The Project Gutenberg EBook of Five Happy Weeks, by Margaret E. Sangster

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Title: Five Happy Weeks

Author: Margaret E. Sangster

Release Date: November 21, 2005 [EBook #17126]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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[Illustration: Front cover]

[Illustration: Frontispiece]

FIVE HAPPY WEEKS.

BY
MARGARET E. SANGSTER.

_American Tract Society_,
150 NASSAU STREET, NEW YORK.

ENTERED, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1875, by
THE AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY,
in the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.

FIVE HAPPY WEEKS.

CHAPTER I.

"GOOD-BY, MAMMA!"

"I don't see how I can do such a thing," said mamma, shading her eyes
with a hand so white and thin that you could almost see through it.
"I never, never can go away, for five weeks, and leave these children;
I should not have a moment's peace."

"But, my darling," said papa, "the doctor says it is the only thing that
will restore your health. The children will be nicely taken care of, and
I am sure they will be as good and obedient as possible while you are
gone."

"You are going too, William; you seem to forget that. And we have never
been away from them before. What if Edith or Mabel should be sick, or
Johnnie should fall and break his arm, or--"

"Don't conjure up dreadful possibilities, Helen," said papa; "I'll tell
you how we will manage it. This house shall be shut, and we'll take
grandma and the children with us as far as Norfolk, and leave them there
with your Aunt Maria, while we make our trip. And we will stop for them
on our way home. What do you think of that plan?"

"Well," said mamma, with a faint smile, "I think I'll leave it to you.
It tires me to have to reason things out. Auntie would be kind to them,
I know, and I should feel easier if this house were shut up altogether."

M