"Because she was very sick a great many years ago, and it hurt her mind."
"Can she talk?"
"She only says "Papa," "Mamma," "Hattie." She talks just about as well as the baby does, and they play together half the time."
"Does she go to school?" asked Flaxie, growing very much interested indeed.
"To school? Oh no! _she_ couldn"t learn anything," said Mrs. Chase, sighing.
But Hattie seemed rather proud of having such a strange sister.
"See that?" said she, holding up Lucy"s right hand.
"Why, it"s littler than mine, and all dried up," exclaimed Flaxie Frizzle.
"Poor dear, she has lost her mittens again," said Mrs. Chase, wiping Lucy"s mouth. "I can"t afford to keep buying mittens for her, she loses them so."
"Wouldn"t it be well to fasten them to her cloak-sleeve by a string?"
asked Mrs. Allen.
Flaxie gazed bewildered at this singular little girl, who could not wipe her own mouth, or talk, or go to school. She had never known of such a little girl before.
"Too bad about Lucy!" said she, thoughtfully, to her aunt as they got out at Chicopee, and left the whole Chase family looking after them from the car-window. "Is Lucy poor?"
"Very."
"Where does she live?"
"In Hilltop."
"Oh! I didn"t s"pose she lived in Hilltop."
"There," said Aunt Charlotte, "now this next house is Mrs. Adams"s, where you will see the gold-fishes."
But Flaxie did not care just then for the gold-fishes.
"Auntie, don"t you think Lucy ought to have some mittens?"
She spoke cheerily, as if mittens were the very thing, and the only thing Lucy needed.
"And, auntie, _I_ can crochet!"
"Is it possible?" said Aunt Charlotte, thinking how many things Flaxie had learned that little Milly knew nothing about. "How much can you crochet?"
"Well, I made a scarf once for my dolly. I _wish_ I could make some mittens for Lucy!"
"That"s the very thing! I"ll buy you some worsteds this afternoon," said Aunt Charlotte, as she rang Mrs. Adams"s door-bell; and Flaxie "smiled"
up her face in a minute, exclaiming:
"Red, auntie, please get "em red!"
They had a lovely time with Mrs. Adams"s gold-fish, and parrot, and canary; but after all it was the vision of those red mittens that eased the ache at Flaxie"s poor little heart.
Auntie was all patience next morning, and her young niece all smiles; and between them the ivory hook and the red worsteds kept moving.
"Lucy can"t say "thank you," but her mamma"ll be _so_ pleased," said Flaxie, her face beaming. She really thought she was making the mittens herself, because she took a st.i.tch now and then.
"What, working on Sunday?" said teasing Johnny.
"Oh, it isn"t Sunday, and I _didn"t_ come Friday, and I _can_ wait two weeks to see my mamma. You see I didn"t know there was a little girl I could make mittens for, or I shouldn"t have cried," said Flaxie, stopping a moment to kiss the baby.
The mittens were lovely. Aunt Charlotte finished them off at the wrists with a tufted border. Lucy couldn"t say "thank you," but her poor mother was delighted, and fastened them to the child"s cloak by a string, so they wouldn"t be lost.
The moment Milly got home from Troy and had been kissed all around, Flaxie said:
"Oh, you don"t know how I did feel, staying here all alone, Milly. But I made those mittens, and then I felt better."
"What mittens?" asked Milly, who hadn"t untied her bonnet yet, and couldn"t know in a minute everything that had happened.
"Why, Lucy"s red mittens; don"t you know? I tell you, Milly, what you must do when you don"t feel happy: you must make somebody some mittens."
This was Flaxie"s way of saying "You must help other people." But Milly knew what she meant. Children understand one another when the talking is ever so crooked.
Flaxie had now been at Hilltop more than three weeks, and had become so contented and happy that she was really sorry when Aunt Jane Abbott appeared one morning to take her home.
"Thank you ever so much," said Miss Frizzle, politely; "but I don"t care "bout going home."
"Indeed!" said Aunt Jane, smiling. "And why not?"
""Cause she wants to stay here and go to school with me," spoke up Milly, with her cheek close to Flaxie"s.
"But we thought she"d like to see her little brother Phil; he has eight teeth," said Aunt Jane.
"Oh yes"m, I do, I do!"
"Now, Flaxie," pleaded Milly, looking grieved, "when you haven"t been to my school, and haven"t seen my elegant teacher!"
"Well, but isn"t Philip my brother? And so are Preston and Ninny. I forgot about them."
"And don"t you want to see your mother too?" asked Aunt Jane, with another smile. She had been smiling ever since she came.
"Oh, yes, my mamma; I want to see her most of anybody in this world--"cept my papa!"
Milly"s head drooped.
"Oh, but I"m coming back again," said Flaxie, kissing her. "And then I"ll go to school. Where"s my valise?"
She was such a restless, impatient little girl that it wasn"t best to let her know till the last minute what a beautiful thing had happened at home. But the next morning, when her hat and cloak were on, Aunt Jane told her she had a dear, new little baby sister, three days old!