It's Monday.

When she woke up, a fat woman was stirring the fire. Laura looked at her carefully and she was not black. She was tanned, like Ma. Laura said that she wanted a drink of water. The fat woman brought it at once. The good, cold water made Laura feel better. She looked at Mary asleep beside her; she looked at Pa and Ma asleep in the big bed. Jack lay half asleep on the floor. Laura looked again at the fat woman and asked who she was. The woman replied that she was Mrs. Scott, smiling. She asked Laura if she felt better now. Laura said yes and thanked her politely. The fat woman brought her a cup of hot prairie-chicken broth and asked Laura to drink it all up like a good child. Laura drank every drop of the good broth. Mrs. Scott asked Laura to go to sleep and told her she was here to take care of everything till they were all well. Next morning Laura felt so much better that she wanted to get up, but Mrs. Scott said she must stay in bed until the doctor came. She lay and watched Mrs. Scott tidy the house and give medicine to Pa and Ma and Mary. Then it was Laura’s turn. She opened her mouth, and Mrs. Scott poured a dreadful bitterness out of a small folded paper onto Laura’s tongue. Laura drank water and swallowed and swallowed and drank again. She could swallow the powder but she couldn’t swallow the bitterness. Then the doctor came. And he was the black man. Laura had never seen a black man before and she could not take her eyes off Dr. Tan. He was so very black. She would have been afraid of him if she had not liked him so much. He smiled at her with all his white teeth. He talked with Pa and Ma, and laughed a rolling, jolly laugh. They all wanted him to stay longer, but he had to hurry away. Mrs. Scott said that all the settlers, up and down the creek, had fever ’n’ ague. There were not enough well people to take care of the sick, and she had been going from house to house, working night and day.