Just as they came out of the house, Rob and Phil chanced to be passing. Turning, as they heard the door open and close, they saw Bess helping their friend to the carriage, waved their hats to her, and started to run back to greet Fred. But Bess motioned to them to keep away, for she felt that her charge was in no condition now to meet these strong, lively friends, just as he was forced to realize anew his own helplessness. So the lads stood sadly by, looking on while their unconscious friend slowly and awkwardly climbed into the carriage. Bess followed, and, with a wave of her hand to the watching boys, they drove away.
"That isn't much like Fred," said Phil, as he turned away with a serious look on his jolly, freckled face. "Just think of the way he used to skate, and play baseball and hare and hounds! It must be awful for him. But isn't it funny he won't let us go to see him?"
"I don't know," replied Rob, meditatively patting a snowball into shape; "I guess if I were like what Fred is, I shouldn't want the boys round, for 'twould just make me think all the time of the things I couldn't do. Cousin Bess is awfully good to him; she's down here ever so much."
"I know it. Wonder if anything happened to me, she'd take me up," said Phil, half enviously. "I just wish she was my cousin, Bob. Why, she's as good as a boy, any day!"
In the mean-time, Fred's first care had been to draw down the curtains on his side of the carriage, and then he shrank into the corner, answering as briefly as possible to Bessie's careful suggestions for his comfort. But her endless good-humor and fun were never to be long resisted, and he was soon talking away as rapidly as ever, while the change and the motion and the cool crisp air brought a glow to his cheeks that made him look like the Fred of former days. After driving for nearly an hour, the carriage stopped.
"Are we home?" asked Fred, starting to rise.
"At mine, not yours. Mother was going out to tea, to-night, and you have been such a good boy that, as a reward of merit, I am going back to dinner with you; only I must stop and tell mother, and send word to Rob to come down after me. Shall I come?" And Bess paused with a smile, waiting to see the effect of her new plan.
"Oh, yes, do come!" said Fred eagerly. "And tell Bob not to come for you too early."
"What fun we'll have," he continued, when Bess had come back from the house and they were driving away, regardless of the wails of Fuzz, who surveyed them from a front window. "We'll play—how I wish I ever could play games any more!" And his face grew dark again.
"You can, ever so many. But will you go home, or shall we drive a little longer?"