There were several other callers there , and as soon as those unfortunate creatures left , our hostess and her three daughters picked them all to pieces . I knew they would begin on Cousin Emily and me as soon as the door shut behind us . When we came home Mrs. Lilly informed us that the aforesaid neighbor 's hired boy was supposed to be down with scarlet fever . You can always trust Mrs. Lilly to tell you cheerful things like that . I have a horror of scarlet fever . I could n't sleep when I went to bed for thinking of it . I tossed and tumbled about , dreaming fearful dreams when I did snooze for a minute ; and at three I wakened up with a high fever , a sore throat , and a raging headache . I knew I had scarlet fever ; I got up in a panic and hunted up Cousin Emily 's ` doctor book ' to read up the symptoms . Anne , I had them all . So I went back to bed , and knowing the worst , slept like a top the rest of the night . Though why a top should sleep sounder than anything else I never could understand . But this morning I was quite well , so it could n't have been the fever . I suppose if I did catch it last night it could n't have developed so soon . I can remember that in daytime , but at three o'clock at night I never can be logical . `` I suppose you wonder what I 'm doing at Prospect Point . Well , I always like to spend a month of summer at the shore , and father insists that I come to his second-cousin Emily 's ` select boardinghouse ' at Prospect Point . So a fortnight ago I came as usual . And as usual old ` Uncle Mark Miller ' brought me from the station with his ancient buggy and what he calls his ` generous purpose ' horse . He is a nice old man and gave me a handful of pink peppermints . Peppermints always seem to me such a religious sort of candy -- I suppose because when I was a little girl Grandmother Gordon always gave them to me in church .
Once I asked , referring to the smell of peppermints , ` Is XXXXX the odor of sanctity ? '
So Though ago for from if in of than that