"But what?" said Julia, as the child hesitated. "Have you a hope of winning the other from the whole school by being the best girl in it?"
"Not such a very hope," said Bessie; "but oh, I do wish so very, very much that Maggie or I could have it! I'd just as lief she'd have it, 'cause we'd both do the same with it."
"Then you know some child to whom you wish to give the bed in the hospital?" asked Kate.
"Yes," said Bessie; "and he deserves it very much. He is such a good boy, Miss Kate. If he had to earn it for himself, I know he'd get it. He is a great deal better than any one in this school."
"There's a compliment for us," said Fanny Berry.
"And he is a cripple, is he?" said Kate.
"Yes'm; shall I tell you about him?"
"Of course," answered Kate.
"His name is Jemmy Bent," said Bessie, "and, a good while ago, he fell off a stone wall and hurt his back very much, so he had to lie in bed all the time. He and his mother and his sister Mary live in a little red house by the creek that is near Riverside, where Grandpapa Duncan lives; and grandpapa and Aunt Helen are very good to him; and his mother wanted to buy a wheel-chair, so that he could be out in the nice air and sun; but she was too poor, and grandpapa let Maggie and me earn the chair for him. And since he had the chair, he has been better and stronger; and grandpapa thought if he could go where he would have very good care, perhaps he might be made quite well. So he took a doctor, who knew a great deal, to see Jemmy; and the doctor said he never would be very well, but he thought he could be cured so much that he could go about on crutches. But he said he must have care all the time, and be where he could be 'tended to every day. But he said he ought not to be brought to the city, 'cause he was used to living in the country, and it was better for him. So grandpapa wanted to put him into a country hospital, where they take lame children—maybe it was the very one the prize gentleman told us about; but it was so full they had no room for Jemmy. So he has to wait, and Maggie and I were very sorry about it. But Jemmy did not know what grandpapa tried to do, so he was not disappointed. It would be a very happy thing for Jemmy if he could ever be so well as to walk on crutches, for now he has to be wheeled about in his chair, and cannot take one step on his feet."
"And he is such a very good boy, is he?" said Kate, when Bessie, having talked herself out of breath, came to a pause.