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into Johnsy’s room and started painting. To take Johnsy’s mind off her

illness, she whistled while working.

Sue tried to liven up Johnsy. She discussed interesting things like

clothes and fashion with her but Johnsy remained unaffected. She lay in

bed. Sue sat beside her and started painting in order to create interest in

her and take her mind off her illness. Sue would whistle at times to

brighten up Johnsy.

Suddenly Sue heard Johnsy whisper something. She quickly rushed to

the bed and heard Johnsy counting backwards. She was looking out of

the window and was saying, “Twelve!” After sometime she whispered

“eleven”, then “ten”, then “nine”, “eight”, “seven”. Sue anxiously looked

out of the window. She saw an old ivy creeper climbing half-way up the

brick wall opposite their window. In the strong wind outside, the creeper

was shedding its leaves.

Sue heard that Johnsy was speaking softly. Johnsy was making a

backward counting while looking out of the window. Sue was curious

and looked outside. She saw an ivy creeper plant beside the window of

the room. As strong winds were blowing, the leaves of the creeper were

falling.

“What is it, dear?” Sue asked.

Sue asked her what the matter was.

“Six,” whispered Johnsy. “They are falling faster now. Three days ago

there were almost a hundred leaves. There are only five left now.”

Johnsy said “six”. Then she said that the leaves were falling faster. She

added that three days ago there were a lot of leaves on the ivy creeper -

almost one hundred but now only five were left.