It was almost daylight before Dr. Lambert came.  He had been out of town on a case, but came at once when he returned to Lumberton and found the call from Mrs. Sadoc Smith’s.

“What is it, Doctor?” asked the old lady.  “She’s as red as a lobster.  Is it anything catching?  This girl ought not to be here, if it is.”

“This girl had better remain here till we find out just what is the matter,” the doctor returned, scowling in a puzzled way at the patient.  He had seen at once that Ruth could control Amy.

“But what is it?”

“Fever.  Delirium.  You can see for yourself.  What its name is, I’ll tell you when I come again.  Keep on just as you are doing, and give her this soothing medicine, and plenty of cracked ice—­on her tongue, at least.  That is what is the matter; she is consumed with thirst.  I’ll have to see that eruption again before I can say for sure what the matter is.”

He went, and left the house in a turmoil of excitement.  Helen and Ann did not wish to go to Briarwood and leave Ruth; but Mrs. Tellingham commanded them to.  Much to his delight, Curly was kept out of his school to run errands.

Ruth got a nap on the lounge in the sitting room, and felt better.  The doctor returned at nine o’clock in the forenoon and by that time the sick girl’s face was so swollen that she could scarcely see out of her eyes.  Her hands and wrists were puffed badly, too.

“Where has she been?” demanded Dr. Lambert.

Ruth told him what they supposed had happened to Amy the day before and where she had been found late at night.

“Humph!” grunted the medical practitioner.  “That’s what I thought.  Effect of the Rhus Toxicodendron.  Bad case.”

This sounded very terrible to Ruth until she suddenly remembered something she had read in her botany.  A great feeling of relief came over her.

“Oh! poison-ash!” she cried.

“Good land!  Nothin’ but poison ivy?” demanded Mrs. Sadoc Smith.

“Poison oak, or poison sumac—­whatever you have a mind to call it.  But a bad case of it, I assure you.  I’ll leave more of the cooling draught; and I’ll send up a salve to put on her face and hands.  Don’t let it get into the poor child’s eyes—­and don’t let her tear off the mask which she will have to wear.”

“Then there is no danger of scarlet fever,” whispered Ruth, feeling relieved.

CHAPTER XXIII

PUTTING ONE’S BEST FOOT FORWARD

Amy Gregg’s escapade created a lot of excitement at Briarwood Hall.  Inasmuch as it affected Ruth, the whole school was in a flutter about it.

Helen and Ann had come to the Hall, late for breakfast, and spread the news in the dining hall.  They were both sure, by Ruth’s actions and the doctor’s first noncommittal report, that Amy had some contagious disease.  Curly had made a deal of the sore throat Amy had confessed to.