The Happy Visitor

 

Jessie remembers differently

  When I go in there the room smells funny, and hot, and I tell myself that this time I am going to be a good sister, and take his poor thin hand, and stroke his hot face, but then he says something hateful and I can’t hold it back, I want to squeeze his miserable little cheeks until they have crumbled to nothing.

I want to be good like the little children in books, Little Nell and Tiny Tim or Sara Crewe, giving her only bread to the starving child. But I am a disagreeable child and when Mother sends me to our room I pinch my own fat cheeks and cry.

back

The two sisters came to him and asked him which one of them he liked best. He scratched his head. “Well, there is Jessie,” he said. “She makes me laugh, which when one is stuck in bed all day is a most important characteristic.” Jessie laughed out loud and did cartwheels all around the room.

6

 

turn

 

back

 

Contents