Jewel: A Chapter in Her Life Part 27

Mrs. Forbes, crimson with surprise and mortification, retreated. "Very well, sir," she faltered. "Will you have the roses on the dinner table, Mr. Evringham?"

"No. Set them here on my desk if you please." With this Mr. Evringham began walking up and down the floor, pausing once to take up the yellow chicken. During the day the soft moan, "I wanted you so all night, grandpa," had been ringing in his ears.

"Mrs. Forbes has no understanding of the child," he muttered, "and of course I cannot expect anything from the cat and her kitten."

With this he began again his promenade. Mrs. Forbes returned with the roses, and simultaneously Mr. Evringham saw Ess.e.x Maid arching her neck as she picked her steps past the window.

"By the way," he said curtly, "let Zeke take the Maid back to the barn.

I'll not ride to-day."

"It's very fine weather, sir," protested Mrs. Forbes.

"I'll not ride. I'll wait here for Dr. Ballard."

The housekeeper went forth to give the order.

"I never saw Mr. Evringham so upset in my life," she said in an awestruck tone.

"I saw the governor wasn't real comfortable," returned the boy. "Guess he's afraid he's goin' to catch the mumps or something. It would be real harrowin' if he got any worse case of big head than he's got already."

Mr. Evringham was little accustomed to waiting, and by the time Dr.

Ballard appeared, his nervousness had become painful. "The child's slept too much, I'm sure of it, Ballard," was his greeting. "I don't know what we're going to find up there, I declare I don't."

"It depends on whether it's a good sleep," returned the doctor, and his composed face and manner acted at once beneficially upon Mr. Evringham.

"Well, you'll know, Guy, you'll know, my boy. Mrs. Forbes saw you coming, and she has gone upstairs to prepare the little girl. She'll be glad to see you this time, I'll wager."

The broker, roses in hand, ascended the staircase after the physician.

Mrs. Forbes was standing at the foot of the bed, and the room was pleasantly light as they entered. Jewel, the flush of sleep on her cheeks, was looking expectantly toward the door. Dr. Ballard came in first and she smiled in welcome, then Mr. Evringham appeared, heavy roses nodding in all directions before him.

"Grandpa!" exclaimed the child. "Why, grandpa, did _you_ come?"

There was no mistaking the joy in her tone. Dr. Ballard paused in surprise, while the stockbroker approached the bed.

"I brought you a few flowers, Jewel," he said, while she pressed his disengaged hand against her cheek.

"They're the most lovely ones I ever saw," she returned with conviction.

"They make me happy just to look at them."

"Well, Jewel," said the doctor, "I hear you've been making up for lost sleep in great shape." His eyes, as he spoke, were taking in with concentrated interest the signs in her face. He came and sat beside the bed, while Mr. Evringham fell back and Mrs. Forbes regarded the child critically.

"Well, now, you're a good little patient," went on the doctor, as he noted the clear eyes.

"Yes, Dr. Ballard, I feel just as nice as can be," she answered.

"No thickness in the voice. I fancy that sore throat is better." The young doctor could not repress his smile of satisfaction. "I was certain that was the right attenuation," he thought. "Now let us see."

He took out the little thermometer, and Jewel submitted to having it slipped beneath her tongue.

As Dr. Ballard leaned back in his chair to wait, he looked up at Mr.

Evringham. "It is very gratifying," he said, "to find these conditions at this hour of the day. I felt a little more uneasy this morning than I confessed." He nodded in satisfactory thought. "I grant you medicine is not an exact science, it is an art, an art. You can't prescribe by hard and fast rules. You must take into consideration the personal equation."

Presently he leaned forward and removed the thermometer. His eyes smiled as he read it, and he lifted it toward Mr. Evringham.

"I can't see it, boy."

"Well, there's nothing to see. She hasn't a particle of temperature.

Look here, little one," frowning at Jewel, "if everybody recovered as quickly as you have, where would we doctors be?"

Turning again and addressing Mr. Evringham, he went on, "I'm particularly interested in this result because that is a remedy over which there has been some altercation. There's one man to whom I shall be glad to relate this experience." The doctor leaned toward his little patient. "Jewel, I'm not so surprised as I might be at your improvement," he said kindly. "You will have to excuse me for a little righteous deception. I put medicine into that gla.s.s of water, and now you're glad I did, aren't you? I'd like you to tell me, little girl, as near as you can, how often you took it?"

"I didn't take it," replied the child.

Dr. Ballard drew back a little. "You mean," he said after a moment, "you took it only once?"

"No, sir, I didn't take it at all."

There was a silence, during which all could hear the ticking of the clock on the table, and the three pairs eyes were fixed on Jewel with such varying expressions of amazement and disapproval that the child's breath began to come faster.

"Didn't you drink any of the water?" asked Dr. Ballard at last.

"Yes, out of the pitcher."

"Why not out of the gla.s.s?"

"It didn't look enough. I was so thirsty."

They could not doubt her.

Mr. Evringham finally found his voice.

"Jewel, why didn't you obey the doctor?" His eyes and voice were so serious that she stretched out her arm.

"Oh, grandpa," she said, "please let me take hold of your hand."

"No, not till you answer me. Little girls should be obedient."

Jewel thought a minute.

"He said it wasn't medicine, so what was the use?" she asked.

Mr. Evringham, seeming to find an answer to this difficult, bit the end of his mustache.

Dr. Ballard was feeling his very ears grow red, while Mrs. Forbes's lips were set in a line of exasperation.

"Grandpa," said Jewel, and the child's voice was very earnest, "there's a Bible over there on the table. You look in there in the Gospels, and you'll find everywhere how Jesus tells us to do what I've done. He said he must go away, but he would send the Comforter to us, and this book tells about the Comforter." Jewel took the copy of "Science and Health"

from under the sheet.

"G.o.d's creation couldn't get sick. It's just His own image and likeness, so how could it? And when you can get right into G.o.d's love, what do you want of medicine to swallow? G.o.d wouldn't be omnipotent if He needed any help. You see I'm well. Isn't that all you want, grandpa?"