“Have you a little cart to draw the baby about in? Wouldn’t you like to go out in the sunshine for awhile, dear?” she asked. Then, struck by the paleness of Flossie’s face, she added hastily, “Or are you too tired?”
“I’m not too tired to go out; I’d love to go, but won’t you want me to help?” Flossie asked wistfully.
So much help had been required from her lately that life had become a rather wearisome business.
“I think I can manage. Don’t go out of sight of the door, then I can call you if I want to know anything,” Nell said, as she wrapped Master Baby in the first shawl which came handy, while Teddy ran to bring the little cart, which had served all the young Lorimers in turn.
For the next hour Nell was as busy as she could be. She swept and tidied the sitting-room, and put the fire into cheerful burning order; then, wrapping Mrs. Lorimer in a few loose easy garments, she helped her out to the sitting-room, and put her into the most comfortable chair by the fire. That done, she went back to the bedroom, made the bed, and tried to persuade Abe to lie down upon it.
But he only shook his head, saying that he would rather be left alone, so she had to go away hoping that he would change his mind later.
There was much to be done with such a houseful of invalids, and the day wore to evening without Nell realizing how time had flown. Then the hired man, who had been helping Abe Lorimer since the deaths of the two boys, came in for the pail before going to milk the cows, and she at once applied to him for help.
“Mr. Lorimer is ill. I can’t persuade him to go to bed, and every hour he is staying up now will make a day’s difference in his getting better, only of course he’s too sick to know that, or he’d get into bed as quickly as he could. Can’t you go and persuade him? You might even help him to undress.”
The hired man, who was fresh out from England, and had been an assistant in a chemist’s shop before coming West as a farm labourer, promised to do what he could, and disappeared into the bedroom. Nell shuddered to think of his heavy, dirty boots on that flowery carpet, but there was no help for it, for she had not liked to ask him to remove them, and he probably had not thought anything about the matter.
He was a long time gone, and when he came back, he announced that he had succeeded in getting Mr. Lorimer into bed, but believed him to be very ill indeed.