The girl, whom Emily described as the most beautiful creature she
ever saw, explained that the boy, who had been herding the cattle
scattered around, had been climbing the tree, a limb of which had
broken with him. She had seen the fall from a distance, and hurried
up; but she hardly knew what to do, for her little sister was too
young to be sent in quest of assistance. Clarence thought one leg
seriously injured, and as the young lady seemed to know the boy,
offered to carry him home. School officers were yet in the future;
children were set to work almost as soon as they could walk, and
this little fellow was so light and thin as to shock Clarence when
he had been taken up on his back, for he weighed quite a trifle.
The young lady showed the way to a wretched little cottage, where a
bigger girl had just come in with a sheaf of corn freshly gleaned
poised on her head. They sent her to fetch her mother, and Clarence
undertook to go for a doctor, but to the surprise and horror of
Emily, there was a demur. Something was said of old Molly and her
'ile' and 'yarbs,' or perhaps Madam could step round. When
Clarence, on this being translated to him, pronounced the case
beyond such treatment, it was explained outside the door that this
was a terribly poor family, and the doctor would not come to parish
patients for an indefinite time after his summons, besides which, he
lived at Wattlesea.
Pages:
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80