“‘Be quick, Harry, she is dead! do pray make a light!’
“It is a well-known fact that when one gets in a very great hurry to accomplish anything the anxiety to do it quickly very often prevents him from doing it at all, or operates greatly to delay its accomplishment. I was conjecturing a thousand kinds of awful things that had happened, and, as usual in such cases, never hit near the real one. The first thing that suggested itself to my mind was that some savage wild animal had come into the room, and had frightened Lottie. There were at that time many bears, and some few panthers, and large numbers of wolves, existing in that part of the State, and I thought one of those animals had ventured in the house. I heard the continuous snapping of teeth, and the strangest sounds—not like anything I had ever heard before. I spoke sharply to Harry, and accused him of a want of feeling for his sister, for which I was very sorry as soon as the words had passed my lips; he was so frightened that he hardly knew what he was doing. At last the fire blazed up, casting a bright light over the floor, when I was almost paralyzed with horror at the spectacle before me. One large rattlesnake lay dead at my feet, while old Bob was shaking the life out of another of equal size. It was the noise made by the rattles on the tails of the snakes that had sounded so strangely. I had never seen a rattlesnake until that moment, and therefore did not know what was making such a singular noise. Lottie lay in my arms as pale as death, and I saw that she had been bitten on the wrist by one of the snakes. There were two small holes made through the skin, and two little drops of blood had come out through the wounds. The flesh had already begun to turn a yellowish color. The poisonous fangs had been driven deep into the flesh and the deadly venom was beginning to take effect. I suppose the snakes had come up through the crack in the floor, and had perhaps coiled themselves in the straw near Lottie; and that, in her restless slumbers, she had struck the serpent with her arm, and thus provoked it to strike, because the rattlesnake never bites unless provoked in some way. I have heard it said, too, that they always go in pairs, and I had also heard experienced persons say that the safest remedy for snake bites was to cut out the flesh in which the fangs had struck, and then for some one to suck the wound with the lips so as to extract the poison as soon as possible. Fortunately I happened to have in my pocket a knife with a very sharp blade. Without a moment’s reflection or hesitation I seized the flesh of the wrist between my finger and thumb and cut out a piece large enough to include the entire wounds made by the poisonous fangs of the serpent, then placed my lips over the wound and began to suck with all my strength. The wound bled freely, and I continued to suck it for over an hour. Lottie had immediately regained consciousness after the cutting of her wrist, and held her wound to my mouth, while the grateful glance which she cast on me was ample compensation for the risk I was taking. We could not then tell whether she was suffering much or not, for one of her peculiar traits was never to complain of anything; but she declared in most positive terms that the only pain she experienced was the slight suffering caused by the wound I had made with my knife on her wrist. After sucking the wound for an hour, I began to feel deathly sick—a strange dizziness seized upon me—the house appeared to be turning round with great rapidity, and a blindness fixed itself on my eyes; I gasped for breath, and felt as if I was being smothered. My blood seemed to be boiling hot in my veins; I sank insensible on the floor; and when I regained consciousness I was on a clean nice bed, in a cozy little room, with Lottie’s golden curls dangling about my face, for she was kissing me when I came to my senses, and my face was moist with the tears that had fallen from her dear eyes.
“‘Where am I? What has happened?’ were the questions I put to her.
“‘Hush, Eddie dear, you must not talk; you have been dangerously ill; and oh! how I hate myself for being the cause of your illness. Why did you not let me suffer from the poison, instead of trying to kill yourself?’
“Then a dim recollection of what had happened began to come to me. ‘How long have I been ill?’
“‘Five days, and oh! such long, miserable days were they, too! We thought you were going to die, and that made us so very unhappy; but when the doctor left here this morning he said that all danger was over; and then I knew that God had answered my prayers; because I have prayed constantly and fervently to Him, asking Him not to let you die. If you had died, I should have looked upon myself as your murderer. I never should have seen another happy day. There now, don’t talk.’ And she placed her hand on my mouth just as I was going to ask more questions.
“I noticed that she had her hand in a sling, and was about to question her about it when she covered my mouth with her hand. I afterward ascertained that she had not been entirely relieved from pain, that her wrist and arm had been very much swollen, and had caused intense suffering, but that she had watched by my bedside day and night, never sleeping any, except such short naps as she could take by leaning her head on the edge of my bed. If I had loved her before this, and I assert that I did, what do you imagine my feelings toward her were then? It would require a more expressive term to describe them than I am able to command.
“‘Tell me, Lottie, all that has happened; it appears like a dream.’
“‘I will, if you promise to lie still, and keep quiet.’
“I made the promise reluctantly.