The Junior Classics, vol 6 | Page 9

anxious.
Tony could hardly help shouting at the idea; but, rather than trouble his
little mistress, he said Very soberly: "I'm afraid they wouldn't lay easy,
not being used to it. Tucking up a butterfly would about kill him; the
worms would be apt to get lost among the bed-clothes; and the toads
would tumble out the first thing."
"I shall have to ask mamma about it. What will you do while I'm
gone?" said Nelly, unwilling that a moment should be lost.
"I'll make frames for nettings to the windows, else the doves will come
in and eat up the sick people."
"I think they will know that it is a hospital, and be too kind to hurt or
frighten their neighbors," began Nelly; but as she spoke, a plump white
dove walked in, looked about with its red-winged eyes, and quietly
pecked up a tiny bug that had just ventured out from the crack where it
had taken refuge when the deluge came.
"Yes, we must have the nettings. I'll ask mamma for some lace," said
Nelly, when she saw that; and, taking her pet dove on her shoulder, told
it about her hospital as she went toward the house: for, loving all little
creatures as she did, it grieved her to have any harm befall even the
least or plainest of them. She had a sweet child-fancy that her
playmates understood her language as she did theirs, and that birds,
flowers, animals, and insects felt for her the same affection which she
felt for them. Love always makes friends, and nothing seemed to fear
the gentle child; but welcomed her like a little sun who shone alike on
all, and never suffered an eclipse.

She was gone some time, and when she came back her mind was full of
new plans, one hand full of rushes, the other of books, while over her
head floated the lace, and a bright green ribbon hung across her arm.
"Mamma says that the best beds will be little baskets, boxes, cages, and
any sort of thing that suits the patients; for each will need different care
and food and medicine. I have not baskets enough, so, as I cannot have
pretty white beds, I am going to braid pretty green nests for my patients,
and, while I do it, mamma thought you'd read to me the pages she has
marked, so that we may begin right."
"Yes, miss; I like that. But what is the ribbon for?" asked Tony.
"O, that's for you. Will says that, if you are to be an army surgeon, you
must have a green band on your arm; so I got this to tie on when we
play hospital."
Tony let her decorate the sleeve of his gray jacket, and when the
nettings were done, the welcome books were opened and enjoyed. It
was a happy time, sitting in the sunshine, with leaves pleasantly astir all
about them, doves cooing overhead, and flowers sweetly gossiping
together through the summer afternoon. Nelly wove her smooth, green
rushes, Tony pored over his pages, and both found something better
than fairy legends in the family histories of insects, birds, and beasts.
All manner of wonders appeared, and were explained to them, till Nelly
felt as if a new world had been given her, so full of beauty, interest, and
pleasure that she never could be tired of studying it. Many of these
things were not strange to Tony, because, born among plants, he had
grown up with them as if they were brothers and sisters, and the sturdy,
brown-faced boy had learned many lessons which no poet or
philosopher could have taught him, unless he had become as childlike
as himself, and studied from the same great book.
When the baskets were done, the marked pages all read, and the sun
began to draw his rosy curtains round him before smiling "Good night,"
Nelly ranged the green beds round the room, Tony put in the screens,
and the hospital was ready. The little nurse was so excited that she
could hardly eat her supper, and directly afterwards ran up to tell Will

how well she had succeeded with the first part of her enterprise. Now
brother Will was a brave young officer, who had fought stoutly and
done his duty like a man. But when lying weak and wounded at home,
the cheerful courage which had led him safely through many dangers
seemed to have deserted him, and he was often gloomy, sad, or fretful,
because he longed to be at his post again, and time passed very slowly.
This troubled his mother, and made Nelly wonder why he found lying
in a pleasant room so much harder than fighting battles or making
weary marches. Anything that interested and amused