for she liked to have the
boys call her brave and admire the cheerful way in which she endured two
hours of discomfort. She found she could use her zither as it lay upon
her breast, and every day the pretty music began at a certain hour, and
all in the house soon learned to love and listen for it. Even the old
cook set open her kitchen door, saying pitifully, "Poor darlint, hear
how purty she's singin', wid the pain, on that crewel boord. It's a
little saint, she is. May her bed above be aisy!"

Frank would lift her gently on and off, with a kind word that comforted
her immensely, and gentle Ed would come and teach her new bits of music,
while the other fellows were frolicking below. Ralph added his share to
her amusement, for he asked leave to model her head in clay, and set up
his work in a corner, coming to pat, scrape, and mould whenever he had
a spare minute, amusing her by his lively chat, and showing her how to
shape birds, rabbits, and queer faces in the soft clay, when the songs
were all sung and her fingers tired of the zither.

The girls sympathized very heartily with her new trial, and brought
all manner of gifts to cheer her captivity. Merry and Molly made a
gay screen by pasting pictures on the black cambric which covered the
folding frame that stood before her to keep the draughts from her as she
lay on her board. Bright birds and flowers, figures and animals, covered
one side, and on the other they put mottoes, bits of poetry, anecdotes,
and short stories, so that Jill could lie and look or read without the
trouble of holding a book. It was not all done at once, but grew slowly,
and was a source of instruction as well as amusement to them all, as
they read carefully, that they might make good selections.

But the thing that pleased Jill most was something Jack did, for he gave
up going to school, and stayed at home nearly a fortnight after he might
have gone, all for her sake. The day the doctor said he might try it
if he would be very careful, he was in great spirits, and limped about,
looking up his books, and planning how he would astonish his mates by
the rapidity of his recovery. When he sat down to rest he remembered
Jill, who had been lying quietly behind the screen, while he talked with
his mother, busy putting fresh covers on the books.

"She is so still, I guess she is asleep," thought Jack, peeping round
the corner.

No, not asleep, but lying with her eyes fixed on the sunny window,
beyon