Heppner gazette. [volume] (Heppner, Morrow County, Or.) 1892-1912, 1907-10-31

worse or better. Even Agnes Remins
ton was totally neglected and so on,
day she sent Guy down to pevonshlre t
say that as Jessie seemed more than usu
ally delicate, she wished the doctor t(
take her under his charge and visit hel
at least once a week. The doctor was
not at home, but Tom said he expected
him every moment. SO seating himself
| in the armchair, Guy waited until he
came
We'll, Hail." he began, jocosely, but
The joking words he would have uttered
next died on his lips as he noticed the
strange look of excitement and anxiety
on the doctors face. what is t?' he
asked. Are all your patients dead?"
Guy" and the doctor came closely to
him, whispering huskily, you and | are
murderers in the first degree. Yes: aud
both deserve to be hung. Do you remem-
Der that Madeline Clyde whom you in
suited with your logic and Latin verbs
She'd set her heart on that certificate.
She wanted the money, not for new gowns
and fooleries mind, but to help her old
grandfather pay his debts. His place is
mortgaged. | don't understand it; but
he asked some old hunks to lend him the
money. and the miserly rascal, whoever
he was, refused. l wish l had it. I'd
give it to him out and out. But that's
nothing to do with the girl-Maddy, they
call her The disappointment killed her,
and she is dying-and keeps talking of
that confounded examination. | tell you,
Guy, my inward parts get terribly mixed
up when l hear her talk, and my heart
thumps like a trip-hammer. That's the
reason | have not been up to Aikenside
l wouldn't leave Maddy so long as there
was hope. l did not tell them this morn
ing. l couldn't make that poor couple
feel worse than they are feeling; but
when l looked at her tossing from side
to side and picking at the bedclothes, I
knew it would soon be over-that when I
saw her again the poor little arms would
be still enough and the bright eyes shut
forever. Guy, l couldn't see her die
don't like to see anybody die, but her,
Maddy, of all others-and so l came
away. If you stay long enough, you'll
hear the bell toll, I reckon. There is
none at Honedale church, which they at
tend. They are Episcopalians, you see,
and so they'll come up here maybe.
hope l shall be deafer than an adder
Here the doctor stopped. wholly out of
breath, while Guy for moment sat with
out speaking a single word. JESSIE in
his hearing, had told her mother what
the sick girl in the doctors office had
said about being poor and wanting the
money for grandpa, while Mrs. Noah had
given him a rather exaggerated account
of Mr.. Markham's visit; but he had not
associated the two together until now,
when he saw the whole, and almost as
much as the doctor himself regretted the
part he had had in Maddy's illness and
her grandfather's distress.
Doc" he said, laying his hand on the
doctors arm, Il am that old hunks, the
miserly rascal who refused the money.
l met the old man going home that day,
and he asked me for help. You say the
place must be sold. 1t never shall, never.
I'll see to that, and you must save the
girl"
II can't, Guy. I've done all l can,
and now, if she lives, it will be wholly
owing to the prayers of that old saint of
a grandfather says for her. l never
thought much of these things until l
heard him pray; not that she should live
anyway, but that, if it were right, Maddy
might not die. Guy, there's something
in such a prayer as that. It's more pow
erful than all my medicine swallowed at
one grand gulp."
Guy didn't know very much about
praying then, and so he did not respond,
but he thought of Lucy Atherstone, whose
life was one hymn of prayer and praise,
and he wished she could know of Maddy,
and join her petitions with those of the
Starting suddenly from his
chair, he exclaimed, Il am gong down
there. 1t will look queerly, too, to go
alone. Ah l have it ! I'll drive back to
Aikenside for jessie who has talked SO
much of the girl that her lady mother,
forgetting that she was once a teacher, is
disgusted."
(To be continued.)