Better than Play Part 11

"Will he get well again?"

"Yes, dear, oh yes, for certain. We must all hope for the best, you know, and we must be as brave and cheerful as we can. He's hurt a good bit, and some bones are broken, but they can't tell exactly what's wrong until they get him to hospital. Oh yes, dear, he'll get well again, and come home as right as ever he was,--only it'll be a long time first, perhaps."

She was a capital person to have been sent to break the bad news to them, for she herself was cheerful, and hopeful, and sympathetic, in spite of the real dread at her heart. "We were hoping you would have got home sooner," she added. "It seemed such a long time I had to wait for you.

He wants to see you before he starts."

The fact of his being taken from them came home to Bella then with a rush.

"Oh, they mustn't take him away!" she cried, almost hysterically.

"Why can't they let him stay at home? We can nurse him. I know he'd rather----"

"Hus.h.!.+ hus.h.!.+" said Mrs. Carter, "he'll hear you!" for they were nearly at their own gate by that time. "Bella, dear, you want to do what's best for your father, don't you, and you don't want to think about yourself?

Well, he has to be where he can have good nursing, and doctors night and day, and lots of things he couldn't have at home; and if you want him to get well at all, you must bear with his being taken away from you for a bit. You mustn't mind it's being harder for you now, if it's going to be better for him later."

"But I want to help."

"Help! My dear, there'll be plenty of ways for you to help! More than you can reckon. I don't know, I'm sure, how,"--but Mrs. Carter broke off abruptly. She did not want to add to their trouble now.

Tom, who had been walking along silently all this time, guessed what she meant. "We shall have plenty to do," he said gravely, "there'll be all of us to keep while father is away, and you and me'll have to try to do it, Bella."

By this time they were inside the gate, and at the sight of the ambulance standing in the garden Bella nearly broke down again. Her father had already been brought out and laid in it, so they were spared that ordeal, but at the sight of his grey-white face, and closed eyes, and bandaged form, Bella almost fainted, and Tom had to clench his hands tight, to try and stop their trembling.

"He wants to speak to you," said the nurse, beckoning to them to come forward; "he would not go until he had seen you."

Almost timidly they drew close to his side and leaned over him. For a moment he did not look or speak; then, very feebly, his eyelids fluttered and opened, and the pallid lips moved, but the words that came through them were so faint they could barely catch them.

"You'll look after them--till--I come back?"

"Oh yes, yes," sobbed Bella pa.s.sionately.

"We'll take care of them, father," said Tom, speaking very slowly and distinctly, trying hard all the time to keep his lips steady and his eyes from growing misty. "Don't you worry, we can manage. They shan't want for anything, if we can help it. Shall they, Bella?"

"No, no! only make haste and come back, father!" wept Bella.

"G.o.d bless you both!" gasped the poor injured father. "Now kiss me, Bella; you'll look after the little one? Tom, boy, take care of them all."

They both promised again, as they bent down and kissed him.

"And you'll come and see me--in the hospital--Sat.u.r.days?"

"Where is it you are going?" asked Bella hurriedly; she had forgotten that in her excitement.

"To Norton," he gasped, his strength fast failing.

Then some one led them away, and the ambulance started on its slow journey.

CHAPTER VIII.

ROCKET'S HELP IS REQUIRED.

"There will be plenty of ways for you to help."

Mrs. Carter had never spoken more truly than when she said this, by way of consoling and bracing up Bella. When the first shock and excitement and grief had calmed down, the little family at 'Lane End' found themselves faced with a problem which gave them enough to do and to think about.

This was, how were they all to be fed, and clothed, and warmed, and their rent paid during the weeks that lay ahead of them?

Fortunately, their poor father had received his week's wages just an hour or so before he met with his accident, and fortunately the money was found still safe in his pocket, when his clothes had to be cut off him.

This was something, but they all realised that it was the last that he would earn for many a day, and that there were five of them to support, and that money must be earned by some one to support them week by week.

Miss Hender grew nearly crazy, and gave way to black despair. She was always one for looking on the black side of things, and adding trouble and depression where there was more than enough already.

"It is a terrible thing to be left without a minute's warning, with four children to support, and enough to do already, without having to earn a living for them. I had better ask for parish relief; I don't see what else I can do," she groaned.

"Oh, Aunt Emma, don't do that!" cried Bella, horrified.

"It's all very well to say 'don't do that,'" her aunt answered impatiently. "I must do something. You wouldn't like to starve, I'm thinking, and if I let you, I'd be had up for neglect and sent to prison!"

and she collapsed into tears and groans again.

"Aunt Emma, don't go on like that! We'll get on somehow, and n.o.body shall blame you. We can make enough out of the garden to keep us yet for a bit," said Tom gravely.

These last days had changed Tom from a child into a man. He had not said much, but he had thought a great deal, and done more. After the Sunday, that strange, quiet Sunday, when he had been into Norton with his aunt and Bella to see the poor sufferer in the hospital, he had quietly set to work in the garden with all the energy and determination he possessed, for he had realised that the garden was likely to prove their great 'stand-by,'

and that to provide for the future, it must be cared for now.

Aunt Emma, instead of thinking and acting, only sobbed and moaned and despaired, and instead of comforting the children, left them to comfort her. Perhaps in the end it was best for them, for it is only by helping and comforting others that one grows strong oneself.

"We made nine s.h.i.+llings on Sat.u.r.day," went on Tom hopefully, "and that wasn't one of our best days."

"And you think that five of us can live on nine s.h.i.+llings a week!"

"Couldn't we?" asked Tom disappointedly, "with the eggs and the apples and the stuff out of the garden?"

Aunt Emma sniffed scornfully. "With good management we might get along,"

she said shortly. "There is no knowing what you can do till you're brought to it."

Bella began to lose her temper. "Why couldn't Aunt Emma try and make the best of things?" she thought impatiently, "instead of making them all more miserable than they were already. It was very unkind of her, and, after all, it was harder for them than for her;--but it had never been Aunt Emma's way to try and make the best of things."

Yet in her inmost heart Miss Hender did not really think the outlook so very black. At any rate, she realised that it was very much brighter than it might have been, if there had been no garden, and the children had not made that little start of their own; and in her own mind she was planning how she would take in a little was.h.i.+ng, to help them all along.

But poor Aunt Emma's fault was that she would never let people know she saw any brightness in life at all. She was afraid they would not realise how much she suffered, and how much she had to bear.

With spirits greatly damped, Tom and Bella walked away out into the garden, and there the sweet fresh autumn air and the suns.h.i.+ne soon cheered them again.

"What will there be to take in next week?" asked Bella, glancing about her. "We must carry all we can, for Aunt Emma's sake."

"There'll be apples," said Tom, "plenty of them h.o.a.rding pears, and cabbages. I wish we had a hand-cart!" he broke out impetuously: "for there's heaps of stuff, potatoes, and turnips, and carrots, if only we could get them to Norton, but what we can carry hardly pays for the time and trouble."

"I shall have some early chrysanthemums," said Bella, looking lovingly at her flowers, "and asters, and a few late roses. Oh, I ought to have opened my hotbed," and away she darted, her face full of eagerness.

It was only a few days before the accident that she had bought a nice second-hand frame with her earnings, and her father had fixed it for her.