Page:Icebound.pdf/19

]

You ’re the oldest of her children, a body would think you ’d be ashamed.

Oh, I ’ll stay.

[''There is a silence. Orin sniffs. Ella glares at him''.

Of course he could sit somewheres else.

[''Sadie puts her arm about Orin and looks spitefully at Ella. Doctor Curtis, an elderly country physician, comes down the stairs and enters the room, all turn to look at him''.

No change at all, I ’m sendin’ Jane to the drug store.

(rises eagerly)

I ’ll just run up and sit with mother.

[Sadie jumps up and starts for door.

It might be better if I went.

Why might it?

[They stand glaring at each other before either attempts to pass the Doctor, whose ample form almost blocks the doorway.

I ’ve been a wife and a mother.

Hannah ’s with her, you know. I told you I did n’t want anybody up there but Jane and Hannah.

But we ’re her own daughters.