72 
JACK SHORT’S SICKNESS. 
had not known it himself a few days before. 
“’But I do wish you could stay and hear 
Aunt Louisa talk about cats. Mr. Crediton, 
can Kate stay to night and hear the lec¬ 
ture?” 
“ Kate may stay if she wishes to, and if 
she will come home in the morning,” re¬ 
plied Mr. Crediton, kindly; “ and I hope she 
will be much the wiser for the lecture. I 
shall he obliged to deprive myself of the 
pleasure of hearing it, as I must go down to 
the sawmill before. I go home, to see Jack 
Short, who is very ill of a fever. I fear it 
will be a long time before he is well,—if in¬ 
deed he ever is.” 
“ How long has he been sick ?” asked Miss 
Louisa. 
“ He was taken about a week ago quite 
suddenly. I understood he had been play¬ 
ing in the water with the dogs till he was 
very wet; and that night he was attacked 
with rheumatic fever, from which he has been 
suffering ever since.” 
Richard and Sidney looked at each other 
hut said nothing. Annie was not so for¬ 
bearing. “It serves him right!” she ex- 
