"Oh yes!" said the child; "you could not find an excellenter boy anywhere, I'm sure. He's so patient and so happy; and he never frets or is cross, though he has a great deal of pain to bear. And if he's tired of being in one place, he cannot move himself, but has to wait till some one comes to roll his chair. Sometimes he and his mother and sister used to be hungry too, and did not have enough bread to eat; and, do you b'lieve, not a bit of butter on it! But Aunt Helen found that out, and she takes care of them now, and finds work for Mrs. Bent and Mary, so they need never be hungry any more, or cold either. And mamma helps them too; so they're rather com'fable now."
"Your Jemmy seems to have found good friends," said Kate. "And so you and Maggie earned his easy-chair for him; and now you want to earn this hospital-bed for him, do you?"
"Oh, so much!" The tone said as much as the words, as did the glowing cheeks and wistful eyes. There could be no doubt that the wish was heartfelt; and Kate, taking the earnest little face between her hands, kissed it warmly, and said,—
"You're a darling, and Maggie's another. I think your mother has a pair of you."
"Yes," said Bessie innocently; "and there are two more pair of us, Harry and Fred, and Frankie and baby."
The girls laughed again; and Kate, catching the child up in her arms, began to dance with her about the room, which was the signal for a general frolic that lasted till Jane came to take the children home.
CHAPTER VI.
BELLE.
"Yes indeed, mamma! I must, I must have that prize for composition," said Maggie, after she and Bessie had told their mother of all the events of the morning.
"And do all the others think they must have it too, Maggie?"