An old couch stood in the kitchen, which Mrs. Collins used to lie upon, and Mrs. Brown lifted Jessie on to it, and loosened her clothes and bathed her forehead; but when she touched one of her feet, a deeper groan and shudder of pain made them aware that the injury was there.
However, by the time the doctor arrived, Jessie had recovered consciousness sufficiently to tell them that her foot was in great pain, and when Collins told the doctor how she fell, he saw at once that the girl's ankle was badly twisted, and advised that she should go to the hospital.
"No, no! I can't go there!" said Jessie. "I must stay here, and look after mother."
"But, my girl, you will not be able to go up and down stairs for some time," said the doctor.
"Polly can go for me, and I can tell her what to do. Oh, make my foot better," she implored, as a sharper twinge of pain made her feel faint again.
The doctor turned to her father, who stood looking helplessly at the sufferer.
"I don't know what we shall do without her," he said. "My wife wants looking after, and who is to do it?"
"For your wife it might be managed," said the doctor; "but this girl will have to lie down here on the couch all the time."
"I will do anything you tell me, doctor, if you only let me stay at home," said Jessie. "Polly can help, you know."
"You would be more comfortable at the hospital," said the doctor, making a last effort on Jessie's own behalf; for he knew how tedious the days and nights would be for an active girl like Jessie to endure, and that she would need the care and nursing that would be given to her at the hospital.