help the poor.  We will make Mrs. Todd our special case.  I’ll see what we can do about getting her into a better house, too.  She is a very good woman and Mr. Bobbsey says he never had a better errand boy than Tommy.”

Mrs. Bobbsey and the members of her club did many things for Mrs. Todd and Tommy.  They planned to have them move into another house, but as the weather was very cold they decided that it was better for Mrs. Todd that she should wait a bit before making the change.  Mrs. Bobbsey often sent good food to Tommy’s grandmother.  Sometimes Bert or Nan took the basket, and, when the weather was nice, Flossie and Freddie were allowed to go.