“Will he live?” asked Betty.
“Perhaps so,” replied Dr. Markham. “It is a bad case, but he may pull through.”
CHAPTER XVIII
“DOAN’ YOU CRY, MISS BETTY!”
Some arrangements had to be made immediately for the family at Holly Lodge. It was found that, although the roof of the kitchen was burned off and the roof over Betty’s room was badly damaged, three rooms on the lower floor were uninjured, except by water. In the midst of the drenching rain, planks were nailed over the burned part of the roof, and the kitchen and Betty’s room were made temporarily habitable. Fortescue promptly invited the whole household over to Rosehill, and to bring Kettle with them where he could be nursed, but this was gratefully declined by the Colonel. It was certain that as soon as their plight was known all the neighbors and friends of the Holly Lodge family would offer refuge to them. But at present it was impossible to move Kettle.
When everything possible had been done, Fortescue said good-by, leaving a couple of his servants at Holly Lodge to do what was necessary. Colonel Beverley thanked Fortescue heartily, but that only hastened his departure. When he was gone, Betty went up to her room, from which the open sky was excluded by the planks nailed over the roof, and from which the floods of water had been wiped up and a great fire started. As she looked in her mirror, by the pale light of a cloudy morning, she realized that it was Christmas day. The thought gave her a shock; she had forgotten it until then. She took off her simple evening gown, which was torn and muddy and stained, removed the wreath from her head, and put on the plain black wool gown she wore every day. Then, going downstairs, she reduced things to order as much as possible. Some holly wreaths had been hung in the windows, and the Colonel’s portrait decorated with the usual laurel leaves, and the little gifts for Christmas were in a cupboard in the sitting-room. The Colonel was sitting before the great fire, looking so pale and spent that Betty’s heart was moved for him. She went up to him, and, kissing him softly, said:
“Granddaddy, have you forgotten that this is Christmas morning?”
“Indeed I had, my dear,” answered the Colonel. “It has been such a terrible Christmas morning, and that poor little black boy suffers so that it put everything else out of my mind.”
