`` You 've got a bad cold . '' `` There 's a cold going , '' said Mrs. Tom . `` Everyone has it . David Hartley was up at our place to-day barking terrible -- a real churchyard cough , as I told him . He never takes any care of himself . He said Zillah had a bad cold , too . Wo n't she be cranky while it lasts ? '' Josephine sat up late that night to keep fires on . She finally went to bed in the little room opposite the big hall stove , and she slept at once , and dreamed that the thumps of the thermometer flapping in the wind against the wall outside grew louder and more insistent until they woke her up . Some one was pounding on the porch door . Josephine sprang out of bed and hurried on her wrapper and felt shoes . She had no doubt that some of the Sentners were sick . They had a habit of getting sick about that time of night . She hurried out and opened the door , expecting to see hulking Tom Sentner , or perhaps Ida herself , big-eyed and hysterical . But David Hartley stood there , panting for breath . The clear moonlight showed that he had no overcoat on , and he was coughing hard . Josephine , before she spoke a word , clutched him by the arm and pulled him in out of the wind . `` For pity 's sake , David Hartley , what is the matter ? '' `` Zillah 's awful sick , '' he gasped . `` I came here because 't was nearest .
Oh , wo n't you come over , XXXXX ?
't Hartley Ida Josephine Sentner Sentners Tom Zillah night thumps