The others murmured a somewhat sheepish assent, and Jarvis turned willingly enough to a tale of adventure at sea.  A snore from the couch interrupted him in the middle of a most thrilling crisis, and only the appearance of Joanna with a big dish of shiny apples prevented Bob from following suit.

“Jove, Joanna, you’re a good one.  How did you come to think of it?” asked Alec, selecting a beauty and setting his teeth into it with a sense of refreshment.

“Miss Sally said I was not to forget anything she usually did, Mr. Alec,” replied Joanna.

“If you remember everything she usually does you’ll be a brick, Joanna,” cried Bob, rousing to his opportunity and getting up on his knees to accept his apple.

“There’s one thing she does, that nobody can possibly do for her,” thought Jarvis as, consuming the crisp, cool specimen Joanna had bestowed upon him with a motherly smile for the boy she had known so long, he paced up and down the room, passing the piano at the end with a vivid recollection of how Sally was accustomed to play what she called “little tunes” upon it in the firelight.

“And that’s to fill one small corner of her place in the home she has made here.”

CHAPTER XVII

THE SOUTHBOUND LIMITED

Sally’s first letter home was a short one, stating merely that Uncle Timothy was very ill, very glad to see her, and that she was extremely thankful she had come.  The second letter, two days later, showed strong anxiety.  The illness was pneumonia, although not in its severest form; but Mr. Rudd’s age was an important factor in the case.  For a week bulletins were brief, then came a long letter, telling of improvement.

“The minute he is well out of danger she ought to come home,” was Max’s opinion.

“She won’t, though,” Alec predicted.  “She’ll stay till she can bring him with her.”

“Not if she listens to me,” and Max set about writing a reply which would indicate to his sister in no uncertain terms the course he thought she should pursue.

Her answer was prompt.  “I want to come home just as much as you want to have me, Max dear, but it is so much to Uncle Timmy to have me with him I can’t think of leaving.”

Max frowned over this.  “She seems to consult me precious little about anything lately,” he observed to Jarvis.

“You must admit she’s grown up and can think for herself.  Besides, much as I’d like to see her back, I think she’s right,” was Jarvis’s opinion.

“Of course you’d side with her against me every time.  But I think her brothers are a trifle nearer to her than her uncle.”

“She’d undoubtedly think so too, if you were in bed with pneumonia.  Since you’re all in vigorous health she imagines you can get on without her.  But she’s not having a very jolly time of it, I should judge.  Cheer her up with a lively letter, not a peevish one,” was Jarvis’s advice.