"That very same."
"Oh, then I'll go right down."
She slowly descended the stairs. After all her head did still feel a little queer, and she was rather faint from eating nothing since breakfast, so she did not enter the room with her usual animation, and Uncle Justus did not see her till she had nearly reached his side. Then he looked up over his spectacles. "Well, well, well," he cried, "how is my little girl feeling?"
He held out his arms and Edna went to him. "I'm feeling a little better," she said, as he took her on his knee and settled her comfortably with her head against his shoulder.
[116] "Poor little lamb," he murmured, "poor little lamb. I am so sorry—we were all sorry to hear about the headache."
"But, Uncle Justus, I thought you were going on the sailing party."
"So I was, my dear, but I couldn't have enjoyed it knowing you were here without your mother or any of your family. I know little folks like their mothers when they are not feeling well, and though I couldn't in any way take the place of your mother, I wanted to come and look after you a little."
Edna put up a hand and softly stroked the cheek above the curled grey whisker, and even a part of the whisker itself. "I think it was dear of you to do that, but Uncle Justus, I am afraid Mr. Ramsey was disappointed not to have you go, and I did not mind so very much being alone. I did want mother awfully, when I was feeling the sickest, but I tried to think how lovely everyone was to me, and of how nice it was to be in this lovely cool place by the sea, instead of in the hot city, and I didn't feel so."
Uncle Justus murmured something which Edna couldn't quite make out, something about babes and sucklings which really did not appear to have much to do with the subject.
"Aren't you really disappointed about not going on the sailing party?" she asked presently.