"I can't," he said with a sigh, "I can't sit up the least little bit," and tears came into his eyes.
"Well, don't look so unhappy," said Chrissie, returning to her post at the window, "for they are coming in now, and mamma won't be pleased if she thinks I've let you get dull. There now, I hear them coming upstairs."
"All right," said Ferdy manfully, "I'm not going to look unhappy."
And it was quite a cheerful little face which met his mother's anxious glance as she opened the door to usher in Miss Lilly.
[CHAPTER V]
JESSE PIGGOT
Miss Lilly's face was cheerful too. At least so it seemed to Ferdy, for she was smiling, and immediately began speaking in a bright, quick way.
But Chrissie looked at her once or twice and "understood." She saw faint traces of tears having been very lately in her governess's kind eyes, and she heard a little tremble in the voice below the cheeriness. "My dear Ferdy," Miss Lilly was saying, "see what comes of holidays! Much better have lessons than accidents, but it's an ill wind that blows no good. We shall have famous time now for your favourite lessons—sums and—"