Dorothy

Dorothy was shivering, partly from nervousness, partly from the chill of wet garments in the strong breeze. Though she had often heard the postman comment upon the superst.i.tions of the negroes, who formed so large a part of the city"s population, and knew that such ideas as this lad expressed were but superst.i.tion only, she could not help being impressed by his words. It was his honest belief that to enter a hospital meant giving himself up to death; and in this ignorance he reasoned that this forlorn child should be prevented from such self-destruction by any means whatever. So when she still pleaded to be directed, despite the fear he had raised in her, he whirled abruptly about and pointed his hand in a direction wholly different from that she had followed. Then he added with a most dramatic air:

"Well, honey, if you-all done daid-set to go get yo" laigs sawed off, travel jus" dat-a-way till yo" come to de place. Mebbe, if dey gibs yo"

dat stuff what makes yo" go asleep, you-all won"t know nottin" erbout de job."

With this cheerful a.s.surance the grocer"s boy went his way, musically whistling a popular tune, and Dorothy gazed after him in deep perplexity. Fortunately, the rain had almost ceased and the brief halt had restored her breath. Then came the reflection:

"He wasn"t telling the truth! I know that isn"t the way at all, for Johns Hopkins is on the east of the city, and that"s toward the north.

I"ll ask somebody else. There are plenty of people and wagons coming out now; and--Oh! my!"

As if in answer to her thought, there came the clang of an electric bell, the hurrying delivery wagons drew out of the way, and past her, over the clear s.p.a.ce thus given, dashed another ambulance, hastening to the relief of some poor sufferer within. On its side she saw the name of the hospital she sought and with frantic speed dashed after this trustworthy guide.

Though she could by no means keep up with its speed she did keep it well in sight, to the very entrance of the wide grounds themselves, and there she lost it. But it didn"t matter now. Her journey was almost done, and the building loomed before her, behind whose walls was hidden her beloved father John.

From the gateway up the incline to the broad hospital steps she now dragged her strangely reluctant feet. How, after all, could she enter and learn some dreadful truth? But she must, she must! and with a final burst of courage she rushed into the great entrance hall, which was so silent, so beautiful after the storm outside; and there appeared before her half-blinded eyes a figure as of one coming to meet her.

All alone the figure stood, with nothing near to detract from its majestic tenderness; so large and powerful looking; as if able to bear all the burdens of a troubled world and still smile peace upon it.

Slowly, Dorothy crept now to the very feet of the statue and read that this was: "Christ the Healer."

Ah! then! No hospital could be a wicked, murderous place in which He dwelt! and with a sigh of infinite relief, the exhausted child sank down and laid her head upon Him. And then all seemed to fade from view.

The next Dorothy knew she was lying on a white cot; a blue-gowned, white-capped nurse was bending over her, and a pleasant voice was saying:

"Well, now that"s good! You"ve had a splendid rest and must be quite ready for your supper. Here"s a fine bowl of broth, and some nice toast.

Shall I help you to sit up?"

"Why--why--what"s the matter with me? Where am I? Have----" began the astonished child; then, suddenly remembering the colored boy"s a.s.sertions concerning this dreadful place, she instinctively thrust her hands below the light bed covering and felt of her legs. They were still both there! So were her arms; and, for a matter of fact, she was delightfully rested and comfortable. Again lying back upon her pillow, she smiled into the nurse"s face and asked:

"What am I doing here, in a bed? Is this the hospital?"

"Yes, dear, it is; and you are in bed because you fainted in the entrance hall, exhausted by exposure to the terrible storm. That is all--we trust. Now, drink your broth and take another nap if you can."

There was authority, as well as gentleness, in the tone and the patient tried to obey; but this time there was a sharp pain at the back of her head and her neck seemed strangely stiff. With a little exclamation of distress, she put her hand on the painful spot, and the attendant quickly asked:

"Does that hurt you? Can you remember to have had a blow, or a fall, lately?"

"Why, yes. The big dogs knocked me down over at Bellevieu. It made me blind for a few minutes, but I was too mad to stay blind! If it hadn"t been for that--Oh! please, where _is_ my father?" answered Dorothy.

"Your father? I don"t know. Have you lost, or missed, him, dear?"

returned the other, understanding now why such a healthy child should have collapsed as she had, there at the feet of the beautiful statue.

Excitement, exposure, and the blow; these accounted for the condition in which a house doctor had found her. Also, there was nothing to hinder prompt recovery if the excitement could be allayed; and to this end the nurse went on:

"Tell me about him, little girl. Maybe I can help you, and don"t worry about being here. It is the very loveliest place in the world for ailing people and nothing shall hurt you."

So Dorothy told all she knew; of the long weeks past when the postman"s active feet had become more and more troublesome; of his sudden disappearance; and of her now terrible fear that, since the poor feet were of so little use, these hospital surgeons would promptly "saw" them off and so be rid of them.

Ripples of amus.e.m.e.nt chased themselves across the nurse"s fair face as she listened, yet beneath them lay a sympathetic seriousness which kept down Dorothy"s anger, half-roused by the fleeting smiles.

"Well, my dear, neither he nor you could have come to a better place to get help. The very wisest doctors in the country are here, I believe.

It"s a disease with a long name, I fancy----"

"Yes, yes! I know it! He told me. It"s "locomort"--"loco" something, "at"--"at" something else. It"s perfectly horrible just to hear it, and what must it be to suffer it? But he never complains. My father John is the bravest, dearest, best man in the world!"

"Indeed? Then you should be the "bravest, dearest, best" little daughter as well. And we"ll hope some help, some cure, can be found for him. Now, will you go to sleep?"

"No. If you please I will go home. But I don"t see my clothes anywhere.

Funny they should take away a little girl"s clothes just "cause she forgot and went to sleep in the wrong place!"

"In the very right-est place in all the world, dear child! At the Saviour"s feet. Be sure nothing but goodness and kindness rule over the hospital whose entrance He guards. Your clothes are drying in the laundry. You will, doubtless, have them in the morning, and, so far as I can judge now, there"ll be nothing to prevent your going home then,"

comforted the nurse, gently stroking Dorothy"s brow and by her touch soothing the pain in it. Oddly enough, though her head had ached intensely, ever since that tumble on Mrs. Cecil"s piazza, she had not paid any attention to it while her anxious search continued. She was fast drowsing off again, but roused for an instant to ask:

"Have you seen my father? Did he hurt himself when he fell? Did he fall?

What did happen to him, anyway? Mayn"t I see him just a minute, just one little minute, "fore this--this queer sleepiness gets me?"

"My dear, you can ask as many questions as a Yankee! I"ll tell you what I think: Your father was probably taken to the emergency ward. I have nothing to do with that. My place is here, in the children"s ward; and the first thing nurses--or children--learn in this pleasant room is--obedience. I have my orders to obey and one of them is to prevent talking after certain hours."

"You--you a big, grown-up woman, have to "obey"? How funny!" cried Dorothy, thinking that the face beneath the little white cap was almost the very sweetest she had ever seen. But to this the other merely nodded, then went softly away.

Dorothy lay in a little room off from the general ward, into which the nurse had disappeared, and where there was the sound of low-toned conversation, with an occasional fretful cry from some unseen baby. The doctor, or interne as he was called, making his night rounds, seeing that all his little charges were comfortable for their long rest, and discussing with the blue-gowned a.s.sistant their needs and conditions. It was he who had found Dorothy, unconscious on the tiles, and had ordered her to bed; and it was of herself, had she known it, that he and the nurse had just been talking. As a result of this he merely looked in at the door of the little room, blinked a good-night from behind his spectacles, which, like two b.a.l.l.s of fire, reflected the electric light above the door, and pa.s.sed on.

Dorothy intended to keep awake. For a long time her head had been full of various schemes by which she should rise to the support of her family, whenever that day foreseen by the postman should arrive when his own support should fail. The day had come! Very suddenly, after all, as even the best-prepared-for catastrophes have a way of doing; and now, despite her earnest desires--Dorothy was going to sleep! She was ashamed of herself. She must stay awake and think--think--think! She simply _must_--she----

"Well, Dorothy C., good morning! A nice, dutiful daughter, you, to run away and leave mother Martha alone all night!"

That was the next she knew! That was Mrs. Chester"s voice, speaking in that familiar tone a reproof which was no reproof at all, but only a loving satisfaction. And there she sat, the tidy little woman, in her second-best hat and gown, smiling, smiling, as if there were no such thing as trouble in the world! as if both husband and child were not, at that very moment, lying in hospital beds!

CHAPTER IV

DOROTHY GAINS IN WISDOM

"Why, mother! Why--why--_mother_!" cried the astonished Dorothy, sitting up in her cot and smiling back into the happy face before her, yet wondering at its happiness and her own heartlessness, in being glad while her father was so ill. Then she realized that her neck was very stiff and that when she tried to turn her head it moved with a painful wrench, so sank back again, but still gazed at Mrs. Chester with a grieved amazement.

Seeing which, the lady bent over the cot and kissed the little girl, then promptly explained:

"You needn"t be troubled, dearie, this is the very best thing that could have happened to us. Your father tired of waiting for you, his head was dizzy, and when he tried to walk home he fell. They hurried him here--his uniform showed he was somebody important--and into that emergency place. There the doctors examined him and they say, O Dorothy C.! they say that there is a chance, a chance of his sometime _getting well_! Think of that! John may get well! All those other outside doctors, that he paid so much to, told him he never could. He"d just grow worse and worse till--till he died. These don"t. They say he has a chance. He"s to stay here and be built up on extra nourishments, for awhile, and then he"s to go into the country and live. Oh! I"m the happiest woman in Baltimore, this day! And how is my little girl? Though the nurse tells me there"s nothing much the matter with you, and that you"ll be able to go home with me as soon as you have had your breakfast. Such a late breakfast, Dorothy C., for a schoolgirl! Lucky it"s a Sat.u.r.day!"

Dorothy had never seen her mother like this. At home, when trifles went wrong, she was apt to be a bit sharp-tongued and to make life uncomfortable for father John and their daughter, but now, that this real trouble had befallen, she was so gay! For, even if there was hope that the postman might sometime recover, was he not still helpless in a hospital? And had she forgotten that they had no money except his salary? which would stop, of course, since he could no longer earn it.

It was certainly strange; and seeing the gravity steal into the childish face which was so dear to her, mother Martha stooped above it and, now herself wholly grave, explained:

"My dear, don"t think I"m not realizing everything. But, since I"ve been once face to face with the possibility that death--_death_--was coming to our loved one and now learn that he will still live, as long as I do, maybe, I don"t care about anything else. G.o.d never shuts one door but He opens another; and we"ll manage. Some way we"ll manage, sweetheart, to care for father John who has so long cared for us. Now, enough of talk.

Here comes a maid with your breakfast; and see. There are your clothes, as fresh and clean as if I had laundered them myself. Maybe you should dress yourself before you eat. Then you are to see your father for a few minutes; and then we"ll go home to pack up."

It was long since Mrs. Chester had helped Dorothy to dress, except on some rare holiday occasion, but she did so now, as if the girl were still the baby she had found upon her doorstep. She, also, made such play of the business that the other became even more gay than herself, and chattered away of all that had befallen her, from her discovery of the deserted home till now.

Then came the nice breakfast, so heartily enjoyed that the nurse smiled, knowing there could be nothing seriously amiss with so hungry a patient.

Afterward, a quiet walk through long corridors and s.p.a.cious halls, from which they caught glimpses of cots with patients in them, and pa.s.sed by wheeled chairs in which convalescents were enjoying a change.