“Now ’bout a woman——” She halted abruptly.
“Have you any one in mind?” Lucy asked timidly.
“No,” returned Ellen emphatically, “I haven’t. I hate all the folks in this town about 213 equally—that is, all except the Howes,” she concluded with significant emphasis.
“Isn’t there a nurse in the village?”
“There’s Melviny Grey.”
“Is she a nurse?” the girl inquired innocently.
“Melviny ain’t never been classified,” retorted Ellen grimly. “She’s neither fish, flesh nor fowl. She’s taught school; laid out the dead; an’ done the Lord only knows what durin’ her lifetime. She can turn her hand to most anything; an’ they do say she’s mum as an oyster, which is a virtue out of the common in a woman.”
“Suppose I see if we can get her?” suggested Lucy.
“Well,” returned Ellen, with a reluctant groan, “I reckon you’ll have to. You can send Tony for her when he gets back, though how he’ll find her I don’t know. You might’s well hunt for a needle in a haystack as to track down Melviny. She’s liable to be most anywheres tendin’ babies or trimmin’ bunnits; an’ Tony’s such a numskull.”
“I guess we can locate her.”