Glenloch Girls | Page 6

do a little every day. You may have a tutor any time you
are ready."
"What's the use?" answered Arthur languidly. "I can't do anything in

athletics with this confounded leg, and I don't want to go there just to
limp around and grind."
"My dear boy, college training is occasionally useful in the way of
improving one's mind as well as muscles," said Mrs. Hamilton with
mild sarcasm. "Dear, don't think I am unsympathetic," she added
quickly as her son. frowned impatiently. "I realize, in part, at least,
what it must be to you to give up your dreams of athletic glory; but I
know, too, that no one else can fight this battle for you. You've got to
face the question squarely, and I have faith that you will come out a
conqueror if you put your best self into the effort."
"Mother, you don't begin to know," said Arthur slowly, "what this
means to me. It's not alone giving up the athletics, though that's hard
enough, but it's the sensitiveness I feel about letting any one see that
I'm lame. I believe I was rather proud before," he continued with a faint
smile, "because I was straight and strong and could almost always beat
the other boys at any game we tried; I know it always seemed to me the
most dreadful thing in the world to be crippled in any way, and now
I've got to hop around with a crutch all the rest of my life. Oh, I believe
I'd rather die," he ended bitterly.
"Arthur, dear, I can understand that feeling perfectly," answered his
mother eagerly, "for at your age I had it as strongly as you have. I think
it is only natural to rejoice in strength and straightness and skill, and to
be sensitive if in any way they are taken away from us. But for all our
sakes you've got to bring yourself out of this unhappy condition. Begin
with your crutches about your room, and when you get a little skill
surprise father and me by coming downstairs. We miss our boy more
than I can say."
There was silence for a moment and then Mrs. Hamilton said:
"I came up with a pocketful of news and have almost forgotten to tell
you about it. We are to have a new member in our family; a little girl,
the daughter of an old friend of mine, is coming to live with us for a
whole year."

"How old is she?" asked Arthur indifferently.
"I'm not quite sure," answered his mother, relieved to find that he took
it so calmly, "but I think she is about fourteen."
"Fourteen! Gracious!" ejaculated Arthur sitting bolt upright in his
dismay. "You don't mean to say that we've got to have a girl fourteen
years old in this house? I thought you meant a child about four or five
when you said 'little girl.'"
Mrs. Hamilton couldn't help laughing at his comical look of
apprehension. "I think she's quite harmless, Arthur, and perhaps you
may find her really agreeable when you know her."
"You know I don't know how to get on with girls, mother," he
answered ruefully. "I shall keep out of her way as much as possible, she
may be sure of that."
"I am sorry to find you so ungraciously disposed toward our guest,"
said Mrs. Hamilton quietly, "for I hoped you would help me to make it
pleasant for her. Her mother died only a little more than a year ago, and
now she is going to lose her father for a year, so I am afraid the poor
child will be rather forlorn."
"We shall make a pretty pair for you and father to get along with," said
Arthur half ashamed. "I'm blue and disagreeable most of the time, and
she'll probably be ready to burst into tears at a moment's notice."
"There are other ways of giving way to one's feelings that are fully as
bad as tears, I think, my son," said Mrs. Hamilton significantly.
Arthur said nothing, but his chin went down upon his hand in a way
that seemed to signify that he knew what his mother meant.
Mrs. Hamilton looked at the curly head remorsefully, and longed to pet
and comfort as only mothers can. She knew, however, that Arthur must
be made to see that he was spoiling his life by giving way to this great
trial which had come to him.

"Well, dear boy," she said at last, "I must go now and write to Ruth and
tell her that I shall be glad to welcome her here."
"How soon will she get here?" asked Arthur in a resigned tone.
"Her father wrote that he expects to sail on the fifteenth of October, and
as he