We didn't believe he would take it, for he hadn't even seen the girl
who was sick. But the very next morning I heard him calling me from
the upstairs landing.
"Miss MacPherson," he said in a voice so uncommonly mild that it gave
me an uncanny feeling, "what are the symptoms of smallpox?"
"Chills and flushes, pain in the limbs and back, nausea and vomiting,"
I answered promptly, for I had been reading them up in a
patent medicine almanac.
"I've got them all," said Alexander Abraham hollowly.
I didn't feel as much scared as I should have expected.
After enduring a woman hater and a brindled dog and the early
disorder of that house--and coming off best with all three--
smallpox seemed rather insignificant. I went to the window
and called to Thomas Wright to send for the doctor.
The doctor came down from Alexander Abraham's room looking grave.
"It's impossible to pronounce on the disease yet," he said.
"There is no certainty until the eruption appears.
But, of course, there is every likelihood that it is the smallpox.
It is very unfortunate. I am afraid that it will be difficult
to get a nurse. All the nurses in town who will take smallpox
cases are overbusy now, for the epidemic is still raging there.
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