He nodded ever so slightly, and then added in a little determined voice—
"'Cause then they don't hurt me no more."
Meg would have asked for an explanation, but Jem was unfolding the blanket, and the girl was absorbed in wonder at its comfort and whiteness.
"Dickie, look!" she exclaimed in a low joyful tone.
But the child was too ill to be interested. He did not turn his head again, and Cherry said, with all the life gone out of her eyes, which had so quickly lighted up at sight of the blanket—
"That's how he is most times. Sometimes I wish he was safely in heaven with mother."
Jem put his hand gently on the girl's arm.
"Ah, my dear, that's how we feel when we're sad; but if we understand that God loves us, we'll be willing to wait, so as we may do His will."
Her wide-open, sad blue eyes filled slowly, and she turned in silence to cover over her little brother. She took up the old shawl and spread the blanket next him, then unfolding the shawl, which had been doubled for warmth, she carefully covered every bit of the blanket with it, even seeking a bit of rag from somewhere to stop up a hole through which the whiteness peeped.
"He might guess it else," she explained, and her hearers had to draw their own conclusions.