"Let us try, then, you and I, to make her happier."
"What can I do?" asked little Aggy, lifting a wondering look to her
mother's face.
"Would you like to try, dear?"
"If I knew what to do."
"There is always a way when the heart is willing. Do you understand
that, love?"
Aggy looked up again, and with an inquiring glance, to her mother.
"We will soon be at Mrs. Elder's. Are you not sorry that she is so
sick? It is more than a week since she was able to sit up, and she
has suffered a great deal of pain."
"Yes, I'm very sorry." And both look and tone confirmed the truth of
her words. The child's heart was touched.
"When we get there, look around you, and see if there is nothing you
can do to make her feel better. I'm sure you will find something."
"What, mother?" Aggy's interest was all alive now.
"If the room is in disorder, you might, very quietly, put things in
their right places. Even that would make her feel better; for nobody
can be quite comfortable in the midst of confusion."
"Oh! I can do all that, mother." And light beamed in the child's
countenance. "It's nothing very hard."
"No; you can do all this with little effort; and yet, trifling as
the act may seem, dear, it will do Mrs. Elder good: and you will
have the pleasing remembrance of a kind deed. A child's hand is
strong enough to lift a feather from an inflamed wound, even though
it lack the surgeon's skill." The mother said these last words half
herself.
And now they were at the door of Mrs. Elder's unattractive cottage,
and the mother and child passed in. Aggy had not overdrawn the
picture when she said that everything was poor and mean; and
disorder added to the unattractive appearance of the room in which
the sick woman lay.
"I'm sorry to find you no better," said Mrs. Markland, after making
a few inquiries of the sick woman.
"I shall never be any better, I'm afraid," was the desponding
answer.
"Never! Never is a long day, as the proverb says. Did you ever hear
of a night that had no morning?" There was a cheerful tone and
manner about Mrs Markland that had its effect; but, ere replying,
Mrs. Elder's dim eyes suddenly brightened, as some movement in the
room attracted her attention.
"Bless the child! Look at her!" And the sick woman glanced toward
Aggy, who, bearing in mind her mother's words, was already busying
herself in the work of bringing order out of disorder.
"Look at the dear creature!" added Mrs. Elder, a glow of pleasure
flushing her countenance, a moment before so pale and sad.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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