“I—I—I think you’re bully!” he broke out, and instantly turned his face to the wall and was still again. Laura slipped quietly out of the room. When she returned a few minutes later, she brought a supper tray.
“You and I are going to have supper here to-night, Jim,” she announced cheerfully, “because my father is away, and I should be lonesome all alone downstairs and you might be lonesome up here. You must have a famous appetite, you know, if you are to get well and strong for that Christmas party at the hospital.”
“I’m hungry, all right,” Jim declared, his eyes lingering on the tempting food so daintily served; but after all he did not eat very much.
After supper he lay quietly watching the leaping flames for a long time. Suddenly he broke the silence with a question.
“I’ll be back there then?”
“Back where, Jim? I don’t understand,” Miss Laura said.
“At the hospital—when we have that Christmas party.”
“Oh. Why, yes, of course, you and I will both be there.”
“Yes, but I mean—I mean——” Jim’s eyes were very anxious, “will I be back there to stay, or where will I be stayin’?”
Laura’s hand dropped softly over one of his and held it in a warm clasp. “No, Jim, you won’t go back there to stay—ever—not if you do your best to get well, as of course you are going to. I told you I would find a good home for you and I will, but there’s plenty of time to think of that before your two weeks here are over.”