"How you startled me, Martha!" I cried.

"No wonder, child!" she answered. "I come with bad news! Your uncle has
had a fall. He is laid up at Wittenage with a broken right arm."

I burst into tears.

"Oh, Martha!" I cried; "I must go to him!"

"He has sent for me," she answered quietly.

"Dick is putting the horse to the phaeton."

"He doesn't want me, then!" I said; but it seemed a voice not my own that
shrieked the words.

The punishment of my sin was upon me. Never would he have sent for Martha
and not me, I thought, had he not seen that I had gone wrong again, and
was no more to be trusted.

"My dear," said Martha, "which of us two ought to be the better nurse?
You never saw your uncle ill; I've nursed him at death's door!"

"Then you don't think he is angry with me, Martha?" I said, humbled
before myself.

"Was he ever angry with you, Orbie? What is there to be angry about? I
never saw him even displeased with you!"

I had not realized that my uncle was suffering--only that he was