"I was a tellin" her that a hot brick or a flatiron at her feet and another at the small of her back would help. It ain"t comfortable jest at first, but she can have the hired girl wrap it in a piece o flannel, and after a while it feels real comfortin". But I must be goin". I see you"re a lookin" at my bunnet, Mis" Beaumont. It don"t look much like what you got on your head, but I work a lot in the garden, and if I don"t have somethin" on my head my hair gets all frouzy. A hat don"t seem to be the right thing to work in the garden with, and if I do wear one the sun burns the back of my neck when I stoop down; so I got me a bunnet, like I used to wear, and it makes me feel real to home. Good-by, good-by, doctor."
She turned to Mrs. Beaumont:
"Now, if the boneset tea don"t do you no good, let me know. Perhaps your liver is teched a little and it makes you feel bad all over. I got some camomile leaves that"s real good fer that. If you want any, I"ll be real glad to bring "em over."
She was gone.
The doctor looked at his patient and the patient looked at the doctor. Then Mrs. Beaumont put back her head and burst into a gale of laughter, in which the dignified doctor soon joined. They laughed and laughed, the woman wiping her tear-filled eyes. Finally, when she could stop long enough to talk, she said:
"Did you ever hear of anything so funny in all your life--a hot brick--or a hot flatiron"--a peal of laugher--"at my feet--another one at the small of my back--Oh, I shall die, I shall surely die!" And she went off into another paroxysm of laughter.
When the laughter ceased and the doctor returned to his professional manner, asking her how she felt and starting to feel her pulse, she said:
"Doctor, she"s cured me. I haven"t had a laugh like that for years.
It"s better than all your medicine. Boneset tea--" and again she was off.
Finally, when she had quieted, the doctor said:
"I don"t know but that her boneset tea is as good as anything else.
All you need is a little quiet. You seem better than you were yesterday."
"I tell you that I am well! All my system needed was a little shaking up, and Miss Doane has done it for me."
The doctor rose to go.
"I think that I shall take Miss Doane as a partner. Her herbs or her prescriptions seem to have a better effect than my medicines. Shall I come to-morrow?"
"Yes; this may not last. Come to-morrow if you are near, though I am sure I won"t need you."
As the doctor"s hand was on the door he turned:
"If I were you, Mrs. Beaumont, I"d send for those camomile leaves."
But with all her little acts of neighborliness, and her "baking day"
and her attempts to find duties to fill the hours, time began to hang heavily upon the hands of active Drusilla. If she had been of a higher station in life she would have said that she was bored or was suffering from that general complaint of the rich--"enuyee."
Here Providence stepped in. One morning when she was dressing she heard a peculiar little wailing cry. She listened. The cry was repeated. She listened again, but could not locate the sound. Then, thinking she might be mistaken, she continued with her dressing; but again that piercing wail was borne to her ears. She opened her window and then she heard it distinctly--a baby"s cry. She listened in amazement. There was no baby on the place except the gardener"s, and his cottage was too far from the big house to have his children"s wails heard in that place given over to aristocratic quiet. Drusilla tried to see around the comer of the house, but she could not; so she rang for Jeanne.
"Jane, I heard a baby cry. Go and find out where it is," she said.
Jeanne was gone a long time, it seemed to Drusilla; and then she returned, with big frightened eyes, followed by the butler carrying a large basket. He stopped at the door.
"Come in, James. What you standing there for? What you got?"
Just then the wailing cry came from the basket, and Drusilla dropped the brush in her hand.
"For the land"s sake, what"s in the basket? Come here!"
James gingerly deposited the basket upon a chair.
"It"s a baby, ma"am--a live baby."
"Well, upon my soul! Of course it is! You wouldn"t expect it to not be alive. Let"s see it."
She went over to the basket and looked down at the lively little bundle that seemed to be protesting in its feeble way against the injustice of the world in leaving it at a chance doorstep. Drusilla looked at it admiringly.
"Why, ain"t it cunning, the pore little thing! It"s done up warm.
How"d it get here?"
"I don"t know, ma"am. It must "a" been left early this morning after the gates was opened. I"ll ask the gardeners if they saw any one come in."
"Never mind now, James. Here"s a letter. It"ll tell us all about it.
Where are my gla.s.ses, Jane?"
Drusilla put on her gla.s.ses and read the inscription on the letter.
"_Miss Drusilla Doane_. Well, they know my name."
She tore open the envelope and read aloud:
"I read in the paper that you have no one and are alone and rich. My baby has no one but me, and I can"t get work. Won"t you take him? His name is John--that"s all."
"JOHN"S MOTHER."
Drusilla pushed the gla.s.ses up on her forehead and used a slang expression that almost drew a smile from solemn James.
"Now _what_ do you know about that!"
She looked at James as if he should have an answer, and he said:
"I"m sure, Miss Doane, I don"t know anything about it at all."
Drusilla looked down at the baby in the basket, and again at the letter, not knowing what to do; but, the little wail again rising, she reached down to take the baby into her arms, and found it securely pinned into the basket.
"Poor little mother!" she said. "She didn"t want you to get cold."
As she took out the safety-pins and lifted the baby into her arms, she dislodged a bottle of milk.
"Why, she thought of everything! She must "a" loved you, little John, even though she left you on my doorstep."
The baby, a healthy little youngster about eight months old, blinked up at Drusilla in a friendly manner, then clutched her hair. Drusilla laughed, as she drew her head away.
"That"s the first thing all babies make for, my hair. Bless his little heart, he"s gettin" familiar already."
James interrupted.
"What"ll I do with it, Miss Doane?"
Drusilla looked up from the baby.