"And fa'ver-Jem said as He'd sent me instead," said Dickie comfortably, "and so that's nice for ev'wybody."
Meg smiled, though she almost cried again.
"Yes, Dickie," she answered, "and I'm not sorry for that part of it. I'm sure our Father in heaven knows best, and will make me glad in time that He has taken my little baby."
Dickie laid his soft cheek against her face, and then Meg saw her mother-in-law coming in with a little tray in her hand.
"Look, Dickie," she said; "here is a kind mother with some gruel or something for us. Why, here are two basins! How kind she is. Can you open your eyes now, Dickie?"
He tried, but quickly put up his hand to shield them from the light.
"How bad they are!" remarked Mrs. Seymour. "Meg, did Jem say what they did to him?"
"No," answered Meg, shuddering. "He said it was so dreadful, yet so easy that he should never tell it, lest any one else should be so cruel."
"How strange!" said Mrs. Seymour.
"Did the doctor say this morning that they should be tied up?" asked Meg.