“Splendid! Simply splendid!” cried Mr. Prouty. “We will be the only parish of our size in the State to have a visiting nurse of our own.” He saw himself at the next diocesan meeting the center of a group of envious clergymen, expounding to them the ingenious devices by which this remarkable result had been achieved. He had had a good deal of this sort of gratification since the Knapps had moved into his parish.
Chapter 4
“Who swoon in sleep and awake wearier.”
As he woke up, Lester Knapp heard the words in the air as he so often heard poetry,
“... and awake wearier!”
He was tired to the bone. He would have given anything in the world to turn over, bury his face in the pillow and swoon to sleep again.
And never wake up!
But the alarm-clock had rung, and Evangeline had risen instantly. He heard her splashing in the bathroom now.
With an effort as though he were struggling out of smothering black depths, he sat up and swung his feet over the edge of the bed. Gosh! How little good he seemed to get from his sleep. He was tireder when he woke up than when he went to bed.
On the cot opposite little Stephen lay sleeping as vigorously as he did everything, one tightly clenched small fist flung up on his pillow. What a strong, handsome kid he was. Whatever could be the matter with him to make him act so like the devil? Strange to see a little kid like that, so hateful, seem to take such a satisfaction in raising hell.