CHAPTER VI.
SUNSHINE.
Mrs. Dean had taken entire charge of the invalid and the house, and so many of the neighbors insisted on aiding her that Gladys and Seth were pushed aside as if they had been strangers.
At midnight, when one of the volunteer nurses announced that Aunt Hannah was resting as comfortably as could be expected under the circumstances, Gladys, in obedience to Mrs. Dean’s peremptory command, went to bed; but Seth positively refused to leave the kitchen.
“Somethin’ that I could do might turn up, an’ I count on bein’ ready for it,” he said when the neighbor urged him to lie down. “Snip an’ I’ll stay here; an’ if we get sleepy, what’s to hinder our takin’ a nap on the couch?”
So eager was the boy for an opportunity to serve Aunt Hannah that he resolutely kept his eyes open during the remainder of the night lest the volunteer nurses should fail to waken him if his services were needed; and to accomplish this he made frequent excursions out of doors, where the wind swept the “sand” from his eyes.
With the first light of dawn he set about effacing so far as might be possible all traces of fire from the kitchen, and was washing the floor when Mrs. Dean came out from the foreroom.
“Well, I do declare!” she exclaimed in surprise. “Hannah Morse said you was a handy boy ’round the house, but this is a little more’n I expected. I wish my William could take a few lessons from you.”
“I didn’t count on gettin’ the floor very clean,” Seth replied modestly, but secretly delighted with the unequivocal praise. “If the oil and smut is taken off it’ll be easier to put things into shape.”
“You’re doin’ wonderfully, my boy, an’ when I tell Hannah Morse, she’ll be pleased, ’cause a speck of dirt anywhere about the house does fret her mortally bad.”