"But, mother," said Chrissy, "we cannot leave until we have done something. It is dreadful to see him suffer so."
"Physic will not touch it," she replied, "and they seem to have done everything that could be done."
At length Chrissy said:
"I've thought of a plan. Let us hold him with his head downwards, so that it may have a chance to drop on the floor; then let someone puff tobacco smoke up into the ear, and perhaps the smoke will cause the insect to become stupefied and it will fall out."
"Very good," said her mother. "The plan is worth trying, but who will do the smoking? There's not a man about the place."
"I'll do it myself," said Chrissy. "You have a pipe and tobacco, I suppose, Mrs. Allen?"
"Yes," she replied, "for the lad smokes."
The experiment was tried. Chrissy, kneeling on the clean sanded floor, puffed away vigorously at the strong old pipe, while her mother and Mrs. Allen held the young man's head over the fumes. Soon something dropped upon the floor, which proved to be a large red ant, and a shout of triumph went up as Mrs. Allen jumped upon it and ground it to nothingness. This brought instantaneous relief to the sufferer, who was very profuse in his expressions of gratitude.
Poor Mrs. Allen laughed and cried in turn as they took an affectionate farewell of one another, but Chrissy's face had an unusually pallid appearance, which, however, soon faded away as they galloped down the road to Mrs. Murphy's cottage.
They found the poor woman on a bed of suffering, where she had been for three months.