This is also assignment #10 in the workshop. I don't believe it. I actually know the title to this story already.

                       Motherhood at Ten

                             Chapter 1

          "Owwwwwwwwww!" Sally Kimbal blinked back tears and hopped around on one foot on the beach.

          "What happened?" her sister Millie asked, concerned. 

         "I stepped on a rock and now my foot is bleeding." Sally hopped over to a large rock lying on the sand and sat down.

           "Maybe wading in the sea would help it," Millie suggested.

          "All right, I'll try it." Leaning on her sister she approached the water. Suddenly she screamed, "Millie, look."

          A battered lifeboat was floating in the water. A woman lay in it clutching a little baby girl to her chest. Sally timidly felt one of the woman's stiff, white hands. "She's dead," she whispered, "but the baby is still alive."

          Millie touched the baby's forehead and shrieked, "She's burning up with fever. We've got to get her to a doctor."

        "But we're an hour's walk from any kind of civilization," Sally objected.

        "We have to try anyway!" Millie gathered the baby into her arms and rushed up the beach with Sally limping after her.

         Forty minutes later they arrived in town. They made a strange sight with hair flying, bare feet, and a baby in rags. They stopped at their doctor's office and entered.

        Briiiiiiiiing. At the sound of the bell the old nurse at the desk glanced up and her eyes widened.

         "What in the world?" she screeched.

          "We need to see the doctor." Millie said ignoring her question.

          "What is going on?" the woman repeated louder.

            In desperation Millie said, "Please we nee--

            "What is going on?" the doctor's voice interrupted.

             "Oh Doctor Chatwick," Sally wailed running to his side, "We found this baby on the beach, she's burning up!"

              He ushered them into his office. The nurse started to follow but when Millie looked up at him with a silent plea in her face he said, "Miss Wiggins perhaps you should stay at the desk."

              "Thank you Dr. Chatwick." Millie said once they were safely inside the office.

               He quickly examined the baby and said "What happened?"

              They recounted the day's events and his face turned grim. "I am going to get your father," he said.

               He soon returned with Mr. Kimbal trailing behind him. "Girls, maybe you should go talk to Miss Nancy."

              Nancy Hebler was a nurse who worked at Dr. Chatwick's office but she was much younger and nicer than Miss Wiggins. She had red, curly, shoulder--length hair that glistened when a ray of sun fell on it. She had large gray eyes with long lashes and she was tall and thin.

               She proved to be an adequate listener as they told her their story. "Will she live?" Sally asked with a sorrowful tone.

               "I don't know, sweetie," she responded. "We will have to wait and see what the doctor says."

              Soon the doctor came out and said, "I think she is going to be okay. All she needs is some good nursing."

             Suddenly, Millie looked at Sally and could tell that she had just been struck with the same thought as herself. "Um... Doctor Chatwick, Daddy, could we take care of her?"

              "Please," Sally chimed in.

              Their idea was immediately rejected by the adults, the chief opposition coming from Miss Wiggins. Gradually the girls wore down the adults arguments and finally their dad said, " Okay, okay. You can do it but I want one thing understood: she will be your responsibility. Unless there is something that is beyond your ability you will do it not me.

            "Yes we will. We promise," the girls jumped up and down.

            "All right," Dr. Chatwick said. "Miss Nancy and I are going to give you a crash course in caring for a baby. Step into the office please."