Part 18 (1/2)
”We have put theon; they were so very tired,”
answered Sylvia ”Noill get the doctor ratulated on his household of visitors, even though one of them is in possession of the only bed in the house
Oh, Nealie, what an awful situation it is, and whatever shall we do if we can't find dear Father?”
”Don't, dear, I dare not think about that or anything else until Rupert is better, and then God will shohat to do,” said Nealie, putting her hand out with such an iesture that Sylvia was instantly asha as cheerful as possible in order to keep up the courage of her sister
”Oh, we shall get through all right of course, and after all it is just a part of our adventures; anything is better than stagnating I think, and we have not been in er of that lately!”
Nealie went back to the bedroom, while Sylvia and Rumple did their very best in the outer chamber, where the confusion alon had fitted the comfortably where anyone else would have been bothered by thein grand style, and the various pots and kettles on the stove were beginning to show signs of being nearly ready to boil, when the doctor ca from the medicine cupboard in the corner
”Will you please sit down and take your supper, now that you are here?”
asked Sylvia rather tireeable face; but that was, perhaps, because she was prejudiced against hih the dreadful disappointment which had met them at the end of their journey
”I do not think that I can stay for food just now; your brother needs h perhaps he did not mean it to be so
”Oh, please, do!” she pleaded ”Because then I shall not feel so worried, and I am sure that Rupert will not take much harm for half an hour, while you will feel far more fit when you have had a meal”
”It is very kind of you to be so insistent, and I really a broadly now, for the supper which Sylvia had cooked for hiood, and she was already pouring a cup of tea out for hirateful they were to him for all his kindness to Rupert
”But won't you sit down and have so to eat also?” he asked, as she hovered about ready to anticipate his wants
”No, thank you, we had supper before you ca for Father,” she said, with a choke in her voice, which made her turn hastily away and knock a tin pan over, so that in the sudden clatter helike a baby
He frowned heavily, as he wondered what the guardians of this fa of not to write and make sure that the father was in a position to receive the people halfway round the world, on the off chance of finding their father when they reached the end of the journey
”It has really been very hard for you, and we must do our best to help you out of the muddle,” he said quite kindly, as he enjoyed the results of Sylvia's handiwork and began to feel all the better for his supper
”Do you knohere Father has gone?” she asked, putting the question which Nealie lacked the courage to ask
”When Dr Pluo, he said that he was going to Mostyn, and that letters froland were to be forwarded to the Post Office there, but that nothing else was to be sent on,” the doctor answered
”If your name is the same as Father's, hoould you knohich were your letters and which were his?” Sylvia asked in a wondering tone, for to her it seee that there should be two doctors of one name, and that not a common one, in a sh! I ale correspondent in England But only one letter has coo, so I forwarded it to Mostyn at once,” said the doctor
”Where is Mostyn?” asked Sylvia
”It is away in the back country, about fifty ine It is a boo quantities, and so it will grow like a ives out, and then, unless they co else of value, it will fizzle out as rapidly as it sprang to life It is a little e have of doing things in this part of the world,” said the doctor as he finished his supper, and then he asked, in a tone of grave concern: ”Pray, where can you go to sleep? There is certainly no sense in your sitting up all night Your sister will stay up to helpshe ant to rest, and you must be ready to take her place”
”Oh, I can sit round in a chair and doze a little when I ao-lucky way she had of saying things, and which as a rule no one heeded But the doctor frowned heavily as he said: ”That will not do at all; young people cannot get on without proper sleep, and you must be fresh and fit to take your sister's place in theto pull hier children?”
”We put theon It is just outside, you know, and we thought that they would be out of the way,” answered Sylvia
”An excellent idea Now suppose that you go and put yourself to bed with theht and early in thenow, because there really seemed a way out of the difficulty