“Doctor! Eh? who’s to pay him? I’ve got no money, Jack.”
“Well, but Doctor Tadpole’s very kind.”
“Yes, yes, kind to the widow; but not to old women like me, without any money.”
“But why not have some one to sit up with you, and help you?”
“Sit up with me! Who’d sit up with me? Yes, if I paid them. But I’ve no money, Jack; and then, I don’t know them. They might rob me—there’s a great many pretty things in my shop.”
“But you might die, mother, lying here without any one to help you.”
“Die! Well, and who would care if a poor old woman like me died, Jack?”
“I should care, for one, mother; and so would my sister Virginia, and many others besides.”
“You might care, Jack, for you’re a good boy; and so might your little sister, for she has a kind heart, but nobody else, Jack—no, not one!”
I could not reply to this remark, as I really did not know anybody who would have cared; so I said, “You must see the doctor, mother. I will go for him.”