“There is hope, I think,” he said, quickly, and with that, although the baby had been so long under water, there began a desperate fight for the little life. The doctor worked with an intensity that would not yield to despair, rubbing and working the little round, white limbs.
The minutes wore on, and the helpless onlookers could only stand by in breathless silence. The doctor gave brief, quick orders which willing hands executed. He carried the baby into the direct glare of the scorching August sun, which beat down with fierce intensity on his unprotected head. But no one heeded the sickening heat. The poor mother sat by, passively now, like a stone, her hands clasped round her knees, in dull despair. Her long hair, yellow as the baby’s own, rolled in a rough mass down her back, torn and tangled by the bushes, and her wild eyes watched the doctor’s every movement.
The work of rubbing the tiny, white body, and working the little arms up and down, went steadily on, one relieving another, but thus far with no avail.
Half an hour passed. The doctor worked on with set lips.
“Better give it up, sir,” one of the men ventured at last, stopping to wipe his streaming forehead. The doctor’s face was dark purple, and every vein was swelling. At the suggestion of stopping their efforts, the mother uttered a low moan, and stretched out her hands imploringly.
“Work on,” the doctor made answer, briefly. “Work its arms steadily, Johnson. Rub evenly, Emily,” he said, bending again to breathe into the baby’s parted lips. He raised his head suddenly, then bent his ear again to its heart.
“Thank God!” he breathed. A thrill of life ran through the baby’s frame. There was a faint quiver of its eyelashes, a gasp for breath,—another—and the baby stirred. Elspeth was saved.
There was a moment of intense silence, and then the mother threw herself forward and clasped her baby to her bosom with a hungry cry of joy that no one present ever forgot.
Papa’s feelings when he learned that his own little ones had seen the accident may be imagined, and then and there he gave the children a few instructions that even the youngest ones never forgot.
The mother had missed her baby, but she thought nothing of it at first, for the little thing often strayed some distance from the house. At last, growing anxious, she went out again and looked around. Down the bank she saw a little child in a pink dress, which she thought was her little one. It was really a glimpse of Helen in her little pink frock. The mother went back, thinking the child was safe.