第3章

``All right! Take till next week,'' said one and another, ``and let us have a scrub game this afternoon.''

The boys were in the middle of the sixth inning, when some one called out to Frank Fowler: ``Frank, your sister is running across the field.I think she wants you.''

Frank dropped his bat and hastened to meet his sister.

``What's the matter, Gracie?'' he asked in alarm.

``Oh, Frank!'' she exclaimed, bursting into tears.

``Mother's been bleeding at the lungs, and she looks so white.I'm afraid she's very sick.''

``Boys,'' said Frank, turning to his companions, ``I must go home at once.You can get some one to take my place, my mother is very sick.''

When Frank reached the little brown cottage which he called home, he found his mother in an exhausted state reclining on the bed.

``How do you feel, mother?'' asked our hero, anxiously.

``Quite weak, Frank,'' she answered in a low voice.

``I have had a severe attack.''

``Let me go for the doctor, mother.''

``I don't think it will be necessary, Frank.The attack is over, and I need no medicines, only time to bring back my strength.''

But three days passed, and Mrs.Fowler's nervous prostration continued.She had attacks previously from which she rallied sooner, and her present weakness induced serious misgivings as to whether she would ever recover.Frank thought that her eyes followed him with more than ordinary anxiety, and after convincing himself that this was the case, he drew near his mother's bedside, and inquired:

``Mother, isn't there something you want me to do?''

``Nothing, I believe, Frank.''

``I thought you looked at me as if you wanted to say something.''

``There is something I must say to you before Idie.''

``Before you die, mother!'' echoed Frank, in a startled voice.

``Yes.Frank, I am beginning to think that this is my last sickness.''

``But, mother, you have been so before, and got up again.''

``There must always be a last time, Frank; and my strength is too far reduced to rally again, Ifear.''

``I can't bear the thought of losing you, mother,''

said Frank, deeply moved.

``You will miss me, then, Frank?'' said Mrs.Fowler.

``Shall I not? Grace and I will be alone in the world.''

``Alone in the world!'' repeated the sick woman, sorrowfully, ``with little help to hope for from man, for I shall leave you nothing.Poor children!''

``That isn't what I think of,'' said Frank, hastily.

``I can support myself.''

``But Grace? She is a delicate girl,'' said the mother, anxiously.``She cannot make her way as you can.''

``She won't need to,'' said Frank, promptly; ``Ishall take care of her.''

``But you are very young even to support yourself.

You are only fourteen.''

``I know it, mother, but I am strong, and I am not afraid.There are a hundred ways of making a living.''

``But do you realize that you will have to start with absolutely nothing? Deacon Pinkerton holds a mortgage on this house for all it will bring in the market, and I owe him arrears of interest besides.''

``I didn't know that, mother, but it doesn't frighten me.''

``And you will take care of Grace?''

``I promise it, mother.''

``Suppose Grace were not your sister?'' said the sick woman, anxiously scanning the face of the boy.

``What makes you suppose such a thing as that, mother? Of course she is my sister.''

``But suppose she were not,'' persisted Mrs.

Fowler, ``you would not recall your promise?''

``No, surely not, for I love her.But why do you talk so, mother?'' and a suspicion crossed Frank's mind that his mother's intellect might be wandering.

``It is time to tell you all, Frank.Sit down by the bedside, and I will gather my strength to tell you what must be told.''

``Grace is not your sister, Frank!''

``Not my sister, mother?'' he exclaimed.``You are not in earnest?''

``I am quite in earnest, Frank.''

``Then whose child is she?''

``She is my child.''

``Then she must be my sister--are you not my mother?''

``No, Frank, I am not your mother!''