Part 14 (2/2)
”Don't, pa, don't! You see, Mrs. Allen, he gets so excited about it he don't know what he says.”
”I wonder you did not take her to the City Hospital, Mrs. Brooks. There she could be treated free of expense.”
”The fact is, we didn't dare to,” replied Mrs. Brooks, taking up an old shoe of Bennie's, and beginning to brush it; ”there are folks that have told us it ain't safe; they try experiments on poor folks.”
”O, I don't believe you need fear the City Hospital,” said Mrs. Allen; ”the physicians there are honest men, and among the most skillful in the country.”
”But that's our feeling on the subject, ma'am, you see,” spoke up Mr.
Brooks, so decidedly, that Aunt Madge saw it was of no use to say any more about it. ”We don't want her eyes put out; there are times when she can just see a little glimmer, and we want to save all there is left.”
”There are times when she can see? Then there must be hope, Mr. Brooks!
Let me take her to Dr. Blank; he can help her if any one can.”
”Well, now, I take it you're joking, Mrs. Allen. That is the very doctor I wanted her to see in the first place; but they do say he'd ask six hundred dollars for looking into her eyes while you'd wink twice.”
”You have been misinformed, Mr. Brooks; he never asks anything of people who are unable to pay him. But even if he should in Maria's case, I promise to take the matter into my own hands, and settle the bill myself.”
”Mother, do you hear what she says!” cried Mr. Brooks, forgetting himself, and trying to sit up in bed.
But his wife had broken down, and was polis.h.i.+ng Bennie's shoe with her tears.
”O, will you take me? Can I go to that doctor?” cried Maria, forgetting her timidity, and turning her sightless eyes towards Mrs. Allen with a joyful look, which seemed to glow through the lids.
”Yes, dear child, I will take you with the greatest pleasure in life; but remember, I don't promise you can be cured. Come with your mother, to-morrow morning, at ten. Will that do, Mrs. Brooks? And now, good by, all. Children, we must certainly be going.”
”G.o.d bless her,” murmured the sick man, as the little party pa.s.sed out.
”Didn't I tell you she was an angel?” said his wife.
”No, mother; it's that little tot that's the 'angel.' The Lord sent her on ahead to spy out the land; and afterwards there comes a flesh-and-blood woman to see it laid straight.”
”Pa thinks that baby is a spirit made out of air,” said Maria, laughing in high excitement. ”And, mother, don't you really believe now the Lord did send her, just as much as if she dropped down out of the sky?”
”Yes, I hain't a doubt of it, Maria, but what the Lord had us in his mind when he let the child slip off and get lost.--Pa, I'm going to give you some of that blackberry cordial now: you look all gone.”
CHAPTER XI.
”THE HEN-HOUSES.”
While the Brooks family were talking so gratefully, and Maria counting over the cookies and cups of jelly for the twentieth time, Fly, was holding on to Horace's thumb, saying, as she skipped along,--”I hope the doctor'll take a knife, and pick Maria's eyes open, so she can see.”
”Precious little _you_ care whether she can see or not,” said Dotty. ”I don't think Fly has much feeling,--do you, Prudy?--not like you and I, I mean!”
”Pshaw! what do you expect of such a baby?” said Horace, indignantly.
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