While thus employed, it chanced that
they got wet to the skin with a drizzling rain, and on returning to
the house the farmer changed his clothes, drank some hot mulled
cider, and spent the remainder of the evening in his high-backed
chair before a comfortable fire; while the boy was sent to grease a
wagon in an open shed, and at night crept to his straw pallet,
shaking as though in an ague fit. The next morning he was in a high
fever, and with many a "wonder of what had got into him," but
without one word of sympathy, or any other manifestation of
good-will, he was sent home to his mother. Late in the evening of
the same day a compassionate physician was surprised to see a woman
enter his office; her garments wet and travel-stained, and, with
streaming eyes, she besought him to come and see her son.
"My Johnny, my Johnny, sir!" she cried, "he has been raving wild all
day, and we are afraid he will die."
Mistaking the cause of the good man's hesitation, she added, with a
fresh burst of grief, "Oh! I will work my fingers to the bone to pay
you, sir, if you will only come. We live in the Gap."
A few inquiries were all that was necessary to learn the state of
the case. The benevolent doctor took the woman in his vehicle, and
proceeded, over a mountainous road of six miles, to see his patient.
Pages:
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240