tle bit of butter and a speck
of lard in a skillet, and cooked the fish brown. She made a slice of
toast and boiled a cup of water and carried it to the door; then she
went in and set the table beside the bed, and I took in the tray, and
didn't spill a drop. Mother never said a word; she just reached out
and broke off a tiny speck and nibbled it, and it stayed; she tried a
little bigger piece, and another, and she said: "Take out the bones,
Candace!" She ate every scrap of that fish like the hungriest
traveller who ever came to our door, and the toast, and drank the hot
water. Then she went into a long sleep and all of us walked tiptoe,
and when she waked up she was better, and in a few days she could sit
in her chair again, and she began getting Shelley ready to go to music
school.

I have to tell you the rest, too. Laddie made the ram come alive, and
father sold it the next day for more than he paid for it. He said he
hoped I'd forgive him for not having seen how it had been bothering me,
and that he never would have had it on the place a day if he'd known.
The next time he went to town he bought me a truly little cane rod, a
real fishing line, several hooks, and a red bobber too lovely to put
into the water. I thought I was a great person from the fuss all of
them made over me, until I noticed Laddie shrug his shoulders, and
reach back and rub one, and then I remembered.

I went flying, and thank goodness! he held out his arms.

"Oh Laddie! I never did it!" I cried. "I never, never did! I
couldn't! Laddie, I love you best of any one; you know I do!"

"Of course you didn't!" said Laddie. "My Little Sister wasn't anywhere
around when that happened. That was a poor little girl I never saw
before, and she was in such trouble she didn't know WHAT she was doing.
And I hope I'll never see her again," he ended, twisting his shoulder.
But he kissed me and made it all right, and really I didn't do that; I
just simply couldn't have struck Laddie.

Marrying off Sally was little worse than getting Shelley ready for
school. She had to have three suits of everything, and a new dress of
each kind, and three hats; her trunk wouldn't hold all there was to put
in it; and father said he never could pay the bills. He had promised
her to go, and he didn't know what in this world to do; because he
never had borrowed money in his life, and he couldn't begin; for if he
died suddenly, that would leave mother in debt, and