Part 7 (1/2)

”It depends on how he is,” was the reply. ”Mrs. Ross hopes that he will have a little sleep now, but if he is awake and not too tired when you have finished your lessons, I will read aloud to you both in his room.”

”Miss Lilly,” began Chrissie again, looking up very sadly when they were seated at the schoolroom table, ”I don't want to be silly, but I really don't feel as if I could do any lessons. It is so--so dreadful to be without Ferdy, when you think that only the day before yesterday we were both here together and so happy, looking forward to his birthday,”

and the child put her head down on her arms and broke into deep though quiet sobs.

In an instant Miss Lilly had left her place and was kneeling on the floor beside her.

”My poor little Chrissie, my dear little Chrissie,” she said, ”I am so sorry for you,” and the tone of her voice showed that it was difficult for her to keep back her own tears,--”so very sorry; but remember, dear, that we can do much better for Ferdy by controlling our grief than by giving way to it. A great deal depends on keeping him cheerful and happily employed and interested. When I got your mother's note yesterday afternoon--oh dear, what a shock it was to me!--I spoke to my grandfather about Ferdy a great deal, and he said in such cases much depends on not letting the nervous system give way. Do you understand at all what I mean?”

”Yes, I think so,” said Chrissie, drying her eyes and listening eagerly.

”You mean if poor Ferdy was to lie there all day alone, like some poor children have to do, I daresay, he'd get to feel as if he would never get well again.”

”Just so,” said Miss Lilly, pleased to see how sensible Chrissie was.

”Of course, he must not be tired or allowed to excite himself, and for a few days he is sure to be restless and fidgety from weakness; but as he gradually gets stronger again in himself, we must do all we can not only to amuse him, but to keep up his interest in things and people outside himself.”

”I know,” said Chrissie, ”if he can feel he's of any good to anybody, that would make him happier than anything. Ferdy has never been selfish, has he, Miss Lilly?”

”No, he certainly has never seemed so, and I do not think suffering and trial such as he may have to bear will make him so.”

Chrissie's face fell again at the two sad words.

Miss Lilly saw it, and went on speaking quietly. ”I don't mean anything very dreadful, dear, but he may have to stay in bed or on a couch for a long time, and of course that cannot but be a great trial to an active boy. Let us get on with your lessons now, Chrissie, in case Ferdy is awake when they are over.”

He was not awake. He slept a good part of the morning, which Mrs. Ross, sitting beside him, was very glad of; and when at last he opened his eyes and looked about him, it was not long before a smile came to his face, and he cheered his mother by saying he felt ”so nicely rested.”

”May Chris and Miss Lilly come back now?” he asked. ”Miss Lilly said she would read aloud.”

Yes, Chris and Miss Lilly would be only too happy to come, but first Ferdy must be ”good” and drink some beef-tea, which was standing all ready.

It was rather an effort to do so. Ferdy did not like beef-tea, and he was not at all hungry, and he just wanted to lie still and not be bothered. But ”To please me” from his mother was enough, and when she kissed him and said he _was_ ”a good boy,” he told her, laughing, that he felt as if he were a little baby again.

Chrissie's face brightened when she heard the sound of her brother's laugh.

”Are you feeling better, Ferdy dear?” she said. ”I _am_ so glad, and Miss Lilly has brought a story-book of her own that we have never read.”

”Oh, how nice!” said Ferdy. ”Do tell me the name of the book, Miss Lilly.”

”It is short stories,” she replied. ”I will read you the names of some of them, and you shall choose which you would like best.”

The t.i.tles were all very tempting, but Ferdy made a good hit, and fixed upon one of the most interesting in the book, so said Miss Lilly. It was about a family of children in Iceland, and though it was rather long, they wished there was more of it when it came to an end. Then Miss Lilly looked at her watch.

”There is still a quarter of an hour,” she said, as she turned over the leaves. ”Yes, here is a short story, which will just about fill up the time.”

Ferdy and Chrissie looked very pleased, but they did not say anything.

They were so afraid of losing any of the precious fifteen minutes.

CHAPTER VI