"'You're making yourself weak by calling out,' I answered, a little
sharply. 'I shall have to keep that door shut.'
"'Oh, don't tell him'--that was all her thought--'don't let him know it.
Tell him I'm strong, won't you, nurse? It will kill him if he thinks I'm
not getting well.'
"I was glad when her sister came up, and I could get out of the room, for
you're not much good at nursing when you feel, as I felt then, as though
you had swallowed a tablespoon and it was sticking in your throat.
"Later on, when I went in to him, he drew me to the bedside, and
whispered me to tell him truly how she was. If you are telling a lie at
all, you may just as well make it a good one, so I told him she was
really wonderfully well, only a little exhausted after the illness, as
was natural, and that I expected to have her up before him.
"Poor lad! that lie did him more good than a week's doctoring and
nursing; and next morning he called out more cheerily than ever to her,
and offered to bet her a new bonnet against a new hat that he would race
her, and be up first.
"She laughed back quite merrily (I was in his room at the time). 'All
right,' she said, 'you'll lose. I shall be well first, and I shall come
and visit you.'
"Her laugh was so bright, and her voice sounded so much stronger, that I
really began to think she had taken a turn for the better, so that when
on going in to her I found her pillow wet with tears, I could not
understand it.
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