“What have you done all the time, dear?” asked her mother.
“I’ll tell you some time, Mother,” said Mary Frances.
“Another secret?” asked her mother.
“I guess it is,” remarked Billy. “She has been as good and quiet as a mouse most of the time up in the sewing room. She says she has been practicing knitting. If she has been practicing all this while, she must know a lot by now.”
Her mother smiled and patted her hand, and by that time they were at their own home.
Katie was at the door and was almost as glad as the children to see their father and mother.
“It seems so good to have you all home,” she said, “that now life will be worth the living of it.”
All tried to help make the invalid comfortable, and the children left him to take a little nap before lunch.