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Nan and Di are leaving for Redmond next week and neither your mother nor Susan is able to assume so much extra care under present conditions. If you want to keep that baby here you must attend to it yourself." "Me!" Rilla was dismayed into being ungrammatical. "Why father I I couldn't!" "Younger girls than you have had to look after babies. My advice and Susan's is at your disposal.
For the first time in her life Rilla Blythe touched a baby lifted it rolled it in a blanket, trembling with nervousness lest she drop it or or break it. Then she put it in the soup tureen. "Is there any fear of it smothering?" she asked anxiously. "Not much odds if it do," said Mrs. Conover. Horrified Rilla loosened the blanket round the baby's face a little.
Everybody obeys Mrs. Matilda Pitman even Robert and Amelia. You must obey her too." Rilla did obey her. She sat down and, such was the influence of Mrs. Matilda Pitman's mesmeric eye, she ate a tolerable breakfast. The obedient Amelia never spoke; Mrs. Matilda Pitman did not speak either; but she knitted furiously and chuckled. When Rilla had finished, Mrs. Matilda Pitman rolled up her sock.
When two people foregathered in those days they talked of the war; and old Highland Sandy of the Harbour Head talked of it when he was alone and hurled anathemas at the Kaiser across all the acres of his farm. Walter slipped away, not caring to see or be seen, but Rilla sat down on the steps, where the garden mint was dewy and pungent.
"I am not hungry," said Rilla almost pleadingly. "I don't think I can eat anything. And it is time I was starting for the station. The morning train will soon be along. Please excuse me and let us go I'll take a piece of bread and butter for Jims." Mrs. Matilda Pitman shook a knitting-needle playfully at Rilla. "Sit down and take your breakfast," she said. "Mrs. Matilda Pitman commands you.
He was not likely acquainted with Morgan's invaluable volume. She got up. "Jims has had a nightmare, I think. He sometimes has one and he is always badly frightened by it. Excuse me for a moment." Rilla flew upstairs, wishing quite frankly that soup tureens had never been invented.
Suppose it were smothered! Rilla dared not unwrap it to see, lest the wind, which was now blowing a hurricane, should "take its breath," whatever dreadful thing that might be. She was a thankful girl when at last she reached harbour at Ingleside. Rilla carried the soup tureen to the kitchen, and set it on the table under Susan's eyes.
Rilla couldn't get that out of her thoughts. And that very morning she discovered that the baby had gained eight ounces since its coming to Ingleside. Rilla had felt such a thrill of pride over this. "You you said it mightn't live if it went to Hopetown," she said. "It mightn't. Somehow, institutional care, no matter how good it may be, doesn't always succeed with delicate babies.
Jims grew so tired that Rilla had to carry him for the last quarter. She reached the Brewster house, almost exhausted, and dropped Jims on the walk with a sigh of thankfulness. The sky was black with clouds; the first heavy drops were beginning to fall; and the rumble of thunder was growing very loud. Then she made an unpleasant discovery. The blinds were all down and the doors locked.
Rilla supposed he was hopelessly enraged. The truth was he dared not trust his voice lest it betray his frantic desire to laugh. "Rilla here, now," said Susan, looking affectionately at that unhappy damsel, "never was much spanked. She was a real well-behaved child for the most part. But her father did spank her once.
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