Young Colesworth would come out on Saturdays and return Monday mornings. He would arrange with Lucas to drive him back and forth. And the old gentleman would come out, bag and baggage, on the coming Monday to take possession of the room.
To bind the bargain Harris handed Lyddy fifteen dollars, and asked for a receipt. Fifteen dollars a week! Lyddy had scarcely dared ask for it--had done so with fear and trembling, in fact. But the Colesworths seemed to consider it quite within reason.
"Oh, 'Phemie!" gasped Lyddy, hugging her sister tight out in the kitchen. "Just think of _fifteen dollars_ coming in every week. Why! we can all _live_ on that!"
"M--m; yes," said 'Phemie, ruminatively. "But hasn't he a handsome nose?"
"Who--what---- 'Phemie Bray! haven't you anything else in your head but young men's noses?" cried her sister, in sudden wrath.
But it was a beginning. They had really "got into business," as their father said that night at the supper table.
"I only fear that the work will be too much for us," he observed.
"For 'Phemie and me, you mean, Father," said Lyddy, firmly. "You are not to work. You're to get well. _That_ is your business--and your only business."
"You girls will baby me to death!" cried Mr. Bray, wiping his eyes. "I refuse to be laid on the shelf. I hope I am not useless----"
"My goodness me! Far from it," cried 'Phemie. "But you'll be lots more help to us when you are perfectly well and strong again."
"There'll be plenty you can do without taxing your strength--and without keeping you indoors," Lyddy added. "Just think if we get the chicken business started. You can do all of that--after the biddies are hatched."
"I feel so much better already, girls," declared their father, gravely, "that I am sure I shall have a giant's strength before fall."
Aunt Jane had written them, however, certain advice which the doctor at the hospital had given to her regarding Mr. Bray. He was to be discouraged from performing any heavy tasks of whatsoever nature, and his diet was to consist mainly of milk and eggs--tissue-building fuel for the system.
He had worked so long in the hat shop that his lungs were in a weakened state, if not actually affected. For months they would have to watch him carefully. And to return to his work in the city would be suicidal.