Eddie wrote home to his mother, telling her that "his father had been taken ill, and therefore they would not be able to start for home for a few days; but," he added, "he hoped their return would not long be delayed."
He was almost certain his mother would divine the cause, and that her grief would be inexpressible. But as he did not know what the issue might be, for his father was certainly very ill, he felt if he did not partially reveal the truth to her, and anything serious did happen, he never would forgive himself.
The reader will remember that Eddie's letter was composed under somewhat similar circumstances to those under which his father had written his hurried note just after his arrival in Canada, and if he recollects what the result was at that time he will be able, at least partially, to understand what the effect was in the present instance.
When Allie returned from the post-office with the letter, Mrs. Ashton found herself strangely excited, even before she had broken the seal. She held it with nervous hand, and ere she had read the first page sank pale and trembling into her chair, and gasped out, rather than spoke: "Oh, Allie, my worst fears are more than realized! Oh! what will become of us all?"
Allie and Mamie were immediately by their mother's side, the face of the former manifesting by its alarmed and saddened expression that she divined, at least to some extent, what had happened. While the face of innocent little Mamie wore a puzzled, troubled look; and though she could not understand what had happened to grieve her mother, tears glistened in her eyes in sympathy with her grief.
"What has happened to papa?" said Allie. "Is it anything very serious?" and she looked anxiously up in her mother's face.
The question was purely mechanical; she felt sure her father had again fallen, and she also knew if her mother thought so she would not give expression to her fears.
"Eddie writes he is ill," said her mother; "but he says he has hopes he will soon recover, and that their return will not long be delayed."
Allie sat down in her mother's lap, and, as she entwined her arms round her neck and kissed her, she said, "Mamma, you must not give way too much to trouble and sorrow, for God knows what is best, and He will take care of papa and of us all."
Little Mamie, who had been an attentive listener, now endeavored to console her mother.