Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1906-10-20

was offered.
The keen gray eyes OF the doctor
went round the circle. The atmos-
phere was saturated with prejudice.
There was a respectful bearing, but
not sympathetic face. 1t was Big
Mary McKinnon against all the 9TH
ersl
In five days the doctor had told
them. the change would come.
Lets give her till the fifth day!"
cried Big Mary, as the relatives clam
ored.
The fifth day came and went; the
sixth day waxed and waned, and the
night of the seventh was come, and
it did not require a professional eye
to see that Donald was in desperate
straits. One after another the air
cells in the sufferers left lung had
become solicited, as you would pour
melted wax into a beehive. Donald
was pulling the air into his lungs in
jerky, grunting inspirations. His face
was as purple as a plum. If he turn
ed his head to the right, there was
a cry of anguish; if he turned it to
the left, all previous pain, in Donald's
experience, was balm compared to the
agOnizing darts that pierced his breast.
But if Donald's strength could hold
out until resolution occurred, Donald
would be safe.
The sick-chamber presented tragic
spectacle. When all eyes were not
resting wistfully on the sufferer, they
were bent sternly on the doctor. On
a chair stood the tank of oxygen, its
red cross staring like a blazing eye
at the sick-bed Near at hand, the
sister rocked herself and her woe, re-
fusing to be comforted. Over Donald
bent the girl who loved him wits one
hand waving a fan to and fro, which,
like the flame in the Peruvian shrine,
had never ceased from the beginning.
With the other she at times removed
the red splashes from the sufferers
lips, giving no heed to the doctors
warning to be careful of eontagion.
AS we'll have asked her brother of the
Prince Edward Island contingent to
be careful when he carried wound
ed comrade from under Cronje's guns.
Astride the bed was Donald's dory
mate. with the invalid's head against
his broad chest-an easily adjustable
and appropriate pillow in the present
exigency.
'Pull, Donald, pull" he cried, en-
couragingly, as if a gale of wind was
going and they were ''rOusing' the
dory up to windward against big
sea-"
you can't pull with your head I'M
der water!" gasped Donald.
BY the bedside sat the doctor.
yearning for the moment of the crisis.
To tell the truth, it was her first
pitched battle. There had been old
women and young babies, mere out
post skirmishes, but here was strap
ping young adult; here was a Trojan
of diseases. Her professional fate,
the right of woman to act beyond
certain circumscribed sphere, seemed
trembling in the balance.
In her prophecy concerning the
fifth day she had taken eXpediency
by the hand, and now expediency was
pinching her fingers. She hated to
call a consultant to rob her of the
glory she felt was impending, and for
which she had waited so long. Any
one but Mckenzie. She had been weak
enough at one time to defer to that
gentleman's judgment, and the con-
descending manner in which he had
treated her continued to hurt.
She had called up Prof. Caroline
Trefythen, thirty miles away, and that
strong-minded woman had soothed a
conscience that was pricking in spots
with the assurance that her conduct
and treatment throughout the whole
case was beyond criticism.
Morning and evening, responding to
the opportunities of the patients sis
ter, she had dictated for his parents
at home a rose-colored and hopeful
bulletin, which was straightway trans
lated into cold, depressing truth, and
despatched. And now, despite all her
zeal and attention, it began to look
like defeat.
The young fisherman's splendid con-
stitution, giving such hopeful prom
Use of an early crisis, appeared stag
gered; the heart, that overworked or
gan, seemed to be but winlzing; the
cIamor in the kitchen was being re-
newed, and she felt that Big Mary,
in the last ditch, had her back against
the door. Most portentous omen of
all. that worthy woman had twice
within the last fifteen minutes ad-
dressed her as "Ma'ami"
Some one mentioned the hospital.
The doctor looked up quickly. For one
moment the citadel that had been for
seven days so fercely pressed trem-
bled to its foundations. The hospital!
Here was a middle course. 1t would
keep the case out of McKenzie's
hands, and she would march out with
side-arms. The sister staggered to
her feet.
"Don't-send him to the hospital
doctor! Don't!" A soul, worn down
Iov- IF a0oOi1ino c1Ic-