Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1881-03-01
The Mysterious Babies.
BY REV. ED. S. GREGORY.

The Mysterious Babies.
BY REV. ED. S. GREGORY.
From the South Atlantic Magazine.]
The best friends of the old doctor could
not deny that he was disposed to be abb
sent.minded. It may be that his
thoughts were generally occupied about
his patients and their diseases. 1t may
be that he had acquired this habit of abb
straction, as it is called, because he was
often on the road, both by day and
night; and 1 have noticed that those
who dwell familiarity with nature are
often SO facinated by its beauties and its
mysteries that they get out OF the ordl,
nary run of small cares and small talk.
When people fall into this way ofdwel-
ling apart from the circumstances about
ing though why absent-minded folks
should be thought to gather wool rather
than hay or hickory-nuts, or huckle-
berries, is one of those things that no
fellow has ever found out.
The doctor was not SO very old when
the incident about the six babies took
place. That period was a long time ago
when the good county of Bedford, in
Virginia, was not SO highly civilized as
it is at present. At the time that speak
of people lived very far apart and along
very rough and difficult roads. They
visited little, spending most of their
time at home, the men at work on their
farms, the ladies managing their houses,
their servants and their children. The
doctor knew all of them of course
Whenever there was any public gather
ing, political or religious. then all the
good people for scores of miles in every
direction assembled, bringing their din
ners in baskets and hampers, and
spending often not only one Gay but
several and having good time general
ly in an old fashioned way.
The occasion on which the incident
of the mysterious babies occurred was
q grand annual meeting of the Old Side
Baptist Association. The brethren were
out in full force. The time was sum
mer, but the weather was not too warm;
the trees were in full leaf; the church
was beautifully situated In the midst of
a deep and ancient grove; and near at
hand was a mountain brook, whose gen
tie descent over the rocks and roots
made sweet and tinkling music to the
ear Along the fence many hundreds
of horses were tied and hundreds of 9th
ers 10 twigs and saplings; some with
mems saddles on them, some side sad
dies, some pac < saddles, some billions
and some with no saddles at all. And
there were carriages, and buggies, and
barouehes, and wagons, and gigs, and
carryai!s, and carts, and calashes, and
OK drags, and in fact pretty much ev-
erything that could carry people from
one point to another. And sure enough
the people were there to prove that the
wagons and other cOnveyances had con-
veyed them. Nobody ever saw more
lively and animated sight; those NOV
ing figures OF old and young. male and
female, great and small, white and
black, through the long green arches of
the wood and upon its quilted carpet of
interlaced shadow and sunshine. But
if l linger in this way over the crowd
and the scene [ will never have chance
to tell you about the mysterious babies
The doctor was at the Association, as
where else ought the doctor to have
been? Not that only, but he was the
most important parsonage on the
ground. Tho candidate for Congress
was also the, and be sure he did not
lack for attention from men or women.
The delegate who sat in the legislature
was also present and he was shaking
and was in high feather. Both of these
country, and both very certain that the
country could not be saved unless they
were elected. And many people follow
ed them about and thought themselves
highly honored when these great men
gave them passing word.
The doctor had barely arrived on the
ground when he was asked to prescribe
for q sick baby. He found very little
the matter with the child but wrote off
some simple prescription ofhCme RENE
dies and thought nothing more about it
Or rather he did notice that the colOred
girl who brought the child to him was
in broad grin; That used to be the way
with those honest people and is SO yet,
and therefore that did not long engage
his thoughts.
Before the doctor had time to ask the
news be was again called into requisi-
ton, this time to draw a poor fellows
jaw-tooth-a big one, an old one and a
heavy one.
We draw veil over that struggle, for
in those days tooth-pulling was tooth
pulling and no mistake. The doctor
wiped the blood from the old fashioned
forceps on some red dog WOOD leaves and
looked up to find colored woman
standing by him with a baby in her
arms. The woman was fat, the baby
thin and had a yellow shawl around it.
The woman, In laugh, said the baby
was sick and its mother wanted him to
prescribe for it.
"Who is its mother?" demanded the
doctor.
e. Miss Sniff, whar lives down by Pos
ann Hnl!oU Nroot ~ cold 10 poprn
Take good notice that miss" is q
short way the Southern negroes have,
or had, of saying Mrs" or "Mis-
tress."
"Well, don't know Mrs Smith who
lives at Postum Hollow Creek" an
swered the doctor, "but if the baby is
sick it shall have some physic." Then
he felt its pulse and looked at its tongue
and found very little the matter with
the baby, considering that it was sick
put ne wrote off another prescription of
things that would do no harm if they
did no good, and sent the girl away.
The DOCTORS family were somewhere
on the ground but he had not vet seen
them. They had come with escorts of
their own, in the family coach, and had
arrived there before him. He began to
think 1t was time he should look them
up. So great was the crowd and SO ex-
tensive the woods that the doctor could
not all at once find his people. This
worried him SO that he forgot all about
the babies he had prescribed for, and SO
he was not at all surprised when, in
passing group on the grass, lady call
ed him up and asked him as special
favor, to look at her baby who had been
ailing for several days.
with all the pleasure in the world,
madam" replied the doctor, who was |
gentleman Of the old school and when |
the infant was brought forward with a |
blue shawl cast around it, he asked a |
great many questions, felt its pulse and |
looked at its tongue with great interest |
and gravity.