The Cape Girardeau Democrat. (Cape Girardeau, Mo.) 1876-1909, 1897-12-18

face up into an expression OF sincere
pain. for the feeble little ~rollickscme
laugh had rippied down her neck 10
the stitches in her throat and had
wrenched them the millionth part OF an
inch, which was just enough to cause
them to hurt like red-hot irons. Mrs.
Marshall's eyes filled. with tears, and
she whimpered for q moment, and Mrs.
johnson knelt beside her bed and kissed
her and petted her soothingly, and said
that if she would try to be patient she
would tell her al about everything. es-
pecially the boy of four who was going
to the kindergarten.
"In Just Al minutes" observed Mrs.
Teck, peering at a little gold watch, on
the case of which IA engraved an
impossible buffalo with a most like a
species of ant-eater, gazing fixedly at
a castle which had the dimensions of
height and width but no thickness
whatever, "in just Al minutes Mrs.
Johnson will be gone. I wish it were
my time to 60"
Have you been counting, too?" in
quired Miss Hough. $50 have l. And
oh. don't l wish it was me-"
1t developed that everybody had beer
calculating upon the exact number of
minutes which must elapse before the
emancipation of the graduating one.
There is SO little to do in a hospital
that a discharge is an event which
is transcribed by but one thing in all
the wOrld-an admission. An admis-
sion rises superior to a discharge be-
cause they have such n broad latitude
over which to wander. You a specu-
late on the nature of the ailment and
wonder whether it is going to call for
an operation or yield to medicine. You
can guess at antecedents and circum-
stances and as to whether or not the
patient comes of q religious stock-of
the kind given over to murmuring of
hymns and sacred songs. And in a
ward of course you will get to see her
visitors, and you have a most agreeable
time of it in figuring as to whether
the young man with the sad face is her
husband or her brother. a patient 60
ing away isn't nearly so interesting,
of course. 1t is not to be expected.
Mrs. Johnson went upstairs and babe
the little spinal meningitis boy good-by
and fixed his pictures before him so
that he could see them all without hav-
ing to turn. The little boy was of a
rueful sort, awaiting only the slightest
and most fragile of excuses for melting
into tears, and when Mrs. johnson said
she was not going to come in any more
his eyes grew moist. Seeing this the
convalescent knew better than to re-
peat the indiscreet statement to Win
fired, the brave siX-year-old, whose
right leg was trussed in the air with a
great weight holding it al a shipmast
She tod the child she was 60
ing to see her own little girl that day.
Has she got a stiff leg?" asked Win
fired, and.for fear Of hurting the child's
feelings, the woman said'that her little
girl was afflicted as intimated.
Mrs. johnson kissed them all and
told them of the candy she was going
to send them, and then for the last
time she heard their usual confessions
of desire; Earl, the spinal-meningitis
boy, now recovered of his tears and cry
ing shrilly a determination to be a po-
liceman and ride in the patrol wagon;
Winifred to be a nurse and wear a
white cap. and Guy sturdily content
to have a shovel and dig a trench for
The nurses passed in the Railways
with their basins and trays, but none of
these paid any attention to the on
valescent, for none of them knew her
in the most general way. Her
attendant upstairs had already
pleasantly and had ~congratu-
her on the successful outcome
and had gone away to wait upon other
patients, especially the typhoid-fever
man, who rang his bell persistently.
Mrs. johnson went into the room
she could no lonSercall hers and
threw on her cape and hat and wnited
for the familiar step. Having already
sent her extra apparel, there was 10th
ing to take away but herself. The booka
should become the heritage of the next
She wondered who she would
be and if she would like THE Pride
Of the World" or "Gladys Heming's
the better. Somebody was
She rose and hurried over to
The dresser TO take a final look at her
hat, and her eyes for the last time rest
on the symptom sheet" whereon
The nurses had carefully noted the med
cal story Of her case. She seized the
pencil and wrote good-by across the
and turned to meet her brown
bearded husband. whose eyes were
with joy.
Two minutes later the rattle of the
wheels Of the hack died out of the
street, and Mrs. johnson was gone
chicago Record.