Sez she, “He is one of the saints on earth, if there ever was one.”
And her husband said the same thing, which I felt that I could indeed depend upon, for as a general thing men don’t get so diffuse a praisin’ up each other, and callin’ each other angels and saints, etc., and men hain’t drawed away by their pities and their sympathies so easy as wimmen be, nor drawed so fur.
Wall, Mr. Elderkin put our pony in the barn, and she made us comfortable with a cup of tea and some toast with a poached egg on top of it. And then we went in to see the patient.
He wuz layin’ in a front room, ruther bare-lookin’, for the Elderkins wuz poor enough so fur as this world’s goods go, but rich in the spirit.
And the bare floor, and whitewashed walls, and green paper curtains looked anything but luxurious, but everything wuz clean.
And on a clean, poor bed lay the relation on his side.
He looked wan—wanner fur than I expected to see him look, though I wuz prepared for wanness. His cheeks wuz fell in, and his eyes wuz holler, but bright still with that glowin’ fire that always seemed to be built up in ’em. But the light of that fire seemed to be a burnin’ down pretty low now. And he looked up and see us and smiled.
It wuz the smile of a homesick child fur away to school, when he sees his own folks a comin’ towards him in the school-room.
Poor John Richard! His school wuz hard, his lessons had been severe, but he had tried to learn ’em all jest as perfect as he could, and the Master wuz pleased with his work.
But now he wuz sick. He wuz a sick man.