“But, Miss Laura, why can’t we all ‘adopt’ him?” Frances pleaded. “I’d so much rather have him than any baby. And there are always people ready to adopt pretty blue-eyed baby girls, but they don’t want just boys—like Jim.”
“That’s true,” Alice Reynolds agreed. “My mother is a director at the Orphan Asylum, and she says nine out of ten who go there for a child to adopt, want a pretty baby girl.”
“But you can find some other boy for the Camp Fire,” Miss Laura returned.
“Not another Jim. Please share him with us, anyhow, Miss Laura,” Alice urged.
“I don’t want to be selfish about it,” Laura replied, “but somehow Jim has crept into my heart and I thought I would take him for my own special Camp Fire ‘service.’ And perhaps the other girls won’t be willing to give up their pretty baby.”
“I—I’d hate to, though I like Jim too,” Rose admitted.
“You couldn’t make pretty lacey dresses for Jim,” Laura reminded her with a little laugh. “Rose is hankering for a live doll to dress, girls, so you’d better wait and see what the others say about it.”
“When can Jim leave the hospital?” Alice inquired.
“To judge from his face when I left him, he will get well quickly, now,” Miss Laura answered.
And he did. The next time she went to see him, he welcomed her with a beaming smile. “I’m getting well,” he exulted. “She says I can sit up to-morrow,” he nodded towards the nurse.