Mary Marie | Page 6

Nurse Sarah shrugged her shoulders again.
"Oh, la! child, what a little question-box you are, an' no mistake," she
sighed. But she didn't look mad--not like the way she does when I ask
why she can take her teeth out and most of her hair off and I can't; and
things like that. (As if I didn't know! What does she take me for--a
child?) She didn't even look displeased--Nurse Sarah loves to talk. (As
if I didn't know that, too!) She just threw that quick look of hers over
her shoulder and settled back contentedly in her chair. I knew then I
should get the whole story. And I did. And I'm going to tell it here in
her own words, just as well as I can remember it--bad grammar and all.
So please remember that I am not making all those mistakes. It's Nurse
Sarah.
I guess, though, that I'd better put it into a new chapter. This one is
yards long already. How do they tell when to begin and end chapters?
I'm thinking it's going to be some job, writing this book--diary, I mean.
But I shall love it, I know. And this is a real story--not like those
made-up things I've always written for the girls at school.

CHAPTER II
NURSE SARAH'S STORY
And this is Nurse Sarah's story.
As I said, I'm going to tell it straight through as near as I can in her own
words. And I can remember most of it, I think, for I paid very close
attention.
* * * * *

"Well, yes, Miss Mary Marie, things did begin to change right there an'
then, an' so you could notice it. We saw it, though maybe your pa an'
ma didn't, at the first.
"You see, the first month after she came, it was vacation time, an' he
could give her all the time she wanted. An' she wanted it all. An' she
took it. An' he was just as glad to give it as she was to take it. An' so
from mornin' till night they was together, traipsin' all over the house an'
garden, an' trampin' off through the woods an' up on the mountain
every other day with their lunch.
"You see she was city-bred, an' not used to woods an' flowers growin'
wild; an' she went crazy over them. He showed her the stars, too,
through his telescope; but she hadn't a mite of use for them, an' let him
see it good an' plain. She told him--I heard her with my own ears--that
his eyes, when they laughed, was all the stars she wanted; an' that she'd
had stars all her life for breakfast an' luncheon an' dinner, anyway, an'
all the time between; an' she'd rather have somethin' else,
now--somethin' alive, that she could love an' live with an' touch an' play
with, like she could the flowers an' rocks an' grass an' trees.
"Angry? Your pa? Not much he was! He just laughed an' caught her
'round the waist an' kissed her, an' said she herself was the brightest star
of all. Then they ran off hand in hand, like two kids. An' they was two
kids, too. All through those first few weeks your pa was just a great big
baby with a new plaything. Then when college began he turned all at
once into a full-grown man. An' just naturally your ma didn't know
what to make of it.
"He couldn't explore the attic an' rig up in the old clothes there any
more, nor romp through the garden, nor go lunchin' in the woods, nor
none of the things she wanted him to do. He didn't have time. An' what
made things worse, one of them comet-tails was comin' up in the sky,
an' your pa didn't take no rest for watchin' for it, an' then studyin' of it
when it got here.
"An' your ma--poor little thing! I couldn't think of anything but a doll
that was thrown in the corner because somebody'd got tired of her. She

was lonesome, an' no mistake. Anybody'd be sorry for her, to see her
mopin' 'round the house, nothin' to do. Oh, she read, an' sewed with
them bright-colored silks an' worsteds; but 'course there wasn't no real
work for her to do. There was good help in the kitchen, an' I took what
care of your grandma was needed; an' she always gave her orders
through me, so I practically run the house, an' there wasn't anything
there for her to do.
"An' so your ma just had to mope it out alone. Oh, I don't mean your pa
was unkind. He was always nice an' polite, when he was in the house,
an' I'm sure he meant to treat