She would look after this detestable little animal if it killed her . She would get a book on baby hygiene and be beholden to nobody . She would never go to father for advice -- she would n't bother mother -- and she would only condescend to Susan in dire extremity . They would all see ! Thus it came about that Mrs. Blythe , when she returned home two nights later and asked Susan where Rilla was , was electrified by Susan 's composed reply . `` She 's upstairs , Mrs. Dr. dear , putting her baby to bed . '' CHAPTER VIII RILLA DECIDES Families and individuals alike soon become used to new conditions and accept them unquestioningly . By the time a week had elapsed it seemed as it the Anderson baby had always been at Ingleside . After the first three distracted nights Rilla began to sleep again , waking automatically to attend to her charge on schedule time . She bathed and fed and dressed it as skilfully as if she had been doing it all her life . She liked neither her job nor the baby any the better ; she still handled it as gingerly as if it were some kind of a small lizard , and a breakable lizard at that ; but she did her work thoroughly and there was not a cleaner , better-cared-for infant in Glen St. Mary . She even took to weighing the creature every day and jotting the result down in her diary ; but sometimes she asked herself pathetically why unkind destiny had ever led her down the Anderson lane on that fatal day . Shirley , Nan , and Di did not tease her as much as she had expected . They all seemed rather stunned by the mere fact of Rilla adopting a war-baby ; perhaps , too , the doctor had issued instructions . Walter , of course , never had teased her over anything ; one day he told her she was a brick . `` It took more courage for you to tackle that five pounds of new infant , Rilla-my-Rilla , than it would be for Jem to face a mile of Germans . I wish I had half your pluck , '' he said ruefully . Rilla was very proud of Walter 's approval ; nevertheless , she wrote gloomily in her diary that night : -- `` I wish I could like the baby a little bit . It would make things easier . But I do n't .
I 've heard people say that when you took care XXXXX a baby you got fond of it -- but you do n't -- I do n't , anyway .
After about at for if in of on that to