The habit of years was on her. It
was the money she thought of first.
Then she thought of Pearl.
Going to the foot of the stairway she called:
"Pearl, you may come down now."
"Did ye find it?" Pearl asked eagerly.
"No."
"Do ye still think I took it?"
"No, I don't, Pearl," she answered.
"All right then, I'll come right down," Pearl said
gladly.
CHAPTER XXIII
SAVED!
That night Arthur's condition was, to Pearl's sharp eyes,
alarming.
He tried to quiet her fears. He would be well directly,
it was nothing, nothing at all, a mere indisposition
(Pearl didn't know what that was); but when she went into
the granary with a pitcher of water for him, and found
him writing letters in the feeble light of a lantern,
she took one look at him, laid down the pitcher and
hurried out to tell Tom.
Tom was in the kitchen taking off his boots preparatory
to going to bed.
"Tom," she said excitedly, "get back into yer boots, and
go for the doctor. Arthur's got the thing that Pa had,
and it'll have to be cut out of him or he'll die."
"What?" Tom gasped, with one foot across his knee.
"I think he has it," Pearl said, "he's actin' just like
what Pa did, and he's in awful pain, I know, only he
won't let on; and we must get the doctor or he might die
before mornin', and then how'd we feel?"
Tom hesitated.
"Remember, Tom, he has a father and a mother and four
brothers, and a girl called Thursa, and an uncle that is
a bishop, and how'd we ever face them when we go to heaven
if we just set around and let Arthur die?"
"What is it, Pearl?" Mrs.
Pages:
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185