CHAPTER XII
“PORE LITTLE WOMAN”
Silas Chamberlain answered to a loud knock on his door at the midnight hour. It was the first week of August.
“From Hunter’s, you say?”
There was a mumbled conversation at the door.
“Why, yes, of course. Come right in—glad t’ have you. When was you called—an hour an’ a half ago? Now you come right upstairs, an’ we’ll have you in bed in two shakes. There now—them covers’ll be too heavy, I ’spect, but you kin throw ’em off if you don’t want ’em. Jest keep that light. I’ll git another downstairs. Good-night. Oh, yes! Jake’s gone for th’ doctor, you say? Started an hour an’ a half ago? Guess ’e ain’t there yet—seven mile you know. Well, good-night!”
Silas stumbled down the steep stairs.
“Liza Ann, it’s come! Pore little woman!”
He got back into bed and lay so still that his wife thought him asleep. “Pore child!” she heard him say just as she was drifting off to dreamland. An hour passed. An hour and a half. There was the sound of wheels.
“That’s th’ doctor, Liza Ann.” There was no reply.