“Then you will stay for always, because I need you all the time, dear big, strong, sweet sister Nell!” murmured the child; and to Nell the words were the sweetest she had heard for many a year, and the knowledge that someone wanted her brought a flood of happiness to her heart.
They had plenty of time for confidences, for the doctor was a long while with Mrs. Lorimer; Gertrude also remained in the sick-room, and Patsey was walking the horse slowly up and down the meadow in front of the house.
“We are dreadfully poor now, Nell; did you know?” Flossie asked, with a pucker of anxiety pinching her small face into lines of pain.
“A little about it; the doctor told me,” she answered, flushing at the admission, because she fancied Gertrude would not be pleased to think their poverty was town-talk already.
“Gertrude and Patsey think I don’t know anything about it, and they won’t talk about money worries in front of me, because they won’t have me bothered; but they forget that I have been shut up at home while Gertrude has been away, and so I expect I know more about our being poor than they do.”
“Never mind, we will find a way out of it somehow. I have got just a little money of my own now, you know, so I shall be able to help if matters get serious,” Nell replied, more with the desire of reassuring Flossie than from any idea that she and the Lorimers would henceforth make their home together.
But when she went into Mrs. Lorimer’s chamber and saw the poor woman lying there helpless, she began to realize that circumstances might be shaping her future in a way she had little expected.
It was not until the funeral was over, and Abe Lorimer had been laid to rest by the side of his two sons, that she put her thought into words. Even then she might have waited longer but for the fear of the future which was weighing Gertrude down.
“You see, it is not only the children that I have to think of and provide for, but there is mother also to nurse. Dr. Shaw does not say very much, but it is easy to see how little hope there is of her being able to do much for a very, very long while,” Gertrude said, with a careworn look on her face which made her seem years older.
“If we both put our shoulders to the wheel it won’t be so hard, and in a few years Patsey will be able to help,” Nell replied quietly.