“Please do, Warren, in an hour of need, as I am very lonely—mother sick, and she is my only companion except the servants.”
They came to a cross road that was nearer for Paul to reach home and he sprang lightly out and ran swiftly home with his game.
Nettie’s homeward journey came to an end in due season, nothing happening of any account worth mentioning. As she came sooner than her mother expected her she was surprised to see her child back again.
In less than a week after greetings were exchanged and many questions asked about distant friends the mother said, “Why, Nettie my child, why did you not stay longer? I did not expect you for two weeks at least.”
CHAPTER V.
“Oh, mother, I could not stay away any longer from you. It seemed a long time to me.”
“Why, my child, in your letter you said you was happy and would stay two weeks, as your uncle and cousins would not take ‘no’ for an answer and wished we should come and live with them; and I was nearly making up my mind to go up there for a while and see the country. Perhaps it would be agreeable to my health.”
The mother was viewing her child critically while speaking. Noticing Nettie’s face changing from a bright crimson hue to a pale color, and not answering her, she said, “Has my little girl quarreled with anyone out there and come home angry?”
“No, no mother,” answered Nettie.