Part 4 (1/2)

Ferdy did not much like the strange doctor, though he meant to be very kind, no doubt. He spoke to him too much as if he were a baby, and the boy was beginning at last to feel less restless and more comfortably sleepy when this new visitor came. And then the library lamp was brought up, and it blinked into his eyes, and he hated being turned round and having his backbone poked at, as he told Chrissie, though he couldn't exactly say that it hurt him. And, worst of all, when he asked if he might get up ”to-morrow” the strange doctor ”put him off” in what Ferdy thought a silly sort of way. He would much rather have been told right out, ”No, certainly not to-morrow,” and then he could have begun settling up things in his mind and planning what he would do, as Chrissie and he always did if they knew a day in bed was before them; for they had never been very ill--never ill enough to make no plans and feel as if they cared for nothing in bed or out of it.

No, Ferdy was quite sure he liked Mr. Stern much better than Dr. Bigge, for, curiously enough, that was the great doctor's name, though by rights, as he was a very clever surgeon and not a physician, I suppose he should not be called ”doctor” at all.

When at last he had gone, Mr. Stern came back for a moment to tell Ferdy's mother and Flowers how it would be best to settle him for the night. They put the pillows in rather a funny way, he thought, but still he was pretty comfortable, and he began to feel a little sleepy again; and just as he was going to ask his mother what they were doing with the sofa, everything went out of his head, and he was off into the peaceful country of sleep, where his troubles were all forgotten, hushed into quiet by the soft waving wings of the white angel, whose presence is never so welcome as to the weary and suffering.

When he woke next there was a faint light in the room. For a moment or two he thought that it was the daylight beginning to come, and he looked towards where the window was in his own little room; but even the tiny motion of his head on the pillow sent a sort of ache through him, and that made him remember.

No, he was not in his own room, and the glimmer was not that of the dawn. It was from a shaded night-light in one corner, and as his eyes grew used to it he saw that there was some one lying on the sofa--some one with bright brown hair, bright even in the faint light, and dressed in a pale pink dressing-gown. It was mamma. Poor mamma, how uncomfortable for her not to be properly in bed! Why was she lying there? He hoped she was asleep, and yet--he almost hoped she wasn't, or at least that she would awake just for a minute, for he was thirsty and hot, and the fidgety feeling that he _couldn't_ keep still was beginning again. He did not know that he sighed or made any sound, but he must have done so, for in another moment the pink dressing-gown started up from the sofa, and then mamma's pretty face, her blue eyes still looking rather ”dusty,” as the children called it, with sleep, was anxiously bending over him.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ”WHAT IS IT, DEAR? DID YOU CALL ME?”]

”What is it, dear? Did you call me?”

”No, mamma. But why aren't you in bed, and why is there a light in the room? Aren't you going to bed?”

”Yes, in an hour or two Flowers will come and take my place. You see we thought you might be thirsty in the night, and the doctor said you mustn't move.”

”I _am_ thirsty,” said Ferdy. ”I'd like a drink of water.”

”Better than lemonade? There is some nice fresh lemonade here.”

Ferdy's eyes brightened.

”Oh, I _would_ like that best, but I didn't know there was any.”

Mamma poured some out into such a funny cup--it had a pipe, so Ferdy called it, at one side. He didn't need to sit up, or even to lift his head, to drink quite comfortably.

”And I think,” Mrs. Ross went on, ”I think I will give you another spoonful of the medicine. It is not disagreeable to take, and it will help you to go to sleep again.”

Yes, it did; very, very soon he was asleep again. This time he dreamt something, though when he awoke he could not clearly remember what. He only knew that it was something about birds. He lay with his eyes shut thinking about it for a few minutes, till a sound close to him made him open them and look round. It was morning, quite morning and daylight, and from the window came the gentle twittering of some swallows, who had evidently taken up their summer quarters in some corner hard by.

”That must have been what made me dream about birds,” said Ferdy to himself, though he spoke aloud without knowing it. ”I must have heard them in my sleep.”

”You have had a nice sleep,” said a voice from the other side of his bed, and, looking towards her, Ferdy saw Flowers, already dressed and with a pleasant smile on her face. ”Are you feeling better, Master Ferdy, dear?”

The little boy waited a moment or two before he replied.

”My head isn't so sore, and I'm not so tired, but I don't think I want to get up even if I might. I want Chrissie to come and sit beside me.

What o'clock is it, Flowers?”

”Just six o'clock, sir. You will have to wait a little before Miss Christine can come. I daresay she's tired, poor dear, and she may sleep late this morning; perhaps you will be able to sleep a little more yourself, Master Ferdy. Would you like a drink of milk?”

”Yes,” said Ferdy, ”I would like some milk, but I can't go to sleep again; I've too much on my mind,” with a deep sigh.

He spoke in such an ”old-fas.h.i.+oned” way that, sorry as the maid was for him, she could scarcely help smiling a little. She gave him the milk and lifted him very, very gently a little farther on to the pillows.

”Does it hurt you, Master Ferdy?” she asked anxiously.