Cousin Becky's champions

by Eleanora H. Stooke

COUSIN BECKY TAKEN INTO CONFIDENCE

ALL was bustle and confusion at the Rookery when Edgar was brought home, for the news of the accident had so frightened Mrs. Marsh that she had been utterly incapable of giving any instructions to the servants, and, at the sight of her son's unconscious form, she had become so completely unnerved that the doctor, seeing that he could not rely upon her for assistance, had requested her to remain downstairs until he had satisfied himself as to the extent of Edgar's injuries. At the present moment the unhappy mother, overcome with grief and suspense, was pacing up and down the hall, waiting for news of her boy—Edgar had been conveyed to his own bedroom—and bemoaning her inexperience of sickness and her lack of self-control.

"It terrified me to see his dear face looking so deathly," she wailed, when one of the servants ventured a word of consolation. "I could not help crying out. Who's that? There's someone at the front door."

As she spoke the front door opened, and Cousin Becky and Mr. Trent entered, their faces expressive of the greatest concern and sympathy. Cousin Becky had come to know if she could be of any assistance, "for I have seen much sickness and I am really a capital nurse," she explained as Mrs. Marsh regarded her more than a little doubtfully.

"How good of you to come!" Mrs. Marsh replied, much touched. "They have taken my poor boy upstairs, but the doctor will not allow me in his room because I cannot help crying—I fear I am very foolish. Oh, Cousin Becky, I am so thankful you are here."

Cousin Becky divested herself of her bonnet and cloak, and handed them to a servant; then she turned again to Mrs. Marsh, and said: "I am going upstairs at once to offer my services as a nurse. Your brother will remain with you, for I know he will not return to Princess Street until he has heard the doctor's report."

"I will show you Edgar's room," Mrs. Marsh said, and she preceded the old lady upstairs. On the first landing she pointed to a closed door, and whispered: "In there."

Cousin Becky nodded; and Mrs. Marsh watched her as she quietly opened the door and entered the sick room. The next moment the door was closed again; and, though the anxious mother listened attentively, no sound reached her ears; so, very sick at heart, she went downstairs and joined her brother. She was much calmer now, and able to discuss what had happened; she admitted that Edgar had been forbidden to visit the clay works.

"Roger was with him and witnessed the accident," Mr. Trent informed her. "It has been a great shock to him, as you may imagine. It appears he asked Edgar to accompany him to see a new shaft which had lately been opened; he did not know Edgar had been told not to go there. Oh, Janie, thank God your boy was not killed! He might have been, indeed it was marvellous he was not. Fortunately his fall was broken by a wide piece of timber which spanned the shaft, and a man who was standing on the timber at work caught him, or he would have rebounded and fallen to the bottom of the pit. I heard all about it from another man who was at work in the same shaft. Come, try not to cry any more, but pluck up your heart, for there is every reason to hope that Edgar is not very seriously hurt. He will have the best that human skill can do for him; and he is in God's care, dear Janie, don't forget that."

Mrs. Marsh's tears continued to flow, but her brother's words comforted her, and her face brightened as she remarked: "It was very good of Cousin Becky to come to us in our trouble."