Brentwood by Grace Livingston Hill Read Free Book Online Page A

be pretty wonderful, and I’m crazy!”
    “Nothing wonderful about it! I’m just an ordinary sister, Betty, that’s mighty hungry to be taken in and made one of you!”
    “Well, I should say you’d taken us in, if you asked me! I thought we’d reached the limit and tonight would see us all well on our way out of this life, but you’ve somehow brought us back again where we have to go on.” Suddenly Betty dropped down on a box by the kitchen door and, putting her head down in her hands, burst into tears. Betty was worn out.
    Marjorie was at her side at once, her arms about her, soothing her, putting the hair back from her tired forehead, putting a warm kiss on her cheek.
    “Why, you’re cold yet, you poor dear!” she said. “Come into the hall and sit over the register and get your feet warm.”
    “No! No, I’m all right,” insisted Betty, raising her head and brushing away her tears. “I just can’t understand it all, everything getting so different all of a sudden. Food in the house and heat and a chance to sit down.”
    “But, my dear, you’ve scarcely eaten a thing. Come, let me get you a nice little lunch. Have another sandwich! And here are eggs. I don’t know how good a cook I am, for I haven’t had much chance to practice, but I can scramble eggs beautifully, and the gas is on now.”
    Marjorie made Betty sit down and eat.
    “Mother said the soup was the best thing she had tasted in weeks,” Betty said as she ate hungrily.
    “Have you told her about me yet?” asked Marjorie anxiously.
    “No,” said Betty. “I didn’t have a chance yet. I didn’t want to excite her while she was eating. And besides, Father came in and dropped down on the other edge of the bed. He went right off to sleep. And when Mother finished her soup she put her head back and said in a whisper, ‘That was good! Now I’ll go to sleep awhile and then I’ll be all right.’ And they never either of them asked where the things came from! Mother knew Ted had gone out to try and get a few subscriptions for a magazine. She likely thinks he has picked up a few pennies. But I thought it would be better for me to wait till they woke up to tell them about you.”
    “Of course!” said Marjorie. “Now, what should we do next? The doctor won’t be here till two o’clock. He had gone to the hospital, but I got him on the phone and he promised to come here right from there. He had an emergency operation this morning. Is there anything to do to get ready for him?”
    “There isn’t anything we can do,” said Betty. “I used the last clean sheet when I made up Mother’s bed fresh last night, and I haven’t had any hot water to wash them with since.”
    “Well, if the sheets were clean last night, they ought to be all right. Anyway, I guess it’s more important that they both should have a good sleep than that the bed should look stylish and unrumpled. Let’s bend our energies toward getting everything ready for a comfortable dinner. But first, tell me about us, just a word or two more. You spoke of Ted. Is he our brother?”
    “Of course. Hadn’t you heard of him, either? He’s almost seventeen, and he’s a dear. I don’t know what we would have done while Father was sick if it hadn’t been for Ted. He worked early and late, just like a man. Like two men! He got a job in a grocery, and he got up before daylight and delivered papers, and then he worked from eight in the morning till sometimes nine at night. He’s out now hunting for some kind of a job. And he hasn’t had much to eat for a day and a half. He wouldn’t take it away from us. He had a real desperate look on his face when he went away this morning. I wish he would come back and get something to eat. But he won’t come until he finds something.”
    “Oh,” said Marjorie, “couldn’t I go out and find him? Or couldn’t you, and let me stay here and look after things? It wouldn’t do any good for me to go, of course, because I wouldn’t know him.