It cheered her to see Prudy's sweet face, which was always sunny with a halo of happy thoughts.
"Are you real sick, though, Dotty Dimple ?" "Yes, I are," replied Dotty, well pleased to be asked such a question.
"I got 'most drowned, you know.

O, I wish you'd stayed out in the rain the other day, and got cold; then you'd have been sick, too." Prudy smiled, for she knew that her little sister really had no such unkind wish at heart.

She was only trying, with her limited stock of words, to say that she longed to have a little sympathy.

It was not often that Dotty was willing to be pitied.
"See here, Prudy darling, don't you want a piece of my cough-candy?
It's good! You may bite clear down to there, where I've scratched with a pin." "No, thank you, dear, I don't care a bit for it." Dotty's face beamed with joyous dimples.

It was so pleasant to be generous, and at the same time keep the candy! In her short life Dotty Dimple had not quite learned that "the half is better than the whole." "Now," said Prudy, after thinking a while, "suppose we play that you're sick,--as you are, you know,--and I'm the doctor." Dotty gave a little scream of delight.
"You may see my tongue," said she, running to the looking-glass; "it's real rusty.