"I shall ask God to make him well," Theodore declared earnestly. "I prayed to God yesterday to take away Jack's pain, and He did."
During the days which followed, Theodore was tempted many times to repeat what his father had told him about the London doctor; but, mindful of his promise, he refrained, though every one could see that he was in a great state of excitement about something.
Although Jack was much pulled down after his severe attack of illness, he was slowly yet surely regaining his usual amount of strength, and his mother's pale face grew less anxious as she saw that this was so. She was considerably surprised when her husband informed her he had again sent for the famous London doctor to see her little son, and enquired tremulously if he considered him worse. But being reassured on that point, she was quite satisfied, and put no further questions.
When she went upstairs to Jack's room to inform him that a visitor was coming to see him, she found the two boys together. Jack had not yet been allowed to leave his bed to be dressed; but he lay posted up comfortably with pillows, holding an animated conversation with Theodore, who sat astride the footboard of the bed. He sprang off as his stepmother entered the room, and stood looking a little embarrassed, as he often did in her presence.
She advanced to the bed, and sat down on a chair, glancing smilingly from one boy to the other.
"You seem very merry," she said. "I hope I have not come to disturb you?"
"Oh, no, mother!" Jack answered promptly, looking at her brightly and lovingly. "Theodore was telling me about an adventure he had yesterday. May I tell mother, Theo?"
"If you like," Theodore replied, a trifle ungraciously.
"He was chased by a big calf," Jack said, with a laugh. "He thought it was a bull, and he was so frightened that he ran into the stream at the bottom of the lower meadow!"
"It was a yearling," Theodore explained hurriedly. "I heard it bellow, and I didn't stop to look around, but ran as fast as ever I could, without looking where I was going. Father saw me, and called to me to stop."