But though Oscar would not allow his mother to leave him, she did not suit him much better than the other members of the family.  It was with considerable difficulty that she could coax him to take the medicines the doctor had ordered.  Then she was obliged to deny him all forms of nourishment, except a little gum-arabic water,—­an arrangement at which he complained a good deal.

Oscar’s fever continued to run for more than a week, the violence of the disease increasing from day to day.  Then a favorable change took place, and the doctor told him the fever had turned, and he was getting better.  For a day or two before this, however, he was very ill; so ill, indeed, that he submitted to whatever the doctor ordered, without a word of complaint.  He felt that there was danger, and he dare not stand in the way of the means used for his recovery.  To this, perhaps, he owed the favorable turn the disease had taken; for had he refused to take his medicines, as he did at the commencement of his sickness, or even had he only engaged in a fruitless but exhausting contest with his mother, the scale might have turned the other way, and the fever ended in death.

Getting better!  That was the best news Oscar had heard for many a day.  He almost wanted to kiss the lips that spoke those encouraging words.  He always liked Dr. Liscom, but never so well as at that moment.  It was good news to all the household, too, and flew quickly from one to another.  In fact, the children grew so jubilant over it, that their mother had to remind them that Oscar was yet too sick to bear any noise in the house.

“O dear,” said George, “I ’ve got tired of keeping so still.  How long will it be before we can make a real good noise, mother?”

“And how long before I can sing, and practice my music-lessons, mother?” inquired Ella.

“And how long before Oscar can go out and play?” inquired Ralph, more thoughtful for his sick brother than for himself.

“I can’t tell,” replied their mother; “you must all keep still a few days longer, for Oscar is very weak now, and the noise disturbs him.  The doctor thinks it will take several weeks for him to get fully well, but he will soon be able to sit up, I hope.”

The next morning, Oscar felt decidedly better, and so he continued to improve day by day.  But his old impatience soon began to return.  He grumbled every time the hour returned to take his drops, and he fairly rebelled against the food that was prepared for him—­a little weak gruel, when his appetite was clamoring for a hearty meal of beef and potatoes!  During his sickness, many little delicacies had been sent in to him by friends and neighbors, and from most of these too he was still debarred by the inexorable doctor.  He teased his mother to let him have things the doctor had forbidden, and was offended with her when she refused.  He thus made a great deal of unnecessary trouble and suffering for his mother, who had served him so devotedly through this sickness that her own health was giving way.