The Somerset reporter. [volume] (Skowhegan, Me.) 1868-1909, 1902-12-25
JIMMY:
By LESLIE JAMES
Copyright, 1901, BY A. s. Richardson
By LESLIE JAMES

1t was the big doctor who found her,
misshapen and suffering in her IA
theirs gloomy shop In spite of Its
noise and dust, jimmy preferred the
shop to the tiny back room, because
the customers spoke kindly to her and
made her forget the ache In her back.
When they gave her candy enough to
start a make believe shop on the mar
TOW window ledge, she sold it for pins
to the children In the dlngy court, just
because she loved to watch these
straight limbed, bright eyed children
caper about as she knew she never
could
When the big doctor brought her to
the hospital, he said to Nurse Powell:
"I'l leave Jimmy under your special
care, Miss Powell / am greatly inter
ested in her case. The expense Is be
ing met by one perfectly able to do 1t,
and she is to want for nothing"
And thus were the gates of an earth
ly paradise opened to jimmy Of Borden's
court. First there was the cunning lit
tie room, all her own, with pictures on
the wall, and the whItest of iron beds
with shiny knobs on each corner, and
bright red wrapper, woolly and soft,
with knit slippers to match. Then
came the pretty young ladies OF the
Flower mission with their nodding
blossoms and occasional glasses of
uuivering jelly. Sometimes the big doc
tors nieces brought their dolls and
spent an hour at Iinny's bedside, and
happy Jimmy was permitted to hold as
long as she liked the marvellous Flor
cite, who could walk and talk like
real baby and whose dresses really and
truly came from Paris.
But In Jinny's mind all these things
faded into insignicance when COM
pared with the big doctor and Nurse
Powell These two formed joint d.
vinity before which jimmy burned the
sweet incense of childish devotion.
Nurse Powell had obeyed the physi-
clans generous instructions to the let
ter-at first from a sense of duty and
later because she learned to love the
patient little sufferer.
And the big doctor? Even Nurse Pow
ell, who knew his deep interest in his
work, wondered at the attention he law
ished on this denizen of the sums Of
ten when his rounds In the hospital
were over and he had time to spare he
would come back to Jinny's room for
chat, and jimmy, her great black eyes
set in a face of ivory wilderness, would
smile happily from one to the other, the
big doctor who ordered medicine that
eased the pain In her back and the
nurse whose gentle hand could smooth
away wrinkles in her forehead when
the pain was at its worst
Sometimes when they sat thus Jimmy
was vaguely conscious that the big doc
tor was talking to her. but looking at
Nurse Powell. But jimmy did not know
how, years before, when the big doctor
fresh from the medical school, had been
house physician In the city hospital, he
had met sweet faced probe" doing
her first night duty In his ward. The
head nurse had looked scornfully at the
slender figure and the trembling hands
but the young house physician had
said: Give her time. She'll get her
bearings after bit"
4NulBS OWtil HdQ Octil SEdLtlul lOh
his cheerful encouragement and the
many kindnesses which lightened her
burden during that first awful year in
the big wards, but when he asked for
something more than gratitude she
could not give II. Now head of thu
nurses staff at sanitarium, she some
times grew a-weary and wished she
| had Ian Cd 10 fhx,h ,ot1
brown eyes seemed still to follow her at
her duties. Then her heart would say:
mo, mol His work would always come
first, and | would be second. Besides
wonder if he has a heart. When
see him undertaking those horrible op-
erations without the culver of an eye
lash, l think he has no feeling"
And so this nurse who could untlinch-
ingly assist at the same operations
waited inconsistency for love to come
into her life. a love that would be all
! tenderness and thoughtfulness thing
apart from the scenes of suffering in
which she moved
1t was one afternoon when jimmy had
been almost year at the hospital. In
the morning the big doctor had said
give changed the medicine again. Miss
Powell. | don't like that rise in temper
AZURE. If you note a tendency toward
coma during the afternoon, send for me
! at once"
But Nurse Powell did not have to
send for him. He came of his own ac-
cord just as the afternoon drew to
close jimmy had been sleeping rest
lessly. and when she opened her eyes
with an expression of WEAKNESS that
had not been there since she came to
the hospital the big doctor and Nurse
Powell were sitting on either side of
her little bed. At the foot lay gayly
illustrated copy of Mother Goose's
rhymes. which Nurse Powell had been
reading aloud before kindly sleep came
to the small sufferer, Now jimmy
pointed to 1t with a wan smile.
1--WE had the funniest dreaml |
went to Mother Goose's land, way, way
of an she was such a funny ole wom-
an, an she was right glad to see me!
An she says, Little girl, would You
like to stay with me awhile? An
says, Pm obliged to you. ma'am. but
can't stay long An then she brings
out the purtiest dress, purifier than my
red wrapper. an she says. Little girl,
/ would Won like TO wear thatY An