“O, Anna, you’ll never have any more fun then,” protested Rusty.
“Junior’s all the fun I want,” returned Anna rather shyly.
“Well, anyhow, the boys can mind him this afternoon?”
“They could, but I don’t believe they will. Frank’s mad with me because I won’t let him use the perambulator.”
Rusty appealed to her mother.
“I’m afraid it’s no use, Rusty,” returned Mrs. Miller. “Frank’s a good boy, but when he gets a contrary streak, he isn’t to be coaxed. And I shouldn’t like to make him mind the baby, for fear he might turn against him, and it’s good for the boys to love him as they do now. But I’ll look after him myself. He’s no trouble at all; he’s just company for me.”
She sighed.
“I’m sorry I didn’t make more of him when he first came,” she owned. “Anna won’t let me do anything for him except in school hours, and I want her to get into the notion of leaving him to me and getting out more herself. It was really for her sake that I sort of hardened my heart against the baby in the first place,—I felt it was too much for her.”
Rusty kissed her mother and said she would try to see what she could do with Frank. She sought out her brother.
“Frank, you and Freddy’ll mind the baby while Anna goes to Wenham with me to meet Reuben, won’t you?” she begged. “You know I’ve been away so long you haven’t had a chance to do anything for me for weeks and weeks.”