It was rather jolly while No

It was rather jolly while No?l had that cold. He had a fire in his bedroom which opens out of Dicky’s and Oswald’s, and the girls used to read aloud to No?l all day; they will not read aloud to you when you are well. Father was away at Liverpool on business, and Albert’s uncle was at Hastings. We were rather glad of this, because we wished to give all the medicines a fair trial, and grown‐ups are but too fond of interfering. As if we should have given him anything poisonous!
His cold went on—it was bad in his head, page: 206 but it was not one of the kind when he has to have poultices and can’t sit up in bed. But when it had been in his head nearly a week, Oswald happened to tumble over Alice on the stairs. When we got up she was crying.
“Don’t cry silly!” said Oswald; “you know I didn’t hurt you.” I was very sorry if I had hurt her, but you ought not to sit on the stairs in the dark and let other people tumble over you. You ought to remember how beastly it is for them if they do hurt you.
“Oh, it’s not that, Oswald,” Alice said. “Don’t be a pig! I am so miserable. Do be kind to me.”
So Oswald thumped her on the back and told her to shut up.
“It’s about No?l,” she said. “I’m sure he’s very ill; and playing about with medicines is all very well, but I know he’s ill, and Eliza won’t send for the doctor: she says it’s only a cold. And I know the doctor’s bills are awful. I heard Father telling Aunt Emily so in the summer. But he is ill, and perhaps he’ll die or something.”
Then she began to cry again. Oswald thumped her again, because he knows how a good brother ought to behave, and said, “Cheer up.” If we had been in a book page: 207 Oswald would have embraced his little sister tenderly, and mingled his tears with hers.
Then Oswald said, “Why not write to Father?” And she cried more and said,moncler jackets men, “I’ve lost the paper with the address,Fake Designer Handbags. H.O. had it to draw on the back of, and I can’t find it now; I’ve looked everywhere. I’ll tell you what I’m going to do. No I won’t. But I’m going out. Don’t tell the others. And I say, Oswald, do pretend I’m in if Eliza asks. Promise.”
“Tell me what you’re going to do,” I said. But she said “No”; and there was a good reason why not. So I said I wouldn’t promise if it came to that. Of course I meant to all right,LINK. But it did seem mean of her not to tell me.
So Alice went out by the side door while Eliza was setting tea, and she was a long time gone; she was not in to tea. When Eliza asked Oswald where she was he said he did not know, but perhaps she was tidying her corner drawer. Girls often do this, and it takes a long time. No?l coughed a good bit after tea, and asked for Alice. Oswald told him she was doing something and it was a secret. Oswald did not tell any lies even to save his sister. When Alice came back she was very quiet, page: 208 but she whispered to Oswald that it was all right. When it was rather late Eliza said she was going out to post a letter. This always takes her an hour, because she will go to the post‐office across the Heath instead of the pillar‐box, because once a boy dropped fusees in our pillar‐box and burnt the letters. It was not any of us; Eliza told us about it. And when there was a knock at the door a long time after we thought it was Eliza come back, and that she had forgotten the back‐door key. We made H.O,Discount UGG Boots. go down to open the door, because it is his place to run about: his legs are younger than ours. And we heard boots on the stairs besides H.O.’s, and we listened spellbound till the door opened, and it was Albert’s uncle. He looked very tired.