"I can nev-er, nev-er learn it," said Bell; and she burst in-to tears.
"Car-rie has learned it," said Miss Gray; "and I am sure you can. Try,
try a-gain."
"Yes, Bell," said Car-rie; "and then per-haps we can have a romp in
the hay-field. You will have to hur-ry, for the men are cart-ing it
in-to the barn."
Thus urged, Bell made a fresh ef-fort; and soon the les-son was learned
and re-cit-ed.
Off scam-pered the two girls to the hay-field. Soon Miss Gray fol-lowed,
but there was noth-ing to be seen of them. She looked all a-bout, and at
last walked up to the man who was load-ing the hay on the cart.
[Illustration]
"Can you see an-y thing of two lit-tle girls from where you are?" she
asked.
"I don't see them," he an-swered, stand-ing up and look-ing a-round.
Miss Gray turned a-way, when all at once she heard a laugh be-hind her.
She looked back, and there were the laugh-ing fa-ces of Bell and Car-rie.
They had been on the cart, all hid-den un-der the hay in or-der to play
a lit-tle joke on Miss Gray. Then they scram-bled down, and came run-ning
to her.
The man on the cart smiled to see their fun. Then he said sadly, "Dear me,
I wish my lit-tle lass could run a-bout like that."
[Illustration]
"Is she ill?" asked Car-rie.
"Yes," said the man; "but she is get-ting bet-ter now."
"We'll ask mam-ma to take us to see her," said Bell.
The ver-y next day their mam-ma did take them. They found Ruth sit-ting
pil-lowed up in a chair, ver-y pale and white. Bell had picked her a
bunch of flow-ers, which she seemed ver-y glad to get; and the three
girls soon be-came good friends. Car-ree found a lit-tle gray kitten
with which she played.
The vis-it seemed to do Ruth a great deal of good; for a pink flush came
in her cheeks, and she e-ven laughed, which her moth-er said she had not
done before for weeks.
They came a-gain the ver-y next day. Miss Gray was with them, and car-ried
a bas-ket on her arm in which were some dain-ties to tempt the sick girl's
ap-pe-tite. She was glad to see them, and told them they should have the
kit-ten for their ver-y own. So pus-sy went back in the bas-ket which had
brought the dain-ties.
Near-ly ev-er-y day af-ter this the chil-dren went to see Ruth, for at
least a week. By that time she was well e-nough to be out, and some-times
came to see them.
[Illustration]
What is it that these lit-tle tots are all so anx-ious to see? It must
be a Christ-mas-tree.