At all such hours,
indeed, and whenever Polly went to sit by the invalid, Phronsie would
curl up at Polly's side, and fondle the doll that Grandpapa gave her
last, which had the honour to take the European trip with the family.
Phronsie would smooth the little dress down carefully, and then with
her hand in Polly's, she would sit motionless till the reading was
over. Mamsie, whose fingers could not be idle, although the big mending
basket was left at home, would be over on the sofa, sewing busily; and
little Dr. Fisher would run in and out, and beaming at them all through
his spectacles, would cry cheerily, "Well, I declare, you have the most
comfortable place on the whole boat, Mr. Selwyn." Or Dr. Jones, whom
Polly thought, next to Papa Fisher, was the very nicest doctor in all
the world, would appear suddenly around the curtain, and smile approval
through his white teeth. At last on the fifth day out, the old man was
helped up to sun himself in his steamer chair on deck. And then he had
a perfect coterie around him, oh-ing and ah-ing over his illness, and
expressing sympathy in every shape, for since Mr. King and his party
took him up, it was quite the thing for all the other passengers to
follow suit.
When a few hours of this sort of thing had been going on, the old man
called abruptly to Polly Pepper, who had left him, seeing he had such
good company about him, and had now skipped up with Jasper to toss him
a merry word, or to see if his steamer rug was all tucked in snugly
around him.
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