“Dissy,” he said, “Dolly is very sick!”
“Sick! Oh, Jack, what shall we do!” cried Desiré in dismay. Difficulties did seem to be coming too thick and fast.
“I’ve made her as comfortable as I can, but I don’t know what to do next. I’ll have to go to town for help. Give me a sandwich to eat on the way—I can’t wait for breakfast. You and the children keep away from her until I get back.”
In a few minutes Jack disappeared down the road leading to Lunenburg, puzzling over the finding of a pan half filled with bran mash which he had discovered near Dolly. Since he could not arrive at a satisfactory explanation, he wisely decided to keep the discovery to himself.
Desiré gave the children their breakfast, and sent them out on the sand, she herself remaining where she could watch them and keep an eye on the wagon. It seemed hours after Jack had gone when up the road she could see the broad bulk of a team of oxen plodding slowly toward her. As they came closer, she saw that they were pulling one of the flat wooden wagons used for hauling stone. On the boards sat Jack and another man; the driver was walking at the animals’ heads. Jack got off and came hurriedly toward her, after directing the driver to the end of the field where the sick horse lay.
“The doctor thinks he’ll have to take Dolly to his place; so they brought an ox team along,” he explained. Then before Desiré had time to reply, he dashed off to join the other two men.
Half an hour later poor Dolly, reclining on the ox cart, was ready for her ride to Lunenburg.
“I think she will get well; but not right off. She must have ate something very bad,” said Dr. Myers, a stout German, mopping his brow with a big blue handkerchief. “You come see me—say—next day after tomorrow; then I maybe can tell you how long.” He ran clumsily down the road to join his patient.
Jack sat down beside Desiré, and for a long moment they looked at each other without speaking. The children, who had left their play to become spectators of the moving, had returned to the beach at Desiré’s direction, and were now so busy constructing a sea wall that they were oblivious to all else.
“What next, Jack?” asked Desiré at last, laying her hand over his.