We Ten Part 13

"He's been working like a slave over that beastly old Fetich," Phil said irritably, "as if he was _bound_ to get it finished."

I knew he was cross because he was scared about papa, and sorry for him; but Nora didn't seem to guess that,--she doesn't see through things like that as Nannie does,--and now she just put up her eyebrows as if surprised, and said, "Why, isn't that what you all wanted,--to have the Fetich finished?"

Phil got red in the face, and he made a step nearer the drawing-room door. "That was a mean speech, Nora," he said in a low, angry voice.

_I_ think it was mean, too; but perhaps it was because she felt badly about papa that Nora spoke so,--as nurse says, different people have different ways of showing their feelings,--for she put out her hand and commenced, quickly, "I didn't mean to hurt--"

But while she was speaking, Nannie came out of the study. "Oh, Phil,"

she said, as soon as she saw him, "come right in here, won't you? the doctor says we must get papa to bed as quickly as possible, and you can help us."

Phil flung his books on the hat-rack table, and followed her into the room at once, and they shut the study door.

It opened again, though, in a minute or two, and out came Miss Marston, just in time to catch Alan as he rushed along the hall, away from Betty, who was in hot pursuit. "What are _you_ doing down here?" demanded Miss Marston, severely.

"They're all here," Alan paused to explain, rather defiantly, whereupon Betty pounced on him.

Miss Marston held a hot-water bottle in her hand; she was on her way to the kitchen, but she stopped to speak to the children,--for at the sound of her voice Nora had opened the drawing-room doors, and Kathie, Paul, and Madel had tumbled out into the hall in a body. "This will never do,"

Miss Marston said, "racing about the halls while your father is so ill!

Can't you find something for them to do, Nora? Take them to the nursery, or the schoolroom, and give each--"

I didn't wait to hear the rest. I was afraid she'd see me, and remember that old Latin, so I scooted up the back stairs as hard as I could go; you see she wouldn't have taken into account that I was waiting down there in case I was wanted for an errand.

It was as I got up near Fee's room that I began to wonder where he was, and why he hadn't been downstairs with the rest of us; he must have wanted to know how papa was, I thought. I looked in the schoolroom, but he wasn't there,--the place had a deserted appearance! Then I ran down again and peeped into his room, and just think! there, flat on the floor, with his feet barely inside the doorway, lay Felix!

I was so astonished and so scared--it's a serious matter for Fee to fall, you know (he hasn't really been himself, I mean not as strong, since that day in the schoolroom, when Alan upset him)--that when I cried out, "Oh, _Fee!_ did you fall? have you hurt yourself?" and knelt down by him, I hardly knew what I was saying or doing.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "'OH, _FEE!_ DID YOU FALL? HAVE YOU HURT YOURSELF?'"]

"Shut the door," Felix said; he spoke slowly, as if he were very tired.

His face looked badly, too,--pale, and with black rings under his eyes away below his gla.s.ses. And there was something in the way he lay there--a limpness and helplessness--that somehow frightened me, and made me feel right away as if I ought to call nurse or somebody. But I know Fee likes to have people do as he tells them, so first I shut the door tight, then I came back and knelt down by him again. "Hadn't I better help you up, Fee?" I asked, "or shall I call"--I was going to say "Nannie or Phil," but remembered they were helping papa, and ended up with "somebody?"

But Felix only said, "How's father? Tell me about him."

He listened to all I could tell about papa; then, when I had finished, he threw his arms wide apart on the floor with a groan, and rolled his head impatiently from side to side. I just _longed_ to do something for him,--dear old Fee!

"Don't you want to get up?" I asked again, in as coaxing a way as I could. "I could help you, you know, Fee; the floor is so hard for your back."

Then he told me. "Jack," he said, in a tired, hopeless voice that made a lump fly into my throat, "I'm in a pretty bad fix, I'm afraid; my poor old back and my legs have given out. I got a very queer feeling that time I sat down so suddenly on the steps, and after you'd gone 'twas all I could do to brace up and drag myself to this floor to call nurse. Then I crawled in here, and barely got inside the door when I collapsed. My legs gave way entirely, and down I tumbled just where you see me now."

He threw his arms out again, and twisted one of his hands in the fringe of the rug on which he was lying; then presently he went on: "Do you know why I'm still lying here? do you know why, Jack? because"--his voice shook so he had to stop for a minute--"because, from my waist down, I can't move my body at all. Unless somebody helps me, I'll have to lie here all night; _I'm perfectly helpless_!"

I'd been swallowing and swallowing while Fee was talking, but now I couldn't stand it any longer; I felt awfully unhappy, and I just _had_ to let the tears come. "It's that fall that's done it," I said, trying to wipe away the tears that came rus.h.i.+ng down,--it's so _girlie_ to cry!--"the day Alan upset you in the schoolroom! Oh, Fee, _do_ let me call somebody to help you! Phil's downstairs, you know; oh, and the doctor,--please, _please_ let me ask _him_ to come up! Oh, mayn't I?"

Felix put out his hand and patted my knee in a way that reminded me of Nannie; he doesn't usually do those things. "Don't cry, Jackie-boy," he said very gently, "and don't blame Alan,--I don't believe he touched me that day; I believe now that that was an attack similar to this, only not so severe. What'll the _next_ one be!" His voice began shaking again, but he went right on: "Now I want you to help me keep this thing quiet,--I was hoping you'd be the one to find me,--so that Nannie and the others won't have it to add to their anxiety while the _pater_ is ill. I'm afraid he's in a bad way; I don't like the doctor's sounding his heart,--that looks as if he suspected trouble there. He has been working like a slave ever since--oh, what _beasts_ we were to get up that Fetich joke! Poor old _pater_!" Felix folded his arms across his eyes and lay perfectly quiet; I _think_ I saw a tear run down the side of his face to his ear, but I won't be sure. That just brought that horrid lump right back into my throat, but I was determined I wouldn't break down again; so I got up, and taking a pillow from the bed, brought it over to slip under Fee's head,--the floor was _so_ hard you know.

This roused him. "You're not very big, Rosebud, but perhaps you can help me to get to bed," he said, trying to speak as if nothing had happened.

"I may feel better after I'm there; who knows but this attack may wear off in a day or two, as the other did."

He spoke so cheerfully that I began to feel better, too, and I flew around and did just as he told me. First I pulled his bed right close up to where Fee lay,--it's very light,--then I made a rope of his worsted afghan, and pa.s.sing it round the farthest bedpost, gave the ends to him; then, as he pulled himself up, I pushed him with all my might, and by and by he got on the bed. It was awfully hard to do, though, for the bed was on casters, and would slip away from us; but after a good while we succeeded.

"There, I feel a little better already!" he said, after I'd got him undressed. "That floor _was_ hard, and I was there some time; yes, I do feel a little better." He took hold of the railing at the head of the bed and pulled himself a little higher on the pillows.

"Perhaps you'll be all right again in a few days, same as the last time," I suggested.

Fee's face brightened up. "That's so,--perhaps I shall," he said. "Why, Jack, you're almost as good a comforter as Nannie!" Then he took my hand as if he were going to shake hands, and holding it tight, went on with, "Now, Jack, I want you to promise me that you'll not speak about this attack of mine to _anybody_. As you say, I'll possibly--probably--be all over it in a few days, and there's too much sickness and trouble in the house already, without my adding to it. Promise me, Jack!" He gave my hand a little shake as he spoke.

But I hesitated; for, though now he seemed better, I couldn't get out of my mind how _awfully_ he had looked when I first found him,--and Fee isn't strong like the rest of us. But he shook my hand again two or three times, saying impatiently, "Why don't you promise? There's no harm in doing what I ask; think how worried and anxious Phil and Nannie are about papa!"

"Yes, presently," we heard Phil's voice say at the door at that very moment.

"Promise! _promise!_" repeated Felix, almost fiercely, and I got so nervous--Phil was coming right into the room--that I said, "All right, I promise," almost before I knew what I was saying. I got a frightened sort of feeling the moment the words were out of my mouth, that made me just wish I hadn't said them.

"Hullo! in bed? What's up?" asked Phil in surprise, as he walked up to Fee. "I wondered where you were." Then, without waiting for an answer, he sat down on the edge of the bed, and went on, in an excited tone of voice, "Did you hear about the _pater_? I tell you we've had our hands full downstairs; I'm afraid he's"--here Phil stopped and cleared his throat--"he's pretty low down. Dr. Archard as much as admitted it when I asked him to tell me the truth. It's that Fetich! He has been working over it like a galley slave, because--" Phil stopped again. He and Felix looked at each other; then, starting up, Phil walked over to the other side of the room, and stood with his hands in his pockets, staring at Fee's picture of the Good Shepherd which hangs on the wall there, and which he had seen scores of times before.

"Who's going to take care of father?" Felix asked presently, and that brought Phil back to his bedside.

"The doctor is going to send us a trained nurse this afternoon," he said; "but in the mean while Nannie and nurse are with him. Every time he became conscious he asked for Nannie or spoke her name, and seemed easier when she was near him; once or twice he called her 'Margaret'!"

We were quiet for a moment or two,--that was dear mamma's name,--then Phil began again: "The nurse that's coming is a woman, and very efficient, I believe. Of course she'll have to have a certain amount of rest every day, and at those times somebody will have to take her place; so I'm going to try to be home early afternoons,--Nannie can't do everything, you know,--and sit with the _pater_ while the nurse takes her nap. I thought perhaps we could alternate, you and I,--you're so splendid in a sick room; but I suppose I'll be as awkward as the proverbial bull in the china shop. I generally get rattled when I undertake to do anything for father, and am sure to do just what I shouldn't; so I'm not sorry you're going to be there for a change, old man." He threw his arm across Fee's poor helpless legs as he spoke, and gave one of them a little squeeze.

Fee hesitated. "I'm afraid I can't begin right away," he said slowly; "I'm not up to the mark just now, and it would be best not to depend on me for anything for at least--a week. Then, if I can, you may be sure I'll willingly take my part of the nursing."

"Why, you're not ill, are you?" exclaimed Phil. "You were all right this morning when I went out. It's just to sit in the room, you know; you could read there, I suppose, if you wanted to."

Felix coloured up at Phil's tone. "You know very well I'm not one of the sort to s.h.i.+rk,--I would do anything for the _pater_," he said quickly, "and just as soon as I can I'll take my full share in looking after and nursing him; but, as I told you, I don't feel quite up to it just now.

I'm going to keep quiet for a few days,--a week, perhaps."

Fee was trying to speak in his usual way, but there was something in his voice when he said that "perhaps" that made me just long to tell Phil right out what the trouble was. As it was, maybe Phil noticed something, for he eyed Fee sharply as he asked, rather anxiously: "Look here, Felix, is there anything you're keeping back? Come to notice, you do look rather white about the gills; do you feel ill, old fellow?"

I thought everything would come out then, for I knew Fee wouldn't lie about it; and so it would, I'm pretty sure, if Paul and Alan hadn't come bouncing into the room, and Nora behind them.

The boys flew to Fee's bedside. "Oh, Fee, _don't_ let her get us!" "Oh, Fee, _do_ let us stay with you!" they cried at the same moment, while Alan added saucily, "she just thinks we b'long to her!"

"They're the _rudest_ children I ever knew!" exclaimed Nora, angrily,--just as if she knew all the children in the world! "They don't know what the word, 'obedience' means. Come straight upstairs this minute,--both of you!"

She made a dive for them, but the boys were too quick for her. Alan ducked under Fee's bed, and came up on the other side with a triumphant chuckle, while Paul rolled right over Fee's legs and landed on the floor, where Phil grabbed him.

"Can't you behave yourselves, you young rascals?" demanded Phil, sternly, giving Paul's arm a shake, and catching Alan by the collar.

"Just walk straight upstairs, and do as your sister tells you. Stop your noise this minute,--do you hear me?"

But instead they both roared the louder, at the same time pulling and tugging to get away. "She's just _horrid_!" a.s.serted Alan, trying to wriggle out of Phil's grasp. "I just wish she'd go an' live in some other house, and never come back;" while between his sobs Judge drawled out pertly: "She thinks she can treat us like anything 'cause nurse isn't here to take our part. She won't let us do one single thing, an'

she's just as cross as an old cat--so _now_!"

"I am, eh?" cried Nora, indignantly. "Well, like it or not, you will have to obey me. Go upstairs at once,--both of you! _Make_ them go, Phil!"

I felt awfully sorry for them,--you see I know Nora is a nagger, she tries it on me sometimes; but they _were_ making a horrible din. Fee looked very white; he lay with one arm folded over his eyes; and to make matters worse, in walked Betty. "Kathie has started crying, and I can't stop her," she announced, as she got in the doorway. "I'm afraid Madel will be off in a few minutes, too, if we don't quiet Kathie; hadn't I better call Nannie?"

"Who is taking my name in vain?" said a voice that we were all glad to hear, and there was Nannie herself, smiling at us over Betty's shoulder.