Sliding glass doors led from the playroom upon a wide, unroofed piazza. And now, through the open doorway, a tall, slender woman led the long line of children, who limped or pushed themselves along on go-carts; only a few, even, of these stronger children could walk in the straight, free fashion in which ordinary boys and girls walk, when they have full use of their limbs.
“How happy they all look,” said Elsa; and indeed, the children’s faces, though in many cases thin and pathetic-looking, were sweet, patient and sunshiny.
“They always look just the same, every time I come here,” Alice said; then she ran off to speak with a little girl whom she remembered. Ben was already in a corner, surrounded by a group of boys.
While Miss Ruth went on talking with the head-nurse, Betty and Elsa forgot their shyness,—which was easy, because the children came crowding around them, with lively interest. To Betty, who was used to her own baby brother, the most natural thing to do seemed to be to sit down on the floor and play with the smallest ones. Elsa, heeding the “Go walk! Go walk!” of two little girls, wandered away with one holding fast to each hand. When the little girls grew tired, as they did quickly, Elsa came back to Miss Ruth’s side, with shining, eloquent gray eyes: “They are so friendly, the dear little things,” she said to Miss Ruth, then walked slowly away, with two other girls, to a group of children who were strapped down to go-carts, and flat upon their backs.
A mite of five years, with round blue eyes and a pale, patient face, held out both hands toward Elsa’s sunshiny yellow hair, saying “Pitty, O, pitty!” Just beyond, a little boy was turning his head toward the window. “What are you looking at?” Elsa asked, as she drew near.
“At the sky; it’s nice up there,” the boy answered contentedly.
By his side, on the next go-cart, a small girl was singing to herself a nursery-verse Elsa knew; so she stopped and joined in the singing:
“Come, little leaves,” said the wind one day,
“Come over the meadow with me and play;
Put on your dresses of red and gold,