Jimmy and Aggie gazed at Alfred as though hypnotised. They kept time to
his lullaby out of sheer nervousness. Suddenly Alfred stopped, held the
child from him and gazed at it in horror. "Good heavens!" he exclaimed.
The others waited breathlessly. "Look at that baby's face," commanded
Alfred.
Zoie and Aggie exchanged alarmed glances, then Zoie asked in
trepidation, "What's the matter with his face?"
"He's got a fever," declared Alfred. And he started toward the bed to
show the child to its mother.
"Go away!" shrieked Zoie, waving Alfred off in wild alarm.
"What?" asked Alfred, backing from her in surprise.
Aggie crossed quickly to Alfred's side and looked over his shoulder at
the boy. "I don't see anything wrong with its face," she said.
"It's scarlet!" persisted Alfred.
"Oh," said Jimmy with a superior air, "they're always like that."
"Nothing of the sort," snorted Alfred, and he glared at Jimmy
threateningly. "You've frozen the child parading him around the
streets."
"Let me have him, Alfred," begged Aggie sweetly; "I'll put him in his
crib and keep him warm."
Reluctantly Alfred released the boy. His eyes followed him to the crib
with anxiety. "Where's his nurse?" he asked, as he glanced first from
one to the other.
Zoie and Jimmy stared about the room as though expecting the desired
person to drop from the ceiling. Then Zoie turned upon her unwary
accomplice.
"Jimmy," she called in a threatening tone, "where IS his nurse?"
"Does Jimmy take the nurse out, too?" demanded Alfred, more and more
annoyed by the privileges Jimmy had apparently been usurping in his
absence.
"Never mind about the nurse," interposed Aggie. "Baby likes me better
anyway. I'll tuck him in," and she bent fondly over the crib, but Alfred
was not to be so easily pacified.
"Do you mean to tell me," he exclaimed excitedly, "that my boy hasn't
any nurse?"
"We HAD a nurse," corrected Zoie, "but--but I had to discharge her."
Alfred glanced from one to the other for an explanation.
"Discharge her?" he repeated, "for what?"
"She was crazy," stammered Zoie.
Alfred's eyes sought Aggie's for confirmation. She nodded. He directed
his steady gaze toward Jimmy. The latter jerked his head up and down in
nervous assent.
"Well," said Alfred, amazed at their apparent lack of resource, "why
didn't you get ANOTHER nurse?"