FRIENDS IN NEED
By the time Dr. Bell arrived at the apartment house Betty and Jack were
no longer alone with their mother. Mrs. Hamilton had returned from her
shopping expedition, and as soon as she heard the story from Winifred,
had hastened upstairs to see what could be done. One glance at the
flushed face and bright burning eyes, had been enough to convince her
that Winifred had not exaggerated matters and that Mrs. Randall was
indeed very ill. As for Betty, at the first glimpse of Mrs. Hamilton's
kind, sweet face it had seemed to the little girl as though a great load
had been suddenly lifted from her shoulders.
Mrs. Hamilton did not waste much time in words, but at once set about
the task of making everybody more comfortable. In an incredibly short
time Mrs. Randall's face and hands were bathed, and her bed smoothed;
Jack was dressed in his wrapper, and carried to his usual place on the
sitting-room sofa, and a substantial meal was in preparation in the
kitchen. When the doctor came, Mrs. Hamilton sent Betty to stay with
Jack, and the two children sat silently, hand in hand, listening for any
sounds that might come from their mother's room.
"Do you think the doctor will make her well right away, Betty?" Jack
whispered at last.
"I guess he will if he can. He's got a very kind face, and he smiled at
me when I opened the door. Hark, they're coming out now."
Next moment Mrs. Hamilton and the doctor came into the room together.
They both looked grave and anxious.
"She must have a nurse," Betty heard the doctor say in a low voice. "I
will send one as soon as I can, and be in again myself this evening. You
will stay with her till the nurse arrives?"
"Oh, yes, certainly; and the children, what of them?"
The doctor glanced for the first time towards the sofa where the two
children sat, Jack propped up with pillows, and Betty close beside him,
holding his hand. He remembered what Winifred had said about the little
crippled boy, and his face softened.
"We must see about them by and by," he said, "and in the meantime I
think we can count on their keeping quiet."
"Oh, yes, sir," said Betty eagerly; "Jack is always very quiet indeed,
and I won't make any noise."
"That's right. You are both going to be brave little people, I know, and
perhaps by and by you may like to go and make a little visit to some of
your friends, just until your mother gets stronger."
"We haven't any friends," said Betty; "we don't know any one at all,
except Mrs. Hamilton and Winifred."
The doctor looked surprised, and a little troubled.
"No friends?" he repeated; "no aunts or cousins?"
Betty shook her head.
"We have an uncle in England," she said, "but we've never seen him. We
haven't any relations in this country. Mother has her pupils, but we
don't know any of them."
The doctor said no more, and was turning to leave the room, when Jack
spoke for the first time since his entrance.
"Please, sir," he said tremulously, "would you mind telling us--is
mother going to be well again pretty soon?"
"Pretty soon I hope, my boy," said the doctor kindly, and coming over to
the sofa, he took the thin little hand in his and looked long and
earnestly into Jack's troubled face. "I shall do all I can to make her
well soon, you may be sure of that."
"Thank you, sir," said Jack gratefully. "I think you are a very kind
gentleman," he added in his quaint, old-fashioned little way.
The doctor smiled, gave the small hand a friendly shake and hurried
away, followed by Mrs. Hamilton.
That was about the longest afternoon Betty and Jack had ever known. Mrs.
Hamilton was very kind, but she was too busy to pay much attention to
them, and they were left pretty much to themselves. There was no use in
trying to read or to play games. They tried lotto, but it proved a
miserable failure. Then Betty tried reading aloud, but a big lump kept
rising in her throat and choking her, and they soon gave that up as
well. After all, the most comforting thing seemed to sit hand in hand,
talking in whispers, and listening to every sound from the sick-room.
At about four o'clock there was a ring at the bell, and Betty, hurrying
to admit the visitor, encountered in the hall a tall young woman, with a
bright, sensible face, who carried a traveling bag, and who Mrs.
Hamilton told her was the nurse Dr. Bell had promised to send. After
that there was a good deal of whispering and moving about, but no one
came near the children, and the time seemed very long indeed.
It was nearly dark when the doctor came again. The children heard his
voice in the hall, and after a little while he and Mrs. Hamilton came
into the sitting room together, and Mrs. Hamilton lighted the gas.
"You poor little things," she said cheerfully, "what a long, lonely
afternoon you have had. They've been as quiet as little mice, doctor,
and I feel sure Betty is going to be a great help to Miss Clark. As for
Jack, he is going to be a good, brave little boy, and let Winifred and
me take care of him till his mother gets well again."
She bent over the sofa as she spoke, and softly kissed Jack's forehead.
He looked up in her face rather apprehensively, and his lip trembled.
"You're very kind indeed," he said politely, "but if you please, I'd
rather stay with mother. I'll be very good."
"I know you will be good, dear; but, you see, there isn't very much
room here. Betty will have to sleep in your bed, and then there is Miss
Clark, you know. So I want you to be a very good boy, and come home with
me. Betty shall come down to see you the first thing in the morning, and
you and Winifred will have such good times together."
Jack began to cry.
"I'd rather not, indeed, I would much rather not," he sobbed; "I've
never been away from mother and Betty at night. Mother always puts me to
bed."
Mrs. Hamilton looked distressed and rather helpless, but the doctor came
to the rescue.
"Jack," he said pleasantly, sitting down beside the little boy, "what
would you like to be when you grow up?"
"An artist," said Jack promptly, and in his surprise at the question he
forgot to cry. "My father was an artist, and I want to be one too. My
grandfather was a general, and I'd like to be a soldier, but I couldn't,
you know, on account of not being able to walk."
"I don't know about that," said the doctor, smiling; "fighting isn't the
only part of a soldier's duty, you know. Wouldn't you like to begin by
being a brave little soldier boy now?"
"How could I?" Jack inquired wonderingly.
"Well, one very important part of a soldier's duty is to obey orders.
Now we know that you want to stay here with your mother and Betty, but
we feel that it will be much better for you to go home with Mrs.
Hamilton, who has very kindly offered to take you with her. Betty can be
a great help to Miss Clark, the nurse, if she stays here. You would like
to do something to help your mother get well, wouldn't you?"
"Yes, of course I would," said Jack, with a brightening face.
"Well, the very best thing you can possibly do for her at this moment is
to obey Mrs. Hamilton, and let me carry you downstairs to her rooms."
Jack was silent for a moment; his face was twitching, and he clasped and
unclasped his hands nervously. Then he looked up into the doctor's face.
"All right," he said bravely, "I'll go, only--only, may I kiss mother
good-night first?"
"Your mother is asleep now, but you may look at her if you like. She is
more comfortable than she was this morning. Shall I take you in to have
a peep at her?"
Jack nodded--he was finding it rather hard work to speak just then--and
the doctor lifted him in his arms and carried him into the bedroom.
Mrs. Randall was lying with closed eyes, still breathing heavily, but no
longer talking in that strange, incoherent way that had frightened Betty
so much in the morning. Miss Clark, in her nurse's uniform, sat at the
foot of the bed.
"Good-night, mother," Jack whispered very softly, and he kissed his hand
to the motionless figure on the bed. "I'll be a good boy. Good-night and
pleasant dreams."
The nurse rose, and, at a sign from Dr. Bell, followed them out of the
room.
"This is Miss Clark, Jack," the doctor said; "she is taking splendid
care of your mother."
"Thank you very much," said Jack, trying to smile. "Won't you please be
a little kind to Betty too? I think she'll miss me."
"That I will, dear," said the nurse heartily; and then she turned away
hurriedly with a suspicious moisture in her eyes.
It cost Betty a great effort to see her little brother carried away from
her, and she clung to him passionately for a moment, feeling half
inclined to protest against such a strange state of affairs. But she was
a sensible little woman, and realizing the necessity in this case, she
forced a smile, and the last words that Jack heard as the doctor
carried him downstairs were Betty's cheerful assurances that she should
take good care of mother, and come to see him the very first thing in
the morning.
It was no easy task for Jack to keep back the tears, but he did keep
them back, though he had to bite his lip and to wink very hard indeed in
order to do it. Dr. Bell did not fail to notice the effort, and he found
himself beginning to like this small boy immensely.
Winifred was watching for them at the open door, and she gave Jack such
a rapturous greeting that it would have been impossible not to feel
gratified by it. Almost before he realized what had happened, Jack found
himself settled on a comfortable sofa, with Winifred hovering over him,
and Mrs. Hamilton and Lizzie bustling about completing the arrangements
for his comfort.
"And now I must say good-night, my little soldier," Dr. Bell said,
taking Jack's hand as he spoke. "I shall come to see your mother again
in the morning, and I have an idea that you and I are going to be great
friends. By the way, how long is it that you have been laid up like
this?"
"Ever since I was a baby," said Jack. "My nurse let me fall, and it hurt
my back."
The doctor said nothing, but looked interested, and when he followed
Mrs. Hamilton out of the room a few moments later he asked her how long
she had known the Randall family.
"I never spoke to them until last week," said Mrs. Hamilton, and in a
few words she told the story of Winifred's Thank Offering. The doctor
looked considerably surprised.
"Do you mean to tell me that they are almost total strangers to you, and
yet that you are willing to take all this trouble for them?"
Mrs. Hamilton smiled.
"People learn to help each other where I have lived," she said simply;
"and besides, I am so happy myself now that I think I feel a little as
Winifred does, and should like to make a Thank Offering too."
"I wish there were more people in the world like you and Winifred," said
the doctor heartily. "I am sure it would be a better place than it is if
there were."
* * * * *
An hour later Jack was lying in a soft bed in the little room opening
out of Winifred's. Mrs. Hamilton had undressed him almost as tenderly as
his mother could have done; had heard him say his prayers, and when at
last she had bent down to give him a good-night kiss, Jack's warm
little heart had overflowed, and he had suddenly thrown his arms around
her neck.
"I love you," he whispered softly; "oh, I do love you very much."
But when Mrs. Hamilton had turned down the gas and gone away, and Jack
found himself alone in this strange room, away from his mother and
Betty, he began to feel very lonely. There was no one to see the tears
now, and he let them have their own way at last. He tried to cry very
softly, so as not to disturb Winifred in the next room, but in spite of
all his efforts the choking sobs would come. Suddenly the door creaked
slightly, there was a patter of bare feet on the carpet, and a sweet
little voice whispered close at his side:
"Are you asleep, Jack?"
"No," said Jack, speaking in a rather muffled voice, for he had been
trying to stifle his sobs by burying his head in the pillow, "I haven't
gone to sleep yet, but I guess I shall pretty soon."
"I just came to ask if you would like to have one of the children for
company. I know boys don't care much about dolls generally, but they are
very comforting sometimes, especially when people don't feel quite
happy, and I thought you might possibly like Lord Fauntleroy, because
he's a boy too, you know."
"You are very kind," said Jack gratefully; "I should like it. I never do
play with dolls--boys don't, you know, but a boy doll--well, that seems
a little different, doesn't it?"
"Of course it does," said Winifred confidently. "Just wait a minute, and
I'll bring him."
She darted away into her own room, returning in a moment with Lord
Fauntleroy in her arms.
"I'll put him right here on the pillow beside you," she said, "and if
you should feel lonely, you can just put out your hand and touch him.
There isn't anything to be lonely for really, you know, because father
and mother are in the parlor, and I'm right here in the next room, but
people do sometimes feel a little queer in the dark, especially if
they're not used to it. Lulu Bell doesn't like the dark a bit, and she
was ten last December. Now I guess we'd better not talk any more,
because mother said we were to go right to sleep."
Whether it was the presence of Lord Fauntleroy or the thought of the
kind little girl who had brought him I do not know, but, whatever the
cause may have been, Jack did not cry any more that night. He lay awake
for a little while thinking about how kind every one was, and then his
eyes closed, and he fell into a sound sleep from which he did not wake
till morning.