“Miss M’ri, you are so good to other people’s children, what would you be to your own!”
The passing of M’ri’s youth had left a faint flush of prettiness like the afterglow of a sunset faded into twilight. She was of the kind that old age would never wither. In the deep blue eyes was a patient, reflective look that told of a past but unforgotten romance. She turned from his gaze, but not before he had seen the wistfulness his speech had evoked. After he had gone, she sought David.
“I am going to stay here with you, David, for 37 two or three days. Then Barnabas and I want you to come to live with us. I had a long talk with your mother one day, and I told her if anything happened to her you should be our boy. That made her less anxious about the future, David. Will you come?”
The boy looked up with his first gleam of interest in mundane things.
“I’d like it, but would––Jud?”
“I am afraid Jud doesn’t like anything, David,” she replied with a sigh. “That’s one reason I want you––to be a big brother to Janey, for I think that is what she needs, and what Jud can never be.”
The boy remembered what his mother had counseled.
“I’ll always take care of Janey,” he earnestly assured her.
“I know you will, David.”
Two dreary days passed in the way that such days do pass, and then David rode to his new home with Barnabas and M’ri.