Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1877-08-08

be with the four teeth and the foul
words that adorned its little rub.
mouth her eyes all the while wander
ing unconsciously over the CLASSY tank
beneath her, the road winding through
patches of rank grass, and clumps o
mango trees, with here and there the
slender betel palm, or sad signing pee
pul-the Jungle in the distance SHARP
and dreary against the gold horizon:
and the masses of gorgeous clouds that
were tumbling headlong down the fal
vest.
The babe in her lap had lain sleeping
with the same loving smile Oh his lips
that had lighted them when the heat
and WEAKNESS had overcome his infant
merriment. Now, however, he stirred
more than once uneasily, and moaned
and murmured as if evil things shad-
owed his slumbers anon, with sharr
and sudden cry he started up IN his
mothers arms. His little hands were
hot and dry-his eyes glowing with too
fierce a brightness for health. Greatly
alarmed, the lady called loudly to the
native woman servant, who sat affair OIL
by the water side smoking among her
countrywomen of the struggling huts
that lay beyond,
The dusky nurse, lolling luXuriously
under q large gnarled old tree that
Swallowed a small mosque, was too
much absorbed in her fragrant inhala-
tons to hear the hasty summons; and
when the reiterated call broke IN upon
her lazy enjoyment, it was with much
reluctance that she rose, and slowly and
grumblingly joined her mistress.
"Ayah Ayah! the child has fe-
YER" exclaimed the mother, and at that
word the whole demeanor of the nurse
changed.
She caught the little sufferer to her
breast, passionately kissed its dry and
burning limbs, and rocking it to and fro
with her low monotonous wall, eN-
pressing by every change of her swarthy
hneaments the deepest and tenderest III
terest.
Yes, poor, ignorant creatures that you
are! Oh, We HindOstanee servants!
unfit in your moral debasement, in the
narrowness of your preiudices, the dark
ness of your intellects, to be the guar
dams of young children-in the hour of
pain and fretfulness, did ever English
nurse with her superior mind and wider
education, tend the sick and soothe the
weary as We do, with unremitting, I'M
complaining selfdevotion and watch
fulness?
Meanwhile Mrs. Radcliffe had ran
sacked her palanquin for that necessary
appendage of an Indian traveller, her
medicine-chest; and on finding there
the usual remedy for similar attacks,
previously prescribed by her medical
attendant, twas promptly and hopefully
administered.
Her child during the difficult, and in
India frequently perilous, process of
teething, had frequently undergone
such indisposition as now appeared to
assail him, so there was no especial
ground for alarm, and yet alone and
timorous, our young mother felt ex-
tremely anxious to push on to the next
station, about fifty miles farther, where
she knew there was skilful doctor
whose services would relieve her from
responsibility and fear. She therefore
called the ayah, and taking the boy from
her, ordered immediate preparations to
be made for the continuation of their
journey.
While the palanquins were being pre-
pared, she herself immersed the child
in warm bath, wrapped it carefully IN
fiannels to protect it from the night air,
and with a hasty cup of tea for her own
refreshment, laid herself on her re-
cumbent vehicle, and ordered the bear
ers to hasten on.
But the natives can do nothing with
out noise, so after the usual preli-
minaries of shouting, showing, abusing.
striking, and lighting huge pine-torches,
the human beasts of burden at last got
fairly into regular motion. Stimulated
by the promise Of extra pay, they put
willing shoulders to the work, and as
they trudged along they kept each other
in time by the murmur of a low and
melancholy hum, provocative of all sad
and long-forgotten memories.
On-on, went the English mother,
alone IN that wild jungle, far from re-
lations and friends, holding close to her
beating bosom that precious creature
whose frail hold on life was fast loosen
ing. For she felt it starting and sobbing
even in that place of rest; and when,
stopping at the first halting- place, she
looked upon its face, she was struck
speeches. at the rapid progress of di-
sease Overhead the high trees swung
the torches fared and blazed in the
night-wind-the crowd Of noisy, black,
and half-naked men leaped and gesticu-
lated around the palanquin-the red
fires, round which the elders of the vii
lage squatted, Missed and cracked and
shed CHASTITY glare upon the scene
and in the middle of it all sat the young
foreign girl with her pale face and her
white wrapper, gazing steadfastly on the
shuddering and moaning infant in her
lap.
The ayah came, and again the rene
dy was administered, this time in strong
er proportions, but with weaker conf
dence in its efficacy. One cup of cold
water for the mothers parched mouth,
and then on again
For your lives haste haste!''
On-on, through jungle and open glade!
down narrow paths where the tangled
branches brush the bearers as they go,
and shower down dews and blossoms
through the open doors of the palan-