Ruth turned away smiling, and went on with her work of setting the table. Suddenly a shrill voice echoed through the room. "Hi, Betty! ho, Betty! it's all in m'eye!" came with piercing distinctness from the open doorway, accompanied by scuffling as of a brigade of robbers, and boisterous Hal presented himself.
"Now, grandmother," reiterated Hal, striking an attitude, "don't reel off more than a yard of lecture before breakfast."
"Henry, behave," commanded a stern voice from the other side of the room, which caused a noticeable decline in Hal's spirits.
There stood Mr. Leonard, having just come down-stairs unnoticed by the young scapegrace. He held little Lou by the hand, a delicate, sensitive child, older than Hal, though scarcely taller than her sturdy brother.
"Here come the provisions," remarked Hal, as Ruth brought in a smoking omelet from the kitchen.
"Go call Scott," said his father; which, cruel mandate obliged the young gentleman to remove his admiring gaze from the repast.
"Ay, ay, sir," he responded, and in a few minutes he reappeared with Scott, who was very red in the face, and howling most frantically. Hal had the little fellow's skirts gathered tightly in one hand, while with the other he firmly grasped the neck of his dress, just as he had picked him up from the ground, "making him walk Spanish," as he termed it.
The family gathered around the table, and Mr. Leonard asked a blessing on the food in a sad, pleading voice. For several minutes the children seemed awed into silence. At length Ruth broke the stillness.
"Did you see the doctor again last night, father?"
Mr. Leonard could not at once trust himself to speak, but after a moment he replied, in a husky voice, "The doctor says your mother will never walk again."
The quick tears sprang to the girl's eyes as she thought of the dear little Quaker mother upstairs, lying so patiently on her bed of suffering, who only a year ago, before that terrible fall which hurt her back, had been well and happy.
Lou began to sob outright, and great-hearted Hal again brushed his coat sleeve over his face, but this time to wipe away the tears.
"Cheerful as ever," replied Mr. Leonard. "She never thinks of complaining, but only of comforting us."