"Nonsense! Is this some kind of joke?" demanded Rector.
"It's no joke, Ned. I mean it."
"But what—why—"
"I'll tell you, boys."
"Don't tell us. We can't bear to hear disagreeable things," mourned Stacy.
"Go on, Tad, we want to know," urged Walter.
"Well, the whole thing is that Mother isn't well. She hasn't been well all winter. She is not so well now as she was a month ago, and—"
Tad swallowed and moistened his lips with his tongue.
"I couldn't think of leaving her alone, just now; no, not for anything."
"Then you won't go?" questioned Stacy.