“You are tired, and no wonder. You look sick. Yes, I’ll stay. I think, on the whole, I’d better.”
Betsey did not say that it was Mrs Fleming she had been thinking of when she hesitated. She took off her bonnet and prepared to stay.
“I made up my mind to be here to-night as soon as I heard that your father wasn’t well. I thought once I’d go home and come back after sundown, but it doesn’t matter about going. They’ll know why I stay, and I guess likely Ben will come along over after milking is done.”
“Is there no one we could get to help your mother and Cynthia for a few days? I would send anywhere for help to them if you could only stay with me till—”
“Oh, I guess they’ll get along, and Hepsey Bean is near by. If they get into a fix they can send for her. I’ll stay anyway. Isn’t your brother Clifton round?”
“No, he went to the city yesterday; he left before we thought my father worse. I hope he will be home to-morrow.”
“Well, I hope he will, and I guess he’d better stay a spell next time he comes.”
Elizabeth had been up for the night, and after a visit to her father, who was still sleeping quietly, Betsey persuaded her to go and lie down, promising to call her at the turn of the night, or sooner if there should be any change. Elizabeth was glad to go, for she was very tired.
“I feel so safe in leaving him with you, cousin,” said Elizabeth, the tears starting in her eyes. “You must not think that I am always so—downhearted, but I feel as if I might give way—as if I might lay a little of my burden on you, and—”
“And so you may, with no if about it, only there is a better place to lay it, as you don’t need me to tell you by this time. She thinks she knows what trouble is, and perhaps she does,” continued Betsey as she followed Elizabeth with her thoughts. “For trouble is just as folks take it, and she has been pretty tenderly dealt with hitherto. But I guess she is not one that trouble can do any real harm to. The Lord sees it all, and she is in His hand, and I needn’t worry about her. She’ll be kept safe through it all.”