“Cecily’s sick,” said Dan, springing out of bed.  “That cucumber must have disagreed with her.”

In a few minutes the whole house was astir.  Cecily was sick—­very, very sick, there was no doubt of that.  She was even worse than Dan had been when he had eaten the bad berries.  Uncle Alec, tired as he was from his hard day’s work and evening outing, was despatched for the doctor.  Aunt Janet and Felicity administered all the homely remedies they could think of, but to no effect.  Felicity told Aunt Janet of the cucumber, but Aunt Janet did not think the cucumber alone could be responsible for Cecily’s alarming condition.

“Cucumbers are indigestible, but I never knew of them making any one as sick as this,” she said anxiously.  “What made the child eat a cucumber before going to bed?  I didn’t think she liked them.”

“It was that wretched Peter,” sobbed Felicity indignantly.  “He told her it would make her dream something extra.”

“What on earth did she want to dream for?” demanded Aunt Janet in bewilderment.

“Oh, to have something worth while to write in her dream book, ma.  We all have dream books, you know, and every one wants their own to be the most exciting—­and we’ve been eating rich things to make us dream—­and it does—­but if Cecily—­oh, I’ll never forgive myself,” said Felicity, incoherently, letting all kinds of cats out of the bag in her excitement and alarm.

“Well, I wonder what on earth you young ones will do next,” said Aunt Janet in the helpless tone of a woman who gives it up.

Cecily was no better when the doctor came.  Like Aunt Janet, he declared that cucumbers alone would not have made her so ill; but when he found out that she had drunk a glass of milk also the mystery was solved.

“Why, milk and cucumbers together make a rank poison,” he said.  “No wonder the child is sick.  There—­there now—­” seeing the alarmed faces around him, “don’t be frightened.  As old Mrs. Fraser says, ‘It’s no deidly.’  It won’t kill her, but she’ll probably be a pretty miserable girl for two or three days.”

She was.  And we were all miserable in company.  Aunt Janet investigated the whole affair and the matter of our dream books was aired in family conclave.  I do not know which hurt our feelings most—­the scolding we got from Aunt Janet, or the ridicule which the other grown-ups, especially Uncle Roger, showered on us.  Peter received an extra “setting down,” which he considered rank injustice.

“I didn’t tell Cecily to drink the milk, and the cucumber alone wouldn’t have hurt her,” he grumbled.  Cecily was able to be out with us again that day, so Peter felt that he might venture on a grumble. “’Sides, she coaxed me to tell her what would be good for dreams.  I just told her as a favour.  And now your Aunt Janet blames me for the whole trouble.”

“And Aunt Janet says we are never to have anything to eat before we go to bed after this except plain bread and milk,” said Felix sadly.