A Country Doctor and Selected Stories and Sketches eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 534 pages of information about A Country Doctor and Selected Stories and Sketches.

A Country Doctor and Selected Stories and Sketches eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 534 pages of information about A Country Doctor and Selected Stories and Sketches.

The busy man smiled pleasantly, and shook his head as he went away.  “Dunster,” said Betsey to herself, soberly committing the new name to her sound memory.  “Yes, I mustn’t forget to speak of him to the doctor, as he directed.  I do’ know now as Peggy would vally herself quite so much accordin’ to, if she had her eyes fixed same as other folks.  I expect there wouldn’t been a smarter woman in town, though, if she’d had a proper chance.  Now I’ve done what I set to do for her, I do believe, an’ ’twa’n’t glasses, neither.  I’ll git her a pritty little shawl with that money I laid aside.  Peggy Bond ain’t got a pritty shawl.  I always wanted to have a real good time, an’ now I’m havin’ it.”

VIII.

Two or three days later, two pathetic figures might have been seen crossing the slopes of the poor-farm field, toward the low shores of Byfield pond.  It was early in the morning, and the stubble of the lately mown grass was wet with rain and hindering to old feet.  Peggy Bond was more blundering and liable to stray in the wrong direction than usual; it was one of the days when she could hardly see at all.  Aunt Lavina Dow was unusually clumsy of movement, and stiff in the joints; she had not been so far from the house for three years.  The morning breeze filled the gathers of her wide gingham skirt, and aggravated the size of her unwieldy figure.  She supported herself with a stick, and trusted beside to the fragile support of Peggy’s arm.  They were talking together in whispers.

“Oh, my sakes!” exclaimed Peggy, moving her small head from side to side.  “Hear you wheeze, Mis’ Dow!  This may be the death o’ you; there, do go slow!  You set here on the sidehill, an’ le’ me go try if I can see.”

“It needs more eyesight than you’ve got,” said Mrs. Dow, panting between the words.  “Oh! to think how spry I was in my young days, an’ here I be now, the full of a door, an’ all my complaints so aggravated by my size.  ’T is hard! ‘tis hard! but I’m a-doin’ of all this for pore Betsey’s sake.  I know they’ve all laughed, but I look to see her ris’ to the top o’ the pond this day,—­’tis just nine days since she departed; an’ say what they may, I know she hove herself in.  It run in her family; Betsey had an aunt that done just so, an’ she ain’t be’n like herself, a-broodin’ an’ hivin’ away alone, an’ nothin’ to say to you an’ me that was always sich good company all together.  Somethin’ sprung her mind, now I tell ye, Mis’ Bond.”

“I feel to hope we sha’n’t find her, I must say,” faltered Peggy.  It was plain that Mrs. Dow was the captain of this doleful expedition.  “I guess she ain’t never thought o’ drowndin’ of herself, Mis’ Dow; she’s gone off a-visitin’ way over to the other side o’ South Byfleet; some thinks she’s gone to the Centennial even now!”

“She hadn’t no proper means, I tell ye,” wheezed Mrs. Dow indignantly; “an’ if you prefer that others should find her floatin’ to the top this day, instid of us that’s her best friends, you can step back to the house.”

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A Country Doctor and Selected Stories and Sketches from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.