“He gave his head a little shake, just as he used to when he wasn’t certain about a thing, and said,
“‘I don’t think much about going to that home, Aunt Letty; I’m a little boy, you know, to have an arm cut off, and mine isn’t doing very well, I know from the doctor’s looks. But it will all come out right;’ and such a smile as there was on his face. ‘And now, dear aunty, give me another kiss, and I’ll turn over and go to sleep again; and I wish you could too, you look so tired.’
“I told him I wasn’t tired, and then I shook up his pillow, and he turned over and went right to sleep like the lamb he is.
“All this while there had been a pair of great black eyes watching me ever so wishfully the other side of the room; so when Willie was asleep, I thought I’d find out who they belonged to. I went over to the bed, and found a poor young fellow eighteen years old, who looked as if he couldn’t live twenty-four hours.
“‘Is there any thing I can do for you?’ said I, for I felt awfully to see him lie there looking so pitiful.
“‘O yes, ma’am,’ said he; ‘if you will only speak a few kind words to me, and smooth my hair as you did little Willie’s, it would do me so much good. I thought when I saw you kiss his forehead, if my mother could only come and do that, it would be easier to die.’
“‘Well, my dear boy,’ said I, ‘I a’n’t your mother, nor any of your relation; but I’m a fellow-creature, and I feel for you, and am willing to do any thing I can to make you comfortable.’
“So I got some bay-rum from a nurse, and bathed his hot hands and face, and brushed his hair and smoothed his pillow, and then I gave him just such a kiss as I did Willie, and I a’n’t ashamed to own it. The big tears were in his eyes, and he said,
“‘I didn’t think any thing in the world could do me so much good. It seems as if mother was here, and I thank you a thousand times.’
“Then I asked him if there was any thing more he wanted, and what do you think he said?