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Page 28
"Certainly, my dear, certainly. Your brother doesn't appear so very sick;
but he must be looked after, of course. Boys always ought to be. I'll
remind your sister if she seems to be forgetting anything. I hope I shall
keep well myself, so as not to be a worry to her. And we can take little
excursions together, I dare say--Girls always like to go, and of course an
older person--Oh, no, your brother won't need her so much as you think. He
seems pretty strong to me, and--You mustn't worry about them, Mrs.
Worthing--We shall all get on very well, I'm sure, provided I don't break
down, and I guess I sha'n't, though they say almost every one does in this
air. Why, we shall be as high up as the top of Mount Washington."
Katy went back to Forty-seven in despair, to comfort herself with a long
confidential chat with Clover in which she exhorted her not to let herself
be imposed upon.
"Be good to her, and make her as happy as you can, but don't feel bound to
wait on her, and run her errands. I am sure papa would not wish it; and it
will half kill you if you attempt it. Phil, till he gets stronger, is all
you can manage. You not only have to nurse him, you know, but to keep him
happy. It's so bad for him to mope. You want all your time to read with
him, and take walks and drives; that is, if there are any carriages at St.
Helen's. Don't let Mrs. Watson seize upon you, Clover. I'm awfully afraid
that she means to, and I can see that she is a real old woman of the sea.
Once she gets on your hack you will never be able to throw her off."
"She shall not get on my back," said Clover, straightening her small
figure; "but doesn't it seem _unnecessary_ that I should have an old woman
of the sea to grapple with as well as Phil?"
"Provoking things are apt to seem unnecessary, I fancy. You mustn't let
yourself get worried, dear Clovy. The old lady means kindly enough, I
think, only she's naturally tiresome, and has become helpless from habit.
Be nice to her, but hold your own. Self-preservation is the first law of
Nature."
Just at dusk the train reached Denver, and the dreaded moment of parting
came. There were kisses and tearful good-byes, but not much time was
allowed for either. The last glimpse that Clover had of Katy was as the
train moved away, when she put her head far out of the window of Car
Forty-seven to kiss her hand once more, and call back, in a tone oracular
and solemn enough to suit King Charles the First, his own admonitory word,
"Remember!"
CHAPTER VI.
ST. HELEN'S.
Never in her life had Clover felt so small and incompetent and so very,
very young as when the train with Car Forty-seven attached vanished from
sight, and left her on the platform of the Denver station with her two
companions. There they stood, Phil on one side tired and drooping, Mrs.
Watson on the other blinking anxiously about, both evidently depending on
her for guidance and direction. For one moment a sort of pale
consternation swept over her. Then the sense of the inevitable and the
nobler sense of responsibility came to her aid. She rallied herself; the
color returned to her cheeks, and she said bravely to Mrs. Watson,--
"Now, if you and Phil will just sit down on that settee over there and
make yourselves comfortable, I will find out about the trains for St.
Helen's, and where we had better go for the night."
Mrs. Watson and Phil seated themselves accordingly, and Clover stood for a
moment considering what she should do. Outside was a wilderness of tracks
up and down which trains were puffing, in obedience, doubtless, to some
law understood by themselves, but which looked to the uninitiated like the
direst confusion. Inside the station the scene was equally confused.
Travellers just arrived and just going away were rushing in and out;
porters and baggage-agents with their hands full hurried to and fro. No
one seemed at leisure to answer a question or even to listen to one.
Just then she caught sight of a shrewd, yet good-natured face looking at
her from the window of the ticket-office; and without hesitation she went
up to the enclosure. It was the ticket-agent whose eye she had caught. He
was at liberty at the moment, and his answers to her inquiries, though
brief, were polite and kind. People generally did soften to Clover. There
was such an odd and pretty contrast between her girlish appealing look and
her dignified little manner, like a child trying to be stately but only
succeeding in being primly sweet.
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