The Three Wishes by MFS Author:Mary Seymour Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER IV. " I must not quarrel with the will Of highest dispensations, which herein Haply had ends above my reach to know." j|H, Dora, Dora! I cann... more »ot stay here, I cannot see her suffer;" and Gertrude Graham had hurried from her mother's sick-room, leaving her elder sister the task of nursing, which she might have shared. " Then look to the little ones will you, dear Gertie ?" Dora had pleaded. " You see how ill mamma is, and I cannot leave her, to attend to the house and the children." " How can you ask me, Dora, when you must know how they make my head ache with their questions ?—now, too, when I am so nervous and upset;" and she went away to tell Lucy how vejy exacting and unfeeling Dora was. " It is easy for her to stay there looking soquiet and business-like. Of course she has nerve enough for anything, or she wouldn't think of being a Sister of Charity; but it is quite a different matter for me." Lucy raised her head from the sofa where she had thrown herself in a fit of passionate tears, because of this heavy cloud which had fallen upon her first coming home. " Perhaps I ought to go and help Dora," she said hesitatingly. "But I am so frightened, for mamma doesn't know anyone, and she talks in such a confused way. Oh, I can't go, I dare not! I never saw anyone very ill before;" and the terrified girl broke into a fresh storm of crying, while Gertrude walked up and down the room. "I wonder if mamma will be better by Thursday," she said at last. " Thursday, what about Thursday ?" asked Lucy, wiping her eyes. " Oh, only the Duncans' party. You're not asked, of course, because they have not seen you yet. I wouldn't miss that party for anything; it is sure to be delightful." " Gertie! you can't go when mamma is dangerously ill like this. What ...« less