Two hours later, as the carriage came up the drive, Mrs. Carter stood waiting on the steps, while Bess ran out to meet Fred. The boy, clinging to Bessie's arm, came slowly up to the door.
"Welcome to your new home, Fred," said Mrs. Carter's voice.
And he answered as he gave her gentle face a great boyish kiss,—
"It's just splendid to come."
CHAPTER VII.
"AND WHEN THE FIGHT IS FIERCE."
After a week or two spent in making Fred feel at home and settled in his new quarters, Bess suggested her next plan. It was after church one Sunday night, and Bess was sitting with her hat still on, by the parlor fire, while Fred and the Dominie were in a promiscuous pile on the rug, where Fred had been eagerly listening for the familiar step on the walk outside. Since he had been at the Carters', he had lost much of his fretful look, and seemed better and brighter in every way. Mrs. Carter petted him, and talked with him, giving him many little hints of the way in which he might even yet be a useful, happy man; while her husband laughed and joked with him, and occasionally teased him a little. But, after all, it was neither gentle Mrs. Carter, nor her genial husband, to whom the boy turned for advice and sympathy in every question that came up. To him, Miss Bess was the one person in the world, and well might he feel so, for she was most unselfishly kind to him. From the moment when, on leaving his room in the morning, he met her at the door, ready to guide him down the unfamiliar stairs, until, after he was all in bed, she came in to say a last good-night, she was constant in her attentions to him, and adapted herself to his every mood, bright and full of fun when he was blue, encouraging when he was despondent, and with apparently nothing to do but read to him or talk with him. When she went out, as she did nearly every afternoon, she always came in with some amusing adventure or bit of boy news to tell him; and while she was gone, he spent the time petting the dogs, and counting the moments until her return. When her step was heard, he always started to the door, and, as she reached it, he opened it before her, and stood smiling up at her as she closed it, and, with an arm around his shoulders, swung him about, and marched him back to the fire. And Bess learned to watch for this greeting, and stepped more heavily as she came up the walk. Adoration, even from a child, is pleasant to have.
To-night, as Bess sat there with Fuzz in her lap and Fred at her feet, she was thinking back to that ill-fated day, just a year ago, when Rob had come home and announced that Fred had won the school prize. Such a change in the year! But the boy must not grow up in ignorance, even if he were blind. At her suggestion, it had been agreed with his father that Fred was to begin to have a few simple lessons again, of which Bess was to have the care.
"You know as well as I do, Miss Carter, what will make Fred happiest and best. I leave him wholly to you," Mr. Allen had said.
The boy lay, his head pillowed on the dog's shaggy side, his face anxiously turned towards Bess, as if trying to read her thoughts. Suddenly she said,—