So Doodles sang again, one hymn after another, in response to her repeated demands.
“I wish Jim could ’a’ heard that,” she sighed, as the last notes of “The Ninety and Nine” dropped into silence. “Poor Jim—all alone!” With half-shut eyes she rambled on reminiscently. “Why didn’t I go when he wrote he was first violin in the orchestra! If I only had! But I never dreamed—I never dreamed anything would happen! I wanted to stay and earn a little more, just a little more—for the baby’s stone. She’ll have it now—she and Jim together. Carbury said there was enough—glad I got it! Carbury’ll see it’s done right—he said he would—always does as he says. Wish I could be there too! I do want to lie side o’ Jim and the baby! Never mind! I shall see them! ’T won’t be long! Seem’s if I couldn’t wait! I’ll tell him how sorry I am I didn’t go—he was always good to me! If I’d only been there! I wish—” A fit of coughing interrupted her broken talk, and when it was over she lay exhausted on her rumpled pillow.
Blue fidgeted about on the trunk, and looked undecidedly over at Doodles; but the little brother sat motionless, gazing at the sick woman with sad, anxious eyes.
She was a girlish slip of a creature, with a face that might have been beautiful but for its lines of suffering. Presently she roused.
“Oh, it’s you!” she smiled. “I thought it was Somerby—I hate Somerby! Please sing some more—I guess you sung me to sleep. I feel quite rested.”
Only a moment Doodles paused; then he began the old, old hymn, “Jesus, Lover of My Soul.”
The woman lay with close-shut eyes, and once the singer halted, thinking she might be drowsing; but she looked up quickly, with a “Go on! Don’t stop!” and he sang it through to the end.
“Lamb of God” and “Pass Me Not” left her still begging for more, and Doodles kept on until he knew by her breathing that she was really asleep.
Shortly, however, she awoke, and surprised him by asking abruptly, “Should you like a fiddle?”
“Oh, wouldn’t I!” exclaimed Doodles. “Christarchus let me use his as long as he stayed; but he’s gone, and I can’t play any more,” he ended plaintively.