At first Peggy felt too shaken and exhausted to speak, but after a time she found her tongue.
"You see, sir, that there hoss would have brought me quicker, but I h'ain't been brought up to ridin', havin' come from London, please, sir, and the hosses be mostly wanted for carts up there. If I'd a-knowed you'd want to ride a hose when you go to service, I'd a-tried to practise ridin'. I've see'd circus girls who don't think nothin' of it, but I weren't acquainted with hoss-keepin' folks in London. I ought to have kept on him, but he bumped so sudden, that it took me with a shock. I do hope as how my missus ain't dead, I does indeed!"
A great sob stopped further utterance.
Dr. Nairns, with a little smile, tried to comfort her.
"I daresay we shall find her up and about," he said. "Perhaps she was only stunned for a minute or two."
Peggy cheered up at once.
"Do you think so, sir? Well, p'raps she was, only 'twas a awful sight to see. Have you been to see many stunned ladies, please, sir? Do they get up the nex' mornin' same as if nothin' happened?"
"Sometimes they do."
"It must be wonderful nice to make sick folks well," went on Peggy. "You does just what the Lord Jesus used to do. Now He have turned people's sick bodies over to you, hasn't He, sir, while He looks after the sick souls? And I'm a-tryin' to help in it, sir. It don't take a very clever person to fetch a doctor, or to tell folks where to go for one. I tries to tell 'em where to go for sick hearts and such-like; and, please sir, ain't it a good thing the Lord don't live six miles away from anybody, like you does?"
Dr. Nairns discovered that he was driving beside a little "character." But Peggy's simplicity and faith touched him, as it did every one with whom she came in contact. He let her talk on, and did not snub her, and by and by they came to Sundale.