"Now, father, thee's had thy turn, and must go right out and let
Richard take his breakfast and his medicine. I'm bent on making Dr.
Bates say I'm the best nurse in town, and between such a lively patient
and such a lively family I have a hard time of it."
"Well, thee knows I always mind, mother," said the old gentleman, putting on a rueful look. "I do it, thee knows, to set the children an example. Good-by now; mother will make thee as hearty as I am if thee'll mind her."
"Oh, I'm well enough to see everybody to-day," I said with emphasis, and I imagine that Mrs. Yocomb gave as definite a meaning to my indefinite term as I did.
"No one can stay long yet, but if thee continues to improve so nicely, we can move thee downstairs part of the day before very long."
"At that prospect I'll mind as well as Mr. Yocomb himself," I cried gladly. "Mr. Yocomb, they are spoiling me. I feel like a great petted boy, and behave like one, I fear; but having never been ill, I don't know how to behave."
"Thee's doing very well for a beginner. Keep on—keep on," and his genial visage vanished from the doorway.
After I had my breakfast, Zillah flitted in and out with her mother two or three times.
"Mother says I can look at thee, but I mustn't talk;" and she wouldn't.
Then Adah, with her wide-brimmed hat hanging on her arm, brought me a dainty little basket of wild strawberries.
"I promised to gather them for thee," she said, placing them on my table.