o is to be brought
home.

"It was a very affecting scene, as ye may suppose, and my first words
were, 'Who is to tell this to Mr. Mortimer?' They said your brother has
already gone to fetch him and prepare him. Well, I knew everything that
was in the house, and where it was kept; so I'm thankful to think I was
of use, and could help the new governess and the strange servants.

"Dorothea and Mrs. Henfrey soon came in, and by the time John arrived
all the invalids had been carried up-stairs, and Johnnie had begun to
show signs of consciousness.

"John was as white as chalk. He was rather strange at first; he said in
a commanding, peremptory way, that he wouldn't be spoken to; he wouldn't
hear a word; he was not ready. Everybody stood round, till Dorothea
disobeyed him; she said, 'They are all living, dear Mr. Mortimer;' and
then Giles got him to sit down, and they gave him some water to drink.

"He then noticed Dr. Limpsy, who had come down, and asked if any of them
were in danger, and the doctor said yes--one. So he said he prayed God
it was not his eldest son: he could bear anything but that. And yet when
the doctor said he had every hope that Johnnie would do well, but he had
great fears for the little Anastasia, he burst into tears, poor man, and
said that of all his children she would be the hardest to spare. But I
need not tell ye we did not remind him of the inconsistency, and were
glad to think he was not to lose the one he set his heart most upon. And
after that he was perfectly himself and more composed than anybody,
which is a wonder, for such a catalogue of broken bones and sprains and
contusions as came to light as the doctors examined further, was enough
to disturb anybody's courage. Giles sat up with Johnnie all night;
indeed nobody went to bed. John was by Nancy, and in the morning they
spoke hopefully of her. Johnnie's first words were about his father; he
couldn't bear his father near him, because now and then he was surprised
into shouting out with pain, and he wouldn't have John distressed with
his noise. He was nothing like so well as we had hoped this morning; but
still the doctors say there is no danger. He got a kick from the horse
when he was down, and he thinks he fainted with the pain. When John came
down to get a little breakfast he was very much cheered to have a better
account than he had expected of Nancy, and he made the remark that ye
would be sorry to hear of this; so I said I would wr