Ruth Hall Part 5

"Certainly, if you think best," said Harry, springing up; "but it is a cold night for the old man to come out; and really, Ruth, Daisy has only a stuffed cold."

"_Please_ let Pat go," said Ruth, pleadingly; "I shall feel happier, Harry."

It was a venturous undertaking to rouse Pat suddenly, as his b.u.mp of destructiveness generally woke first; and a fight seemed always with him a necessary preliminary to a better understanding of things.

"Hold! hold!" said Harry, seizing his brawny, belligerent fists; "not quite so fast man; open your eyes, and see who I am."

"Did I sthrike yer honor?" said Pat; "I hope yer'll forgive me; but you see, I was jist born with my fists doubled up."

"All right," said his master, laughing; "but get on your clothes as soon as possible; harness Romeo, and bring the old gentleman up here. Mrs.

Hall feels very uneasy about Daisy, and wants him to prescribe for her."

"I'll bring him back in a flash," said Pat; "but what'll I do if he won't come?"

"Who's there? what do you want? Speak quick, if you've anything to say, for I'm catching the rheumatiz' in my head;" said the doctor, as he poked his bald poll out the cottage window, into the frosty night air.

"Who are you? and what on earth do you want?"

"It's me," said Pat.

"Who's me?" said the Doctor.

"Botheration," growled Pat; "don't the ould owl know the voice of me?--It's Pat Donahue; the childer is sick, and Misthress Ruth wants you to come wid me, and give her something to betther her."

"Pooh! pooh! is that all you woke me up for? The child was well enough this noon, except a slight cold. Ruth is full of notions. Go home and take that bottle, and tell her to give Daisy half a teaspoonful once in two hours; and I'll come over in the morning. She's always a-fussing with that child, and thinking, if she sneezes, that she is going to die.

It's a wonder if I don't die myself, routed out of a warm bed, without my wig, this time of night. There--there--go along, and mind you shut the gate after you. Ten to one he'll leave it open," soliloquized the doctor, slamming down the window with a jerk. "I hate an Irishman as I do a rattlesnake. An Irishman is an incomplete biped--a human tower of Babel; he was finished up to a certain point, and there he was left.

"Mis. Hall! Mis. Hall! if you've no objection, I should like you to stop snoring. I should like to sleep, if the village of Glenville will let me. Dear, dear, what a thing it is to be a doctor!"

CHAPTER XXI.

"If de las' day _has_ come, dis chil' ought to know it," said Dinah, springing to her feet and peering out, as she scratched away the frost from the window; "has de debbel broke loose? or only de horse? Any way, 'tis about de same ting;" and she glanced in the direction of the barn.

"Ma.s.sy sakes! dere's Pat stealing off in de night wid Romeo; no he aint neider--he's putting him up in de barn. Where you s'pose he's been dis time o' night? _Courting_ p'r'aps! Well, dis chil' dunno. And dere's a bright light shining on de snow, from Ma.s.sa Harry's window. Dinah can't sleep till she knows what's to pay, dat's a fac';" and tying a handkerchief over her woolly head, and throwing on a shawl, she tramped down stairs. "Ma.s.sy sakes!" said she, stopping on the landing, as Daisy's shrill cough fell on her ear; "Ma.s.sy! jes' hear dat!" and opening the chamber-door, Dinah stood staring at the child, with distended eye-b.a.l.l.s, then looking from Harry to Ruth, as if she thought them both under the influence of night-mare. "For de _Lord's_ sake, Ma.s.sa Harry, send for de doctor," said Dinah, clasping her hands.

"We have," said Harry, trying to coax Daisy to swallow another spoonful of the medicine, "and he said he'd be here in the morning."

"_She won't_," said Dinah, in a low, hoa.r.s.e whisper to Harry, as she pointed to Daisy. "Don't you _know_, Ma.s.sa, it's de croup! de croup; de _wu'st_ way, Ma.s.sa! _Oh_ Lor'!"

Harry was harnessing Romeo in an instant, and on his way to the doctor's cottage. In vain he knocked, and rang, and thumped. The old man, comfortably tucked up between the blankets, was far away in the land of dreams.

"What is to be done?" said Harry; "I must tie Romeo to the post and climb in at the kitchen-window."

"Father! father!" said he, shaking the old gentleman by the shoulders, "Daisy is worse, and I want you to go right home with me."

"Don't believe it," said the old man; "you are only frightened; it's an awful cold night to go out."

"I know it," said Harry; "but I brought two buffaloes; hurry, father.

Daisy is _very_ sick."

The old doctor groaned; took his wig from the bed post, and put it on his head; tied a woollen m.u.f.fler, with distressing deliberation, over his unbelieving ears, and, returning four times to tell "Mis. Hall to be sure and bolt the front door after him," climbed into the sleigh. "I shall be glad if I don't get a sick spell myself," said the doctor, "coming out this freezing night. Ruth has frightened you to death, I s'pose. Ten to one when I get up there, nothing will ail the child.

Come, come, don't drive so fast; my bones are old, and I don't believe in these gay horses of yours, who never make any use of their fore-legs, except to hold them up in the air. Whoa, I say--Romeo, whoa!"

"Get out de way, Pat!" said Dinah; "your Paddy fingers are all thumbs.

Here, put some more water in dat kettle dere; now stir dat mustard paste; now run quick wid dat goose-grease up to Missus, and tell her to rub de chil's troat wid it; 't aint no use, though. Oh, Lor'! dis n.i.g.g.e.r knew she wouldn't live, ever since she said dat 'bout de caterpillar. De Lord wants de chil', dat's a fac'; she nebber played enough to suit Dinah."

CHAPTER XXII.

Stamping the snow from his feet, the doctor slowly untied his woollen m.u.f.fler, took off his hat, settled his wig, hung his overcoat on a nail in the entry, drew from his pocket a huge red handkerchief, and announcing his arrival by a blast, loud enough to arouse the seven sleepers, followed Harry up stairs to the sick chamber.

The strong fire-light fell upon Ruth's white figure, as she sat, pale and motionless, in the corner, with Daisy on her lap, whose laborious breathing could be distinctly heard in the next room. A dark circle had settled round the child's mouth and eyes, and its little hands hung helplessly at its side. Dinah was kneeling at the hearth, stirring a fresh mustard paste, with an air which seemed to say, "it is no use, but I must keep on doing something."

The doctor advanced, drew his spectacles from their leathern case, perched them astride the end of his nose, and gazed steadily at Daisy without speaking.

"_Help her_," said Ruth, imploringly.

"Nothing to be done," said the doctor, in an unmoved tone, staring at Daisy.

"Why didn't you come afore, den?" said Dinah, springing to her feet and confronting the doctor. "Don't you see you've murdered _two_ of 'em?"

and she pointed to Ruth, whose head had dropped upon her breast.

"I tell you, Harry, it's no use to call another doctor," said his father, shaking off his grasp; "the child is struck with death; let her drop off quietly; what's the sense of tormenting her?"

Harry shuddered, and drew his father again to Daisy's side.

"Help her," said Ruth; "don't talk; try _something_."

"Well, I can put on these leeches, if you insist," said the old man, uncorking a bottle; "but I tell you, it is only tormenting the dying."

Dinah cut open the child's night dress, and bared the fair, round chest, to which the leeches clung eagerly; Daisy, meanwhile, remaining motionless, and seemingly quite insensible to the disagreeable p.r.i.c.king sensation they caused.

"The other doctor is below," whispered Pat, thrusting his head in at the door.

"Bring him up," said the old gentleman.

An expression of pain pa.s.sed over the young man's features as his eye fell upon the child. As yet, he had not become so professionally hardened, as to be able to look unmoved upon the group before him, whose imploring eyes asked vainly of him the help no mortal hand could give.