They was a case or two o' scarlet fever up to Wallen,
but she wasn't exposed no way that we know on. She wasn't exposed."
The Captain, regarding me intently, repeated the words, thrusting his
neck out with a pitiful gulp, his hand on the latch. Observing him, the
expression of my face changed; he groaned as he went out, closing the
door silently.
My first impulse then was to pack my trunk and start for home, but the
wailing of Mrs. Philander, and of the other women who had followed the
Captain in, lamenting one with another in an agony of helpless fear,
appealed to my courage and presence of mind, and had a strangely
sustaining and quieting effect upon me. I suggested after a few moments'
reflection, that very likely the case was not so bad as Captain Sartell
supposed. I determined to have no school that day, and advised the women
what they should do, in case their children had been already exposed to a
contagious disease. Then a happy thought struck me. I went out in the
other part of the Ark to seek Grandma Keeler. I wondered why we had not
thought of her, before.
She entered the room where the women sat. Calm and sunshine was Grandma
Keeler--calm and sunshine breaking through a storm.
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