`` A young baby means a great deal of additional work and trouble in a household , Rilla . Nan and Di are leaving for Redmond next week and neither your mother nor Susan is able to assume so much extra care under present conditions . If you want to keep that baby here you must attend to it yourself . '' `` Me ! '' Rilla was dismayed into being ungrammatical . `` Why -- father -- I -- I could n't ! '' `` Younger girls than you have had to look after babies . My advice and Susan 's is at your disposal . If you can not , then the baby must go back to Meg Conover . Its lease of life will be short if it does for it is evident that it is a delicate child and requires particular care . I doubt if it would survive even if sent to an orphans ' home . But I can not have your mother and Susan over-taxed . '' The doctor walked out of the kitchen , looking very stern and immovable . In his heart he knew quite well that the small inhabitant of the big soup tureen would remain at Ingleside , but he meant to see if Rilla could not be induced to rise to the occasion . Rilla sat looking blankly at the baby . It was absurd to think she could take care of it . But -- that poor little , frail , dead mother who had worried about it -- that dreadful old Meg Conover . `` Susan , what must be done for a baby ? '' she asked dolefully . `` You must keep it warm and dry and wash it every day , and be sure the water is neither too hot nor too cold , and feed it every two hours .
If it has colic , you put hot things on its stomach , '' said Susan , rather feebly and flatly XXXXX her .
In about at for if into of than that to