“Do you think I shall ever be able to do it again?” she asked, looking up with wet eyes.
“Why, of course you will!” said Clover; while Elsie danced about, crying out anxiously: “Be careful! Do be careful!”
Katy tried, but the spring was gone. She could not move out of the chair at all. She began to wonder if she had dreamed the whole thing.
But next day, when Clover happened to be in the room, she heard a sudden exclamation, and turning, there stood Katy, absolutely on her feet.
“Papa! papa!” shrieked Clover, rushing down stairs. “Dorry, John, Elsie – come! Come and see!”
Papa was out, but all the rest crowded up at once. This time Katy found no trouble in “doing it again.” It seemed as if her will had been asleep; and now that it had waked up, the limbs recognized its orders and obeyed them.
When Papa came in, he was as much excited as any of the children. He walked round and round the chair, questioning Katy and making her stand up and sit down.
“Am I really going to get well?” she asked, almost in a whisper.
“Yes, my love, I think you are,” said Dr. Carr, seizing Phil and giving him a toss into the air. None of the children had ever before seen Papa behave so like a boy. But pretty soon, noticing Katy’s burning cheeks and excited eyes, he calmed himself, sent the others all away, and sat down to soothe and quiet her with gentle words.
“I think it is coming, my darling,” he said; “but it will take time, and you must have a great deal of patience. After being such a good child all these years, I’m sure you won’t fail now. Remember, any imprudence will put you back. You must be content to gain a very little at a time. There is no royal road to walking any more than there is to learning. Every baby finds that out.”
“Oh, Papa!” said Katy, “it’s no matter if it takes a year – if only I get well at last.”
How happy she was that night – too happy to sleep. Papa noticed the dark circles under her eyes in the morning and shook his head.
“You must be careful,” he told her, “or you’ll be laid up again. A course of fever would put you back for years.”
Katy knew Papa was right, and she was careful, though it was by no means easy to be so with that new life tingling in every limb. Her progress was slow, as Dr. Carr had predicted. At first she only stood on her feet a few seconds, then a minute, then five minutes, holding tightly all the while by the chair. Next she ventured to let go the chair, and stand alone. After that she began to walk a step at a time, pushing a chair before her, as children do when they are learning the use of their feet. Clover and Elsie hovered about her as she moved, like anxious mammas. It was droll, and a little pitiful, to see tall Katy with her feeble, unsteady progress, and the active figures of the little sisters following her protectingly. But Katy did not consider it either droll or pitiful, to her it was simply delightful – the most delightful thing possible. No baby of a year old was ever prouder of his first steps than she.
Gradually she grew adventurous, and ventured on a bolder flight. Clover, running up stairs one day to her own room, stood transfixed at the sight of Katy sitting there, flushed, panting, but enjoying the surprise she caused.
“You see,” she explained, in an apologizing tone, “I was seized with a desire to explore. It is such a time since I saw any room but my own! But oh dear, how long that hall is! I had forgotten it could be so long. I shall have to take a good rest before I go back.”
Katy did take a good rest, but she was very tired next day. The experiment, however, did no harm. In the course of two or three weeks, she was able to walk all over the second story.
This was a great enjoyment. It was like reading an interesting book to see all the new things, and the little changes. She was forever wondering over something.
“Why, Dorry,” she would say, “what a pretty book-shelf! When did you get it?”
“That old thing! Why, I’ve had it two years. Didn’t I ever tell you about it?”
“Perhaps you did,” Katy would reply, “but you see I never saw it before, so it made no impression.”
By the end of August, she was grown so strong, that she began to talk about going down stairs. But Papa said, “Wait.”
“It will tire you much more than walking about on a level,” he explained, “you had better put it off a little while – till you are quite sure of your feet.”
“I think so too,” said Clover; “and beside, I want to have the house all put in order and made nice, before your sharp eyes see it, Mrs. Housekeeper. Oh, I’ll tell you! Such a beautiful idea has come into my head! You shall fix a day to come down, Katy, and we’ll be all ready for you, and have a “celebration” among ourselves. That would be just lovely! How soon may she, Papa?”
“Well – in ten days, I should say, it might be safe.”
“Ten days! that will bring it to the seventh of September, won’t it?” said Katy. “Then, Papa, if I may, I’ll come down for the first time on the eighth. It was Mamma’s birthday, you know,” she added in a lower voice.
So it was settled. “How delicious!” cried Clover, skipping about and clapping her hands; “I never, never, never did hear of anything so perfectly lovely. Papa, when are you coming down stairs? I want to speak to you dreadfully.”
“Right away – rather than have my coat-tails pulled off,” answered Dr. Carr, laughing, and they went away together. Katy sat looking out of the window in a peaceful, happy mood.
“Oh!” she thought, “can it really be? Is School going to ‘let out,’ just as Cousin Helen’s hymn said? Am I going to
‘Bid a sweet good-by to Pain?’
But there was Love in the Pain. I see it now. How good the dear Teacher has been to me!”
Clover seemed to be very busy all the rest of that week. She was “having windows washed,” she said, but this explanation hardly accounted for her long absences, and the mysterious exultation on her face, not to mention certain sounds of hammering and sawing which came from down stairs. The other children had evidently been warned to say nothing; for once or twice Philly broke out with, “O Katy!” and then hushed himself up, saying, “I most forgot!” Katy grew very curious. But she saw that the secret, whatever it was, gave immense satisfaction to everybody except herself; so, though she longed to know, she concluded not to spoil the fun by asking any questions.
At last it wanted but one day of the important occasion.
“See,” said Katy, as Clover came into the room a little before tea-time. “Miss Petingill has brought home my new dress. I’m going to wear it for the first time to go down stairs in.”
“How pretty!” said Clover, examining the dress, which was a soft, dove-colored cashmere, trimmed with ribbon of the same shade. “But, Katy, I came up to shut your door. Bridget’s going to sweep the hall, and I don’t want the dust to fly in, because your room was brushed this morning, you know.”
“What a queer time to sweep the hall!” said Katy, wondering. “Why don’t you make her wait till morning?”
“Oh, she can’t! There are – she has – I mean there will be other things for her to do to-morrow. It’s a great deal more convenient that she should do it now. Don’t worry, Katy, darling, but just keep your door shut. You will, won’t you? Promise me!”
“Very well,” said Katy, more and more amazed, but yielding to Clover’s eagerness. “I’ll keep it shut.” Her curiosity was excited. She took a book and tried