Page:The railway children (IA railwaychildren00nesb 1).pdf/78

 Keep up a good fire. Have some strong beef tea made ready to give her as soon as the fever goes down. She can have grapes now, and Brand's Beef Essence—and soda water and milk, and you'd better get in a bottle of brandy. The best brandy. Cheap brandy is worse than poison."

She asked him to write it all down, and he did.

When Bobbie shewed Mother the list he had written, Mother laughed. It was a laugh, Bobbie decided, though it was rather odd and feeble.

"Nonsense," said Mother, lying in bed with eyes as bright as beads, "I can't afford all that rubbish. Tell Mrs. Viney to boil two pounds of Scrag end of the neck for your dinners to-morrow, and I can have some of the broth. Yes, I should like some more water now, love. And will you get a basin and sponge my hands?"

Roberta obeyed. When she had done everything she could to make Mother less uncomfortable, she went down to the others. Her cheeks were very red, her lips set tight, and her eyes almost as bright as Mother's.

She told them what the Doctor had said, and what Mother had said.

"And now," said she, when she had told all,