THE SOLDIER.
FOR several days Mrs. Frost was very ill. The doctor came regularly morning and evening, and pronounced her case a critical one. Mrs. Dobbs looked pale and careworn; Jane, sorrowful, and Helen, with an increasing weight on her conscience, peevish and irritable.
The poor girl believed that her conduct had induced the old woman's sickness, and might be the means of her death; but this she kept strictly in her own breast, only replying to Jane's constant inquiries, "I am homesick."
At length the worst symptoms began to abate. The invalid's appetite returned, and hope was entertained that she would recover from this attack.
Mrs. Dobbs was unwearied in her care and tenderness. Mr. Dobbs searched the market for game and other dainties to tempt the palate of his sick guest. Jennie ran up and down stairs with new alacrity; sacrificing her own wishes to the happiness of the old woman. Helen only remained gloomy and restless.
"What can it mean?" she asked herself one day, when she overheard Mrs. Dobbs praising the servants for their ready assistance during their late affliction, adding that five dollars had been added to the credit of each of them. "What reason have they for treating her so well? If it was their own mother, they couldn't do more."
Since that eventful day when she had gone uninvited into the sick room, she had never entered there; but now, one morning, Jane came running to find her, saying, "Grandma Frost asked for you; she wants to see you!"
"I wont go!" exclaimed Helen, blushing violently. "If you and your family choose to run at her beck and call, you may; but I sha'n't."
"Why, Helen!" cried her friend, regarding her with surprise. "What does make you so prejudiced against grandma?"
"Who is in there?" inquired the young girl, without replying.