"I am your nurse, Mrs. Bertram," was the answer. "Don't try to talk, dear. You have been very ill and must keep quiet."
Nancy, too weak to do else, closed her eyes, but gradually the recollection of all that had happened returned to her, and tears began to trickle from beneath her closed eyelids. But presently she heard a soft voice ask: "She in her conscience yet, Mis' Bertry?" and opening her eyes again she beheld Aunt Parthy standing by her bedside and looking down upon her with loving concern. Nancy tried to lift a feeble hand, murmuring "Oh, Mammy, Oh, Mammy," and the tears flowed faster.
"Dere, honey chile, dere now," said Parthy, soothingly, taking the slim white hand in her strong black one. "Yo' ole Mammy gwine stay right hyar whar yuh kin see huh ole black face. Don' yuh mou'n fo' yo' ma, chile; she wid de angels a-lookin' down at yuh dis blessed minute. She gone whar dey ain' no mo' weepin' an' sighin' er no mo' sickness er dyin'. Jes yuh think o' dat. Hyah come de doctah. I say he be mighty glad yuh come back outen dem shadders whar yuh been stayin'."
Dr. Plummer came near and smiled down benevolently upon his patient. "Well, little one," he said, "you're better. Now we shall have you up in no time."
"Why, why did you let me come back?" whispered Nancy. "They are all gone, all gone, and no one wants me."
The doctor turned away and furtively wiped his glasses with what might seem unnecessary fierceness. "Tut! Tut!" he exclaimed as he again addressed his patient "We're not all gone, not a bit of it. You've more friends in this place than you can count, beginning with myself and Mrs. Bertram, not to mention Aunt Parthy. You'll be coming on finely now. I expect you to be laughing at my stale old jokes before the week is out."
Before the week was out she was not exactly laughing, but she was ready to admit that life still held hopes for her, that the world offered her beauty, that Heaven had given her friends. The presence of her nurse was a great comfort, and she began to give her a devotion born of helplessness and dependence. But even the doctor's jokes, Parthy's pleasantries, or the tender, encouraging words of her calm and capable nurse failed to alter the sad expression of her face or the sombre look of her eyes, now all the larger because of the thinness of her face.
"Laws, chile," said Aunt Parthy one morning when she was anxiously watching her nursling's attempts at eating breakfast, "I 'clar dem eyes o' you'n teks up nigh de whole o' yo' purty li'l face. Kaint yuh eat no mo' dan dat? Yuh 'min's me o' one dese yer li'l yaller chicks, picky, picky, picky. Ain' dey nothin' yuh relishes? Ef dey anythin' yuh laks Iry go right down town an' git it fo' yuh ef he have to comb de town wif a fine toof comb ter git it. How yuh relishes a nice li'l weenty piece o' duck er a slice o' young tu'key?"
Nancy shook her head. "I couldn't eat anything more, Mammy dear," she said, "but I should like to see Mr. Weed. I think I am strong enough now."
"Dat ole atomy? Honey, he so dry in de j'ints I don' know ef he kin git hyar 'thout crackin', but Iry kin go fo' him ef yuh says so. He ole atomy, dat man is. Ain't got no juice lef' in him. He 'minds me o' one o' dese yer places in de woods whar dey ain' nothin' growin', nothin' on de groun' but jes' pine needles. But yo' ma she trusses him, an' all de Loomises trus' him so I reckons we bleedged trus' him, but he dat dry he mos' choke yuh when yuh talks ter him."