"To be sure he had," returned the brother with animation; "but then so can I work, and so can I study; I am not afraid of either. Did not I walk ten miles yesterday, when I went that errand for the squire, because he said he would give me a quarter of a dollar? and here it is," he added, taking the money out of his pocket, and looking at it with great complacency, "and I mean to get up by day break in the morning, and go to buy a book with it that I saw the other day, and that I want to read; I can get it, I think, for a quarter of a dollar. And I'll tell you another thing, Sally; I expect by the time I have finished my month of schooling, you will be a great deal stronger than you are now, and then I can teach you every thing that I have learnt, and we shall be so happy—shan't we, Sally?" Sally smiled assent, but it was a languid smile, for the ardour of her youthful mind was checked by the enfeebling influence of disease.
The next morning Sally felt very forcibly the ill effects of her imprudence in sitting on the damp grass the night before; and though she still recollected the severe manner in which her mother had reproved her, she could not but be conscious that the reproof was deserved. This made her very unwilling to complain, though she rose with a severe pain in her side, a burning fever in her veins, and a cough which was always troublesome, but was now more than usually distressing. Determined, however, not to complain, and anxious, if possible, to conceal her indisposition, she prepared to assist her mother in every way in her power; and though she felt it would be impossible for her to stand at the washing tub, she washed and dressed her little sisters, prepared the breakfast, and did a variety of offices equally useful, and was in hopes it would escape the observation of every one, that what she did was performed under the pressure of more pain and debility than usual. She was assisted in this concealment by the absence of George, who had not, at breakfast time, returned from the town to which he had gone for the purchase of the book of which he had spoken the evening before; for had he been present, his watchful eye, she well knew, would soon have discovered the oppression under which she laboured. Breakfast, however, was entirely over before he returned, and when he did come, he only stayed to eat a piece of dry bread and take a drink of water, a kind of fare which would at any time have been sufficient to satisfy him, but which he had now become extremely fond of, since he found that Franklin ascribed so much of his alacrity in business, and his facility in study, to his adherence to that simple diet; and then hastened to assist his father in the field. Sally sometimes almost persuaded herself that her little pet Croppy saw and understood that all was not right with his young mistress; for instead of frisking about the common as usual with the little girls, he kept almost constantly trotting by her side, every now and then rubbing his little head tenderly against her, and appearing quite happy when she stooped down to pat his head and speak to him in a tone of kindness. Yet even this slight indulgence seemed almost more than she had either time or spirits to bestow, and the continual repetition of Sally do this, and Sally do that, kept her incessantly occupied till late in the afternoon, when the chief of the business being over, and she too much exhausted to support herself any longer on her feet, had just sunk upon a seat, and was patting the head which Croppy had come and laid on her lap, when her father and brothers returned from the field. "Sally," said the farmer, in a tone of reproach, "you sit patting that lamb as if there was nothing else to be done. Come, girl," he continued, taking up a milking bucket as he spoke, "get your bucket, and let us go and milk the cows." George, who, at the moment his father spoke, had taken up his newly purchased treasure, and had got half across the room on the way to his private retreat, cast a glance at his sister, and perceiving in an instant that she was ill, he threw down his book, and saying, "Sit still, Sally, for I am going to milk this evening," he took the bucket and hastened after his father. Sally's heart glowed with affection and gratitude. She had always loved her brother, but never had he been half so dear to her as at this moment. "Croppy, you must love George for being so kind to your mistress," said she, addressing herself to the lamb for want of a more sympathizing auditor, "you must love George for my sake;" and she watched for his return, impatient to let him know that she understood and felt his kindness.
At length, the business of milking over, George again appeared, but no longer with the glow of animation on his countenance with which he had returned from his day's labour, nor yet with the spirit and alacrity with which he had left the house on his office of kindness. "Is he sorry now, that he went?" thought Sally, as she examined his countenance. "Has he begun to think what a great deal he might have read in the time that he has been milking?" "Why don't you go to your book now, George?" asked she, as she saw that, after disposing of the milk bucket, her brother placed himself at the end of the large table, on which he put up his arm, and rested his head upon it with a look of great distress. "Why don't you go and read now?" again she inquired; "there is nothing to hinder you now."
"Because I don't want to," answered George, in a tone very different from his usual cheerful, good tempered voice.
"George, come here beside me," said Sally, tenderly, for she began to feel alarmed at the expression of her brother's countenance.
"Oh! I can't," returned the boy; "do let me alone, I don't want to speak."
Sally's eyes filled with tears. "He is vexed at me," thought she, "for he thinks I am always in the way of his improving himself." George got up and moved towards the stairs. "You are leaving your book behind you, George," said Sally, glad to think that he was going at last to his favourite employment. "I don't want it," he replied; "I am going to bed."
"George, do tell me what is the matter before you go; are you sick?"
"No, I am not sick, but I don't want to talk; so do let me alone." So saying, he went to bed, and Sally soon after retired also, but not to sleep. Uneasiness at the sudden and unaccountable change in her brother's manner, added double violence to the disease which was throbbing in her veins; and after a restless and sleepless night, she attempted to rise in the morning, but finding herself entirely unable to do so, she was obliged to lay her head again upon her pillow. "Aye, this is just what I thought would be the case," said her mother, who coming up to see why Sally had not made her appearance, found her too ill to sit up; "I told you what you would bring upon yourself by playing and idling your time away with that little useless pet lamb of yours." Mrs. Early did not mean to be an unkind mother, but she, like many other people, had an unfortunate manner of showing her affection, and generally vented the uneasiness which the sight of her daughter's indisposition occasioned, in a tone of reproach, for which she had not always so much cause as on the present occasion.
"I know I was wrong, mother, for sitting upon the grass," said Sally, mildly, "but say no more about it, for it cannot be helped; and ask George to come up and see me."