He did not seem to hear her thanks; he was all eyes; and, with his clerk, stood looking after her till she was out of sight.
Poor Ellen found it a long way up to the doctor's. The post- office was near the lower end of the town, and the doctor's house was near the upper; she passed one church, and then the other, but there was a long distance between, or what she thought so. Happily, the Brownie did not seem tired at all; his little mistress was tired, and disheartened too. And there, all this time, was poor Mr. Van Brunt, lying without a doctor! She could not bear to think of it.
She jumped down when she came to the block she had been told of, and easily found the house where Dr. Gibson lived. She knocked at the door. A grayhaired woman with a very ill- favoured countenance presented herself. Ellen asked for the doctor.
"He ain't to hum."
"When will he be at home?"
"Couldn't say."
"Before dinner?"
The woman shook her head.
"Guess not till late in the day."
"Where is he gone?"