"You want her, Dick?" said his mother, amazed.
"Oh, she's not a bad kid," Dick said. "I give you an awful lot of work now, and she'd save you a bit. And she wants to come ever so. Might as well let her, don't you think?"
Mrs. Lester looked at her husband uncertainly.
"If you want her I expect you can have her, old son," he said. "I'll see what her father and mother say."
He went out, leaving Dick and his wife alone. A small, sobbing figure crept after him.
Dick looked at his mother steadily.
"I say, mother—am I getting better?"
"Why, of course you are, old man," she said brightly.
"When am I going to sit up?" It was the question she had long dreaded, and she was ready for it.
"When your back strengthens sufficiently. You must give it time, beloved."