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Mary L. Code
on his forehead to stroke
back his brown hair was hot and trembling.
"Very ill?" asked Arthur again. "Why, she was a right just after dinner.
She will get better, won't she, mamma?"
"Mildred is very, very ill, dear Arthur," his mother said gently. "I came
to tell you myself, darling, because I knew you would be wanting to
know. She has been attacked with croup very violently indeed, and the
doctor does not give me any hope that she will live. I cannot stay with
you, my darling boy."
She did not say any more, and before Arthur had scarcely understood
what he had heard, his mother was gone. There was only one thought in
his mind now. Mildred dying! his darling baby sister, who a little while
ago had laughed, and crowed, and kicked her pretty feet as he played

with her. How could it all have happened? And how soon a dark cloud
had fallen over everything that had seemed so bright! And then a little
picture of her fresh baby face came before him, and he could see the
little rosy mouth, and bright blue eyes, and the soft cheek that he had so
often kissed. Would her sweet face never laugh again? And would he
never hear her clear, soft voice calling "Artie, Artie"? Arthur did not
know he had loved his baby sister so deeply until now that the dark, sad
news had come that perhaps she was going to be taken away from them
all for ever. So he sat in the pleasant firelight on the hearth-rug; but
there was no brightness on his face now. A very grave cloud had fallen
on it, as the words were in his heart that his mother had told him. And
then, as he thought about what they really meant, his lip quivered, and
the tears fell on the floor, till at length his head bowed down on the
armchair where his mother had been sitting, and Arthur sobbed bitterly
all alone. It was a very hopeless, heart-sick feeling, as he wept with the
vehemence of his strong, loving nature; and he had never felt in this
way before; for all his life hitherto he had known what it was to be
loved and to love, and had never had cause to mourn over the loss of
what his heart had wound itself around.
"I wish some one would come and tell me how Mildred is," said Arthur
presently to himself, after half an hour had passed when he had been
crying on the rug. "I wonder is the doctor going to stay there all night?"
Poor little Arthur! it was very hard work waiting there all alone with no
one to speak to, not even Hector the house-dog, his friend and
confidant; for a servant had gone into the town and taken him with him.
Presently the door opened, and he started up eagerly. It was the
housemaid, and the candle that she held in her hand showed a grave,
tear-stained face.
"Mr. Arthur, will you come upstairs?" she said. "Mistress sent me to
tell you. Will you come up to the nursery?"
"Why--what--may I really? What, is she better then?" asked Arthur
joyfully, and yet with a certain trembling at his heart, as he saw the
expression on Anna's face.

"Oh, no, Mr. Arthur," she said, bursting into tears. "Poor, dear little
darling, she can't scarce breathe; its dreadful to hear her, and she such a
sweet little pet. Oh, dear, dear, dear, and whatever will mistress do, and
master?"
But Arthur was not crying now as he went slowly up the stairs, feeling
as if it was all a dream, and not at all as if these were the same stairs
that he generally mounted, or that this was the nursery door where he
had generally bounded in with a laughing shout to the bright little sister
who now lay very near the shore of the other land. She was a very little
girl; not two years ago she had first come; and Arthur, who had been
half-afraid of the tiny baby that lay in the nurse's arms so still and quiet,
had by degrees learnt to love her with all his heart. He knew just the
best ways to please her, and to make her voice ring out the merry crow
he so liked to hear; and always, when she saw her brother coming up
the avenue that led to the house, she would stretch out her tiny arms,
and try to jump from her nurse's arms to meet him.
It was only a few hours ago that Arthur had waved his hand to her, and
made Hector jump and roll along the ground, that she might see him.
She had looked so bright
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