PRUDY SICK
When aunt Madge went up stairs that night she found little Prudy
hiding her head under the pillow, and screaming with fright.
"O, there I was!" cried the child, tossing up her arms, "all tumbled
out of the window! And the man got me, and I begun to be dead!"
"Why no, darling!" said aunt Madge, "here is auntie close by you, and
here you are in your pretty white bed;--don't you see?"
"No, no!" screamed Prudy, "I'm up in the Pines, I ain't here."
"Perhaps you'd like to have me sing to you," said aunt Madge; and she
began, in a low voice, a little ditty Prudy loved:
"There was a little darling
I used to know,
And they called her Prudy,
Long time ago."
"Stop, Nancy," said Prudy, "you put a toad in my mouth!--I must have a
drink--dreffully!"
Aunt Madge brought some water, but her fingers were not steady, and
the glass trembled against the child's hot lips. She watched till
Prudy dozed again, and then stole softly down stairs to get a "night
candle," and to tell her mother she was really afraid Prudy was going
to be sick.
But Mrs. Parlin said aunt Madge mustn't be nervous; that children were
very apt to be "out of their heads" in the night, and she was pretty
sure Prudy would wake up bright in the morning.
Aunt Madge tried to hope so, but she hardly slept a wink, for Prudy
tossed and twisted all night. Sometimes she thought she was picking
berries on the tufted coverlet. Sometimes she cried out that "the
crazy man was coming with a axe."
When grandma saw her purple cheeks by daylight she did not laugh at
aunt Madge. She brushed the soft curls away from the little one's hot
temples, and said softly,--
"How do you feel, Prudy, darling?"
A wild light burned in the child's eyes. "It isn't Prudy!" screamed
she, "I ain't her! Go 'way! You're goin' to snip off my nose! O, go
right off!"
You may be sure that Grace and Susy were far from happy that day. When
they noticed that their grandmother grew more and more uneasy, and
when they saw the doctor's gig at the gate, their hearts were very
heavy.
"O Grace," said Susy, sobbing, "Prudy thought we didn't love her! We
kept saying she was always round. How much do you suppose she is
sick?"
"O dear, I don't know," said Grace, wringing her hands; "but I'll tell
you one thing--we ought to have seen to her, Susy!"
"O Grace," said Susy, "you don't begin to feel so bad as I do--you
can't, because you haven't got any little sister. Only think of my
scolding to such a darling little thing as she is!"
"Come, you go up stairs and see what the doctor says," said Grace;
"you steal in easy."
"O, I don't dare to," whispered Susy, "I'm all of a tremble." But the
moment their grandmother's step was heard in the passage they flew to
her.
Mrs. Parlin set her vial down on the hall table. "I don't like to tell
you," said she, shaking her head sadly; "the doctor calls her a very
sick child, and says he is afraid of brain fever."
"Do they die with that?" cried Susy, seizing hold of her grandmother's
dress. "O, stop a minute; is she going to die?"
"We hope not," said Mrs. Parlin, "but she is so sick that we shall
send a despatch for your mother. I want you to try and keep the house
still, girls, and coax Horace to stay out of doors."
"Keep the house still? I guess we will!" said Grace. "O grandma, will
you forgive us for being so naughty yesterday?"
"Can you forgive us?" said Susy. "I tell you we feel awfully about it,
grandma!"
Mrs. Parlin took off her spectacles to wipe them. "My dear children,"
said she, gravely, "I am ready to forgive you with all my heart; but I
hope that before this you have asked pardon of your dear Father in
heaven. That is the first thing, you know."
Susy stole off into the nursery, and threw herself on the lounge.
"O God," sobbed she, "I should think you would hate me, I have acted
so bad! O, can you forgive me, and not take Prudy? I never will do so
again! I didn't mean any thing when I said she was always round. O,
_don't_ let her die and be put in the ground! Please don't, dear God!
Seems to me I love her the best of any body. When we have any fuss,
it's always me that's to blame."
Here Susy's prayer was drowned in sobs; but her heart felt a little
lighter because she had told her kind Father just how she felt, and if
it was best for Prudy to get well, she was sure he would save her.
Prudy's mother came in the cars that night, looking pale and troubled.
Prudy did not know her.
"Why don't you bring my own mamma?" said she.
"Look at me, darling," said her mother, "here I am, right here. Mother
won't leave her little Prudy again."
"I ain't Prudy!" screamed the child; "Prudy's gone to heaven. God came
and helped her up the steps."
One of the first things Mrs. Parlin did was to cut off her little
daughter's beautiful curls, and lay them tenderly away in a drawer.
"Ah, sister Madge," said she, "you can't guess how it makes my heart
ache to have my child take me for a stranger."
"Perhaps she may know you to-morrow," said aunt Madge; though in her
heart she had very little hope of the child.
But Prudy did not know any body "to-morrow," nor the next day, nor the
next. O, the long, weary time that they watched by her bed! The
terrible disease seemed to be drinking up her life. Her cheeks looked
as if fierce fires were hidden in them, and when she raved so wildly
her eyes shone like flames.
A deep hush had fallen on the house. Grace and Susy would go and sit
by the hour in their seat in the trees, and talk about dear little
Prudy. Horace had the heartache, too, and asked every day,--
"_Do_ you think she's going to die?"
Nobody could answer him, and he had to wait, like all the rest.
But God did not mean that Prudy should die. At last, after many days,
the fever died out like a fire when it has burned the wood all down to
cinders. Then there was a pale little girl left, who looked as if a
breath would blow her away like white ashes. I think a little baby,
that tips over if you touch it, could not be weaker than Prudy was
when she began to get well.
Ah, but it was so joyful to see her own sweet smile once more, though
never so faint! And every low word she spoke now dropped from her lips
like a note of music.
Her father and mother, and the whole family, were full of joy, and
Grace and Susy went to their cosy seat in the trees to talk over the
pretty things they were going to make for Prudy when she should be
well enough to enjoy them.