“Witherspoon, honey. I come through the accident room a week ago comin’ Sunday. My insulatin’ was low. Too much sugar you know, honey ... and you was so kin’. I could scarce speak and you was so kin’. I’ll never forgit how kin’ you was, showin’ me the labatory, an’ all.
“You done me so nice that I thinks I ought to tell you, dearie, ’bout thet bed. Three people ... countin’ the one ... they seys was operated on ... and Miss Kerr knows was daid ... three patients done died in thet bed sence Thursday. Miss Frisby, an awful nice girl with a goitre, and Mrs. Overlea ... she was a heart attacker ... and then last night, Miss Tuck. It looks suspicious, I seys. If I was you, dearie....”
She was interrupted by the reappearance of Dr. Mattus and Dr. Sarah James. They pulled the curtains to Miss Standish’s bed and Mrs. Witherspoon tucked her chins into her breasts and went back to her crocheting.
Rose Standish noticed her feet felt like icicles.
When their examination was over she was frightened. You could not go over any human being that thoroughly without finding something wrong, and her nurse’s disdain for a person who allowed herself to get sick disturbed her considerably. Suppose they really did find something and kept her in bed here a month? A lot more than she had bargained for ... that!
Mrs. Witherspoon laid down her crocheting and peered at the little nurse’s pale face.
“They did you up kinda bad, dearie. All them blood tests and things. Severe I calls it. A body can’t even keep her corns nowadays!”
Rose Standish laughed in spite of herself.
“Oh, I didn’t mind. A nurse gets used to things.”
“I reckin’ you right. I reckin’ you right. It’s pow’ful sad the amount a body can put up with, whin you is used to it. Take me, dearie. I had eleven children. Four breeches presentations, three feet, three dry, and one nat’rul. And would you believe it, the nat’rul was the wors’! It lef’ me kinda flat fo’ months. A body gits prepared to put up wid things ... thet hurts ... now things like this sugar business ... no pain, nor nuthin’ ... you can’t get resisted fur.”