"Bubbles tried her best to comfort her"
"No," sobbed Eleanor, "of course I don't, but I do wish he hadn't that horrid rheumatism, and I want my mamma, I do, I do. It will be so long before I see her again. I wish I could go, oh, I wish I could go!" she sobbed afresh.
Bubbles clasped her knees entreatingly, the tears rolling down her own cheeks in sympathy. "Miss Dimple, ef yuh cries that-a-way, I git so miserble I won't know what to do," she said.
"I'm miserable," said Eleanor. "I wish Florence didn't have the whooping-cough, then I could go to Aunt Eleanor's." Then suddenly she thought of Rock Hardy, who this year was at boarding-school. That must be worse than being left in one's own home, and she began thinking so hard about him that the tears ceased to flow, and, although it was a very mournful little face which was seen about the house for the next hour, no more tears were shed that afternoon.
Mrs. Dallas had suggested that Eleanor should go with Bubbles to the train to meet her relatives, and about five o'clock they started down to the railroad station. "I don't like to see the cars," said Eleanor; "they make me think of mamma and papa; they are traveling on and on, and every minute takes them further away." But at this moment the train came in sight and in watching for the newcomers Eleanor for the moment, forgot her griefs.
"There they are, Bubbles," she cried. "I am sure that lady in black is Cousin Ellen, and there are the two little girls and the boy. Where is the baby, I wonder. Oh, the conductor is lifting her down. She can walk, you see, for he has set her down on the platform." She went forward rather timidly, saying, "I am Eleanor Dallas, and this is Bubbles. You are Cousin Ellen, aren't you? Shall Bubbles carry the baby?"
Mrs. Murdoch assented. "I shall be glad if some one will take charge of her. I am tired to death. Here, Donald, take these checks and find an expressman to take the trunks. Eleanor will show you where to go. Come, Olive, come, Jessie, we can go on."
Thrust thus suddenly into the company of a strange boy, Eleanor had nothing to say for some minutes. She was not used to boys, and, as a rule, avoided them. The one before her was not specially attractive, she thought, but after a while she found her voice and said: "Here is the place."
Donald threw down the checks. "Where are the trunks to go? What is your number?" he asked Eleanor curtly.