“Nell, it would add much to your already full hands. It hardly seems fair to you,” Austin said hesitatingly.
“I would certainly count it a great favor. As soon as I could I would end things up here and come to Weston with the others, and perhaps could find a way to care for them,” said their uncle.
“We can not go away and leave the little things without some one to look after them,” said Nell decidedly. So it was planned that Austin and Nell should take the three younger ones home with them. The oldest of the three was only six, and the baby was less than two years old. Nell did not realize then what she was undertaking. Their friends at Weston lifted their hands in dismay when they saw the increase in Austin’s family. “Is the boy mad to undertake such a thing?” some of them asked. But Austin and Nell plodded on doing their best with their new responsibilities. It was already late in the week when they came home. The next Sunday morning Austin came into his place in Sunday-school with little John on his arm and with another tiny toddler at his side.
A few weeks passed by and their uncle came with the three older children. He seemed to drop them with a sigh of relief at Austin’s door. Though it had been understood that the arrangement was only temporary, it was soon seen that Uncle Philip felt little more responsibility when he once had the children under Austin’s hand.
Now, Nell was an authoritative little body, bearing, as she had, responsibilities all too heavy for a child. Lila and Doyle had found that she was an exacting mistress, and often even Austin had been puzzled to know how to curb and direct her authoritative inclinations. The coming of the three little ones had not been so hard, for the natural mother-instinct in her enjoyed caring for their helplessness. But Helen and her two brothers was another proposition entirely. She felt from the first that it was too much, and as her authority was completely set aside by her mischievous young cousins, they kept her in a continual ferment. Austin could not turn the children out of the house, nor could he prevail on his uncle to find homes for them.
At last Austin saw that the burden was entirely too much for his sister and that her health as well as her nerves and temper were breaking under it, and he demanded action of his uncle.
“Something will have to be done, or my home will be broken up. I can not keep house without Nell, and she will not stay with me much longer. Helen and Lila can not get along, and the boys are a constant source of annoyance to Nell. I can not be there and attend to my work also, and I never leave the house but they get into some kind of a brawl. You will have to do something, or I will.” This brought his uncle to action; but a half dozen children are not distributed in a day, if proper homes are found.
Austin could not even in his perplexity demand impossibilities of his uncle, and must wait as patiently as he could till the six were properly located. Nell wept at giving up the baby; but Austin saw it was too much for her to try to keep him. At last they were alone again, just the four of them about their home table. Sundays brought Harry and sometimes Amy to dinner with them. Not many weeks passed that some of Uncle Philip’s children were not with them for a meal or two, for to them Austin’s house seemed home.
Austin hoped that now the storm had passed Nell would be herself again. But in this he was mistaken. Her nerves had been under too great a strain for her to regain her composure. It was evident that she needed a rest and change.
“Nell, would you like to take a few weeks’ visit somewhere this summer, or a trip to some place of change and recreation?” asked Austin kindly one day.