“Take the baby out of the room,” commanded the doctor; “and now, Kitty, girl, listen to me. Your little sister is not seriously hurt, but I want to go to her and properly bandage her arm. I can’t leave you until you stop this crying—or, at least, partly stop it. So, as long as you keep it up, you are keeping me away from little Rosamond who needs me more than you do.”
This was severe talk, but it had the effect, as the doctor intended, of bracing Kitty up to the emergency.
Doctor Mendel knew the little Maynards pretty well. He had attended them through all their childish illnesses, and he knew Kitty’s practical, common-sense nature. Had it been Marjorie he was dealing with, he would have chosen another line of argument.
“All right, Doctor,” said Kitty, still shaking nervously, but trying hard to stop. “And, anyway, you go to Rosy; there are enough people here to take care of me.”
And indeed there seemed to be. Nannie and Sarah had gone off with the baby, but King, Marjorie, and Miss Larkin surrounded the sobbing Kitty, while Ellen and Thomas looked in from the hall doorway, and even James, the coachman, hovered in the background. Kitty’s wan smile as she spoke, brought cheer to the watchers, and Doctor Mendel said quietly: “All right, Kitty. I’ll take you at your word. I’ll go and attend to Rosamond, if you’ll promise to try your best not to cry any more. If I hear you screaming again, I shall come right back to you, and that would be the worst harm you could do to Rosy Posy.”
“I promise, Doctor,” said Kitty, so solemnly that the good old man felt a suspicion of moisture in his own eyes, and Miss Larkin sat bolt up-right, with big tears falling into her brown silk lap.
Doctor Mendel went to the nursery, and unwrapping the little arm that Nurse Nannie had bandaged, carefully examined the wound, which, though only a jagged cut, was a deep one, and had narrowly escaped being a serious affair.
It was necessary to cleanse it thoroughly, and this process was accompanied by piercing shrieks from the suffering child.
These, of course, were unavoidable, for five-year-old Rosy Posy could not be reasoned with like ten-year-old Kitty. So the doctor had to let the child scream, while Nannie held the tiny arm firm for his ministrations. Sarah tried to divert the baby with picture-books and dolls, but all in vain; the heart-rending cries could be heard all over the house.
And here is where Kitty’s fine, sensible nature showed itself strongly.