It
is only a trifling bruise."
Something familiar about him seemed to strike her; she looked at him with
a strangely puzzled face, but he gave her no light.
"Is there nothing we can do for you?" she asked, at length.
A great presumption almost took his breath away. He gave it voice on the
moment, afraid if he waited he should lack the courage.
"If you will give me the cluster of bluebells in your belt--"
She looked surprised, hesitated a moment, then laid them in his hand. He
bowed, and was lost in the crowd.
That night when he got home he found Mat worse. She had been failing for
a long time. She was a large girl now, with great preternaturally bright
eyes, and a spot of crimson in each hollow cheek.
It was more than three months since she had been able to do anything, and
Grandma Rugg was very harsh and severe with her in consequence. There
were black and blue places on her shoulders now where she had been
beaten, but Arch did not know it. Mat never spoke to him about her
sufferings, because it distressed him so, and made him very angry with
the old woman.
He went in and sat down on the straw beside Mat; and almost before he
knew it he was telling her about Margie Harrison. He always brought all
his joys and sorrows to Mat now, just as he used to carry them to his
mother.
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