l for his sick brother than for himself.

"I can't tell," replied their mother; "you must all keep still a few
days longer, for Oscar is very weak now, and the noise disturbs him.
The doctor thinks it will take several weeks for him to get fully well,
but he will soon be able to sit up, I hope."

The next morning, Oscar felt decidedly better, and so he continued to
improve day by day. But his old impatience soon began to return. He
grumbled every time the hour returned to take his drops, and he fairly
rebelled against the food that was prepared for him--a little weak
gruel, when his appetite was clamoring for a hearty meal of beef and
potatoes! During his sickness, many little delicacies had been sent in
to him by friends and neighbors, and from most of these too he was
still debarred by the inexorable doctor. He teased his mother to let
him have things the doctor had forbidden, and was offended with her
when she refused. He thus made a great deal of unnecessary trouble and
suffering for his mother, who had served him so devotedly through this
sickness that her own health was giving way.

A day or two after his fever turned, Oscar wished to sit up in a chair,
and begged very hard to be allowed to get up from the bed.

"Why, Oscar," said his mother, "you could not sit up two minutes, if I
should put you in a chair. You have no idea how weak you are."

"No, I aint weak," replied Oscar; "I bet you I can walk across the room
just as well as you can--you don't know how strong I 've grown within a
day or two. Come, mother, do let me get up, will you?"

"You are crazy to talk so, my son," answered Mrs. Preston. "If you
should try to stand up, you would faint away as dead as a log. It will
be a week before you are strong enough to walk about."

"I believe you mean to keep me sick as long as you can," was Oscar's
unfeeling reply. "I am tired almost to death of laying a-bed," he
added, and the tears began to gather in his eyes.

His mother felt hurt by these words, but she attributed them to the
weakening and irritating influence of disease, and forgave them as
quickly as they were uttered. She even yielded to his wishes so far as
to offer to let him sit up in bed a little while. He gladly acceded to
the proposal, and putting his arms around her neck, she slowly raised
him up; but he had no sooner reached an upright position than his head
began to "fly round like a top," and he was very glad to be let down
aga