Part 30 (2/2)
”Well, when I went out on that lawn to work over the injured, I found there a long-lost brother!”
”Brother?”
”Yes, really It is a strange story, but for three years mother and I have tried everyfellow, and such a joy to us, but he got interested in social proble that the poor were always oppressed, and all that sort of thing Well, he had just finished college, and we hoped for such great things, when, after so enthusiasm, he disappeared”
”Ran away?” asked Hazel
”Well, we thought at first he was drowned, for he used to sit for hours on the beach talking to fisherht he had met with any such misfortune Leland is one of the individuals born to live He is too healthy, too splendid, a chap to up and die Of course, ht he must be dead, or he would not keep her in anxiety, but that is the way these reformer minds usually work--spare your own and lose the cause”
”And what did happen?” asked Betty, all interested
”I happened to find hily spots, and his baby coone?” gasped Belle--she who always stood up for the beautiful in everything, even in young one forever,” said the doctor, ”but, indeed, poor boy, he had a narrow escape”
”But whatever took him into the kitchen?” asked Bess
”He went down there aners to study actual conditions Did you ever hear of anything so idiotic? But that is his hobby He has been into all kinds of labor during these three long, sorrowful years”
”And you were helping your own brother! And we--blamed you!” It was Belle who spoke
”I could not bla I had been enjoined to secrecy the very ed me not even to send word to mother, as he said it would spoil the research of an entire year if he had to stop his work before the summer was entirely over”
”But he could not work--he is ill?” said Bess
”Still, you see, he could keep a the men he had classed himself with, and that is his idea of duty I let mother know I had found him in spite of his 'ideas,' but I did not tell her o hoive up cooking by October first Then I a man he ht sohtness
”Oh, indeed he is,” declared Miss Robbins ”He is younger than I, and when I went to college he promised to do all sorts of stunts to prove , on one sort of food; wanted to re until he fell over; wanted to sleep in dark cellars to see what effect that would have; in fact, I thought ould have to lock hiuard to save his life, he was so enthusiastic about my profession And as to anti-vivisection! Why, at one tis in our small city yard to save them from the possible fate of some of their kind I tell you, we had our hands full with pretty Leland”
”I should love hihed It was actually the first real s, dreary week Belle returned the charge with a contelance
”I mean, of course, I should love his!” exclaimed Betty
”A friend of dumb animals is always a friend of humans,” insisted Belle
Dr Robbins s, and, while her story was correct, the recital of it had done irls than had any other attempted cure of their melancholy