The Press. (Stafford Springs, Conn.) 1883-1935, 1900-11-01
IN THE LITTLE
HOSPITAL.
A Touching Sketch Of
D Two Patients Who Sailed
Together.
BY p. Y. BLACK.

J BY p z n1AoK'- )
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In the little country hospital the
young nurses were very good and at
tentive to everybody, not having been
in the business long enough to have
grown callous. They were nice girls,
mostly in their first years course, and
their lips would twitch and their faces
whiten very often in the operating
room or when they held a patients
hand while he died in the night. But
they were brave and went about the
pretty hospital singing softly in the
cool corridors, carrying little white
clothed trays to the sickrooms and be-
ing the best of medicines themselves
by reason of their neatness, their
bright eyes and their kind voices.
Now, one beautiful bright spring aft
ernoon at the railroad junction in the
town two trains filled with pleasure
seekers smashed together, and the doc
tors and the matron and the nurses
were plunged into a world of work, for
ambulance after ambulance came driv-
ing up from the scene of the accident
and left to the care of the girls many
people sorely hurt. And among them
was q very little boy about years old
whom nobody knew anything about be-
cause his father and mother were both
killed in the collision, and there was
nothing on them to show who or what
they were except that they were very
poor. 1t is comprehensive that a very
great deal of attention was paid to this
little fellow, and he would have been
placed in the women's ward, as the
hospital was too small for a children's
ward, but the women's ward was full.
So the boy, quite insensible, was laid
on cot in the mems ward, and next to
him was laid a big brown bearded man,
also insensible, from whose clothes
had been gathered quite sum Of mon
ey and whose few papers went to show
he had been sailor. He was very
rough looking man indeed.
The man came to his senses first, and
it was night. The nurse on watch was
quite frightened at the man. He was
in pain, and great allowance must be
made for that, but never in all her life
had the little nurse to listen to such
words as came from the big brown
bearded mans lips. He wanted to get
up and go right away, but he found he
could not move his great massive legs.
So he began to abuse his fate and the
railway and the hospital and the nurse
and mankind in general. He was
very bitter mouthed man indeed. The
little nurse by the light of the night
lamp did her best to soothe him be-
cause he reused other patients, and
there was a terrible grooming and wall
ing in the small ward. And all at once
the little boy came to his senses, too,
| just for a minute, and his face was
turned to the sailors face, and his eyes
fell upon the sailors eyes. He was not
quite sensible yet for it seemed he mis-
took the sailor for his dead papa, and
he said very prettily:
"Good morning, dad. How are you
this morningw
lows eyes, was abashed and stopped
his swearing and was silent for mo-
ment and then muttered clumsily:
"I'm all right"
'"That's NICE" said the boy and be-
came unconscious again.
The sailor did not abuse anything
any more just then, but lay groaning,
and every now and again when the lit
tie nurse slipped by in the shadows he
called to her softly, and the first time
he said:
pretty little chap"
The nurse nodded and smiled, and
the sailor smiled back, and until morn
ing came at last he only groaned and
watched the child and did not curse at
all, but every time the nurse came to
wipe his brow or give him a drink he
whispered to her to look at the boy.
"Pretty boy! He thought was his
dad" he said and would have laughed
only his pain made him groan instead.
Again he caught the nurses hand.
"Said it was nice, he did. Cute, amt
hep And then his face twisted in
pain.
But neither could the sailor rise
from his back, and neither could the
sailor hope to sail the sea again, for he
was in the same case with the child,
and both were slowly dying. At first
sometimes the big brown man would
forget himself in his pain, and the
nurses would shut their ears, terrified,
and the matron would threaten to
move him to room by himself, and
that frightened him to silence, for ever
since the accident he had great love
for the child. The child would look at
his huge friend in surprise when he
fell into one Of his RACES and suy:
"Oh, John, that's not nicer
And John would bite his lips at once
and be patient Then the child would
say:
"How do you feel, Johnw
And the sailor would answer:
"First rate, joe"
'That's NICE" little Joe would say.
And they would lie quiet and look out
Of the window at the river and beyond
where the big hills purpled to the skies
and were always looking up.
So it was in the mornings, when Joe
seemed always first awake and ready
to have his hands and face washed by
the nurse. He could not turn about tc
see the other patients, but he learned
all their names, and as soon as he
heard them moving he always asked
very politely:
"And how do you feel, Mr.. Smith p
And Mr.. Smith would always an.
swer because it pleased the child:
"First rate, joe"
'"That's NICE" said Joe. And SO he
would ask each in turn, and to each an
swer, always the same, he would reply
cheerfully, '"That's NICE"
And when they asked him how II
went with him he always said, though
sometimes with an effort, 'I'm pretty
well, thank you" Then everybody
J, would say with real pleasure, '"That's
nice, joe"
| So the summer went on, and very
few patients came to the hospital, and
John and Ioe were all alone save for