"Why, one eye is pretty bad," said the doctor, "and the other got the
full force of some powder explosion. They have good people up at the
hospital, though, and they will soon get him to rights."
"I must tell my mother at once," murmured Bart.
He left the place with a heart as heavy as lead. It seemed as if one
furious Fourth of July powder blast had disrupted the very foundations
of all the family hopes and happiness, leaving a blackened wreck where
there had been unity, comfort and peace.
If his father was disabled seriously, their prospects became a very
grave problem. Bart, too, was worried about the loss to the express
company. The books were probably out on the desk when the fire
commenced, the safe was open, and the loss in money and records meant
considerable.
Bart felt that he was undertaking the hardest task of his life when he
reached home and broke the news to his mother--it was like disturbing
the peace of some earthly Eden.
Mrs. Stirling went at once to the hospital with her eldest daughter,
Bertha. Bart, very anxious and miserable, got the younger boys to bed
and tried to cheer up his little sister Alice, who was in a transport of
grief and suspense.
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