TO MY DEAR MOTHER
WHO FREQUENTLY INTERRUPTS
AND TO
MY SISTER FANNIE
WHO SAYS “SH-SH-SH!” OUTSIDE MY DOOR
There are a number of things that are pleasanter than being sick in a New Yorkboarding-house when one’s nearest dearest is a married sister up in far-awayMichigan.
Some one must have been very kind, for there were doctors, and a blue-and-whitestriped nurse, and bottles and things. There was even a vase of perkycarnations—scarlet ones. I discovered that they had a trick of nodding theirheads, saucily. The discovery did not appear to surprise me.
“Howdy-do!” said I aloud to the fattest and reddest carnation that overtoppedall the rest. “How in the world did you get in here?”
The striped nurse (I hadn’t noticed her before) rose from some corner and cameswiftly over to my bedside, taking my wrist between her fingers.
“I’m very well, thank you,” she said, smiling, “and I came in at the door, ofcourse.”
“I wasn’t talking to you,” I snapped, crossly, “I was speaking to thecarnations; particularly to that elderly one at the top—the fat one who keepsbowing and wagging his head at me.”
“Oh, yes,” answered the striped nurse, politely, “of course. That one is verylively, isn’t he? But suppose we take them out for a little while now.”
She picked up the vase and carried it into t