Page:Anna Chapin--Half a dozen boys.djvu/230

204 for she doesn’t like to have me round very much, and she never pets me the way she used to do. I heard her tell father once that she used to wish I’d hurry and grow up, but now  she never did, because she couldn’t see what  they’d do with me. It’s horrid to feel you’re in the way, Miss Bessie!”

“I wish I could keep you always, Fred,” said Bess seriously, for she felt the pain in the  child’s voice and face, as he spoke of his absent  mother.

“I just wish you could! You are as good as a mother and sister and brother, all at once. But you said that night, ever so long ago, that I mustn’t wish I was dead, or out of the way, or  anything, because that’s cowardly; but what  can I do, when I know I’m going to be in  everybody’s way?”

“But you aren’t, Fred. We all need you and want you with us. You help fill up this house now and make it brighter for us, so we  couldn’t get along at all without you. And, wherever you go and whatever you do in the  future, I want you always to remember that  you have this one friend who is looking for the