“We must bear our troubles ourselves, Flossie; we can’t always expect other people to stagger along under our burdens,” she said, when the little sister pleaded so hard for Nell to be sent for.
“But we are not bearing the troubles ourselves; I mean, other people are helping us. See how kind Dr. Shaw has been, and Mrs. Higgs, and Miss Trotman. Only all the time I feel as if there is no one who could comfort us like Nell,” said Flossie. She forbore to press the matter, because Gertrude looked so worried.
There were more troubles for the elder sister to face just then than the sickness and death which invaded the house. Monetary difficulties were staring her in the face, and she was quite shocked to find how poor her father had become in that last hard year of his life.
A mortgage had been raised on the property, or rather it had been increased, and bills were owing which Gertrude had supposed to have been paid long ago. Then the stock on the farm had been seriously diminished—a horse had died; two had been sold. The yearling cattle had also been sold; only weaning calves and milking cows remained on the place.
“But there is the corn; that is worth a good bit, isn’t it, Patsey?” she asked, with a little shiver, when she and the boy were discussing the situation on the day before the funeral.
“Not so much as you might think. Besides, if we sell the corn, what are we going to live on, or how shall we keep the cattle and the pigs through the winter?” Patsey asked, lifting his tear-stained face to look at her for a moment, then letting his gaze drop to the floor again.
“I wonder whatever we shall do? If only you were two or three years older we might rub along easily, but I know so little about farming,” she said, with a sigh.
“I hate farming!” exclaimed the boy, vehemently; then looked heartily ashamed of his outburst.
But Gertrude only slid her arm round his neck and laid her head down on his shoulder.
“I hate it too,” she said softly; “but we must not think of ourselves just now, Patsey; mother and the children stand first, you know.”