"Is it something you're ashamed of?" Gladys asked quickly and in
surprise.

Seth nodded, while the flush of shame crept up into his cheeks.

Gladys gazed at him earnestly while one might have counted ten, and
then said, speaking slowly and distinctly:

"I don't believe it. Aunt Hannah says you're the best boy she ever
saw; an' she knows."

"Did Aunt Hannah tell you that, or are you tryin' to stuff me?" And
Seth rose to his feet excitedly.

"I hope you don't think I'd tell a lie?"

"Of course I don't, Gladys; but if you only knew how much it means to
me--Aunt Hannah's sayin' what you claim she did--there wouldn't be any
wonder I had hard work to believe it."

"She said to me those very same words----"

"What ones?"

"That you was the best boy she ever saw, an' it was only yesterday
afternoon, when you were splitting kindling wood, that she said it."

Then, suddenly, to Gladys' intense surprise, Seth dropped his head on
his arm and burst into a flood of tears.

CHAPTER VI.

SUNSHINE.

MRS. DEAN had taken entire charge of the invalid and the house, and so
many of the neighbors insisted on aiding her that Gladys and Seth were
pushed aside as if they had been strangers.

At midnight, when one of the volunteer nurses announced that Aunt
Hannah was resting as comfortably as could be expected under the
circumstances, Gladys, in obedience to Mrs. Dean's peremptory command,
went to bed; but Seth positively refused to leave the kitchen.

"Somethin' that I could do might turn up, an' I count on bein' ready
for it," he said when the neighbor urged him to lie down. "Snip an'
I'll stay here; an' if we get sleepy, what's to hinder our takin' a
nap on the couch?"

So eager was the boy for an opportunity to serve Aunt Hannah that he
resolutely kept his eyes open during the remainder of the night lest
the volunteer nurses should fail to waken him if his services were
needed; and to accomplish this he made frequent excursions out of
doors, where the wind swept the "sand" from his eyes.

With the first light of dawn he set about effacing so far as might be
possible all traces of fire from the kitchen, and was washing the
floor when Mrs. Dean came out from the foreroom.

"Well, I do declare!" she exclaimed in surprise. "Hannah Morse said
you was a handy boy 'round the house, but this is a little more'n I
expected. I wish my William could take a few lessons from you."

"I didn't count on gettin' the floor