but twice a year; it's starvation, darlin'. Oh, darlin', darlin', it's
starvation--that's ef you don't learn the stitch."

All of a sudden Grannie's fortitude had given way; she sobbed and
sobbed--not in the loud, full, strong way of the young and vigorous,
but with those low, suppressed, deep-drawn sobs of the aged. All in a
minute she felt herself quite an old and useless woman--she, who had
been the mainspring of the household, the breadwinner of the family!
All of a sudden she had dropped very low. Alison was full of
consternation, but she did not understand grief like Grannie's. She
was at one end of life, and Grannie was at the other; the old woman
understood the girl--having past experience to guide her--but the girl
could not understand the old woman. It was a relief to Grannie to tell
out her fear, but Alison did not comprehend it; she was full of pity,
but she was scarcely full of sympathy. It seemed impossible for her to
believe that Grannie's cunning right hand was going to be useless, that
the beautiful work must stop, that the means of livelihood must cease,
that the old woman must be turned into a useless, helpless log--no
longer the mainspring, but a helpless addition to the strained
household.

Alison could not understand, but she did her best to cheer Grannie up.

"There, there," she said; "of course that doctor was wrong. In all my
life I never heard of such a thing as writers' cramp. Writers'
cramp!--it's one of the new diseases, Grannie, that doctors are just
forcing into the world to increase their earnings. I heard tell in the
shop, by a girl what knows, that every year doctors push two new
diseases into fashion, so as to fill their pockets. But for them, we'd
never have had influenza, and now it's writers' cramp is to be the
rage. Well, let them as writes get it; but you don't write, you know,
Grannie."

"That's wot I say," replied Grannie, cheering up wonderfully. "No one
can get a disease by writing two letters in a year. I don't suppose it
is it, at all."

"I'm sure it isn't," said Alison; "but you are just tired out, and must
rest for a day or two. It's a good thing that I'm at home, for I can
rub your hand and arm with that liniment. You'll see, you'll be all
right again in a day or two."

"To be sure I will," said Grannie; "twouldn't be like my luck ef I
warn't." But all the same she knew in her heart of hearts that she
would not.

CHAPTER VII.

Both Alison