"Yes," said Netta; "but Nellie said she thought he would miss —;" she paused, and then remembering her father's words, she went on gently, "miss dear mamma less if he were downstairs with her, and Christina, and Arthur."
"It is quite right," said Ada; "dear little Tom."
"We don't have any school," Isabel observed rather dolefully. "Nellie has been so busy, and all; but the days do seem so long."
Ada looked up. "Perhaps to-morrow I might give you lessons, till I go back to school myself."
"We've nothing to do to-day," said Netta.
"I suppose you're not well enough to tell us a tiny story, are you, Ada?" asked Dolly, looking coaxingly up in her face.
"I will try," answered Ada, "because I've been thinking of one, and perhaps it will do you good, like it did me. Get your work, children."
Mary took out her basket, and sat down to listen; the little girls ran to the cupboard to fetch theirs, and soon they settled down to quietness.
"Come, Cecil," said Ada to the baby, patting her knee invitingly, "you must be my boy now."
She took him up on her lap, and made him lean against her. Something in her eyes must have won him, for he did not generally condescend to notice her; but to-day, whether from a certain unexplainable void in his own little heart, or because his sister looked so very lovingly at him, she could not tell, but he nestled his little head against her so confidingly, that Ada felt it very difficult to go on with her story. At last she said, looking up at them: