One room, that to which they were admitted, served for kitchen, living room and bedroom, and with a loft overhead and a shed behind, comprised the whole house.
The first object that met their eyes on entering was the sick woman lying on a bed in one corner; the first sound that saluted their ears her hollow cough. She was very pale, and so emaciated that she seemed to be nothing but skin and bone.
“How are you this morning, Mrs. Jones?” the captain asked in kindly sympathizing tones, as he drew near the bed and took the bony hand she feebly held out to him.
“P’raps a leetle better, cap’n,” she answered pantingly. “I slep’ so good and warm under these awful nice blankets you sent fur Chris-mus; an’ the jelly an’ cream an’ t’other goodies—oh, but they was nice! I can’t never pay you fur all yer goodness—no, nor the half o’ it; but the good Lord—he’ll make it up to you somehow or other.
“An’ ye’ve brung yer leetle gal to see me? that’s kind, Mandy, set the cheer fur the gentleman—we ain’t got but one, cap’n—an’ find somethin’ fur her to set on, Mandy.”
“There, I cayn’t talk no more, me breath’s clean gone.”
“No, you shouldn’t try to talk,” the captain said, taking the chair that “Mandy” had set for him after wiping the dust from it with a very greasy, dirty apron. “And don’t trouble yourself, Amanda, to find a seat for my little girl; she is used to this one and likes it better than any other, I believe,” he added with a tenderly affectionate smile into Lulu’s eyes as he drew her to his knee.
“Yes, that I do,” returned Lulu, emphatically, glancing proudly from her father to Amanda, who stood regarding them in open-mouthed astonishment.
“Well, I never!” she ejaculated the next moment. “Wouldn’t I be s’prised out’n a year’s growth ef pap should act that a-way to me? And I shouldn’t like it nuther; the furder I kin git away from the likes o’ him the better, I think, so I do.”
The mother turned her face away with a groan.