The Bag Baby.
Madame Charbonneau gave such entire satisfaction as _Maîtresse
d’Hôpital_ that I purchased her interest in the lease of the house,
and employed her permanently as my aide-de-camp. In a short time we
established quite a reputation, and applications for accommodation
poured in from all quarters.
One bitter cold day towards the end of March a lady and gentleman
arrived by the morning train from the United States. The lady was
apparently about thirty-five years of age, while the gentleman might
have been from five to ten years her senior, and, although plainly
attired, they had the appearance of belonging to the better class of
society. The gentleman informed me that they had just arrived from New
York, and had put up at the St. Lawrence Hall; but that his wife had
taken ill unexpectedly, and, hearing that she would be better cared for
in my house than at the Hall, he wished, if possible, to secure rooms
and professional attendance. The house being rather full at the time,
Madame Charbonneau was obliged to give her the nurse’s room (which
contained two beds) till some of the other rooms should become vacant;
this her husband readily assented to, and arranged to call in the
afternoon and bring the necessary funds, which I always made it a
point to collect in advance. The lady seeming tired and exhausted, I
recommended her to divest herself of her clothing and retire to bed,
which she accordingly did, and soon fell into a deep sleep. In the
afternoon the gentleman returned, and, having settled the bills, went
upstairs to see his wife who was just then partaking of some light
refreshment. He expressed himself well pleased with our arrangements,
and said he would call regularly to see how his wife progressed.
That night as the nurse was about to retire, she was surprised to find,
under the coverlet of her bed, an enormous rag baby, as large as a child
of two years old, dressed completely, with shoes, bonnet and veil. Her
astonishment can easily be imagined as she held it up to the light
and carefully examined it; then, laughing heartily, she turned to Mrs.
Roberts (my patient) and said:
“My! who could have put this baby in my bed?” On which that lady replied
with evident embarrassment that the baby was a doll belonging to
her niece, and that, imagining the bed to be unoccupied, she had, in
unpacking her trunk, placed it there for the sake of convenience, and
apologized for being so careless. The nurse made no reply, but, being of
a jovial disposition, danced with it into the other rooms, exclaiming,
much to the chagrin of the lady, that she had found a beautiful baby in
her bed. The other patients wondered what it was, and whence it came,
and appealed to me for information, but, as I knew nothing about
it myself, their curiosity was not gratified in the least. On my
questioning the lady she told me a story similar to that which she told
the nurse, but her countenance contradicted her assertions, and the idea
of any child carrying a doll of the dimensions of the rag baby was too
absurd for credence. No more was said about it, however, and the matter
passed almost completely from our memory.
For three or four days things went on as usual, Mrs. Roberts getting to
all appearances better every day, and her husband’s visits being paid
with due regularity; one day, however, he failed to appear, and Mrs.
Roberts seemed very uneasy. After tea she asked for the evening paper,
and hastily scanned its columns, when her eye fell on some item of
interest, and she became deadly pale. The American war being then in
progress I thought she might have learned of the death of a friend or
relation, so I inquired if anything were amiss, and was astonished
when she pointed out a paragraph containing an account of her husband’s
arrest for enlisting British subjects for the American army, and
smuggling them across the line, She now took me into her confidence, and
explained that she was an accomplice of her husband, and that they
had made a practice of enlisting men in Montreal. Her husband usually
remained here, as it was dangerous for him to travel to and fro, but she
was sent as an escort for each recruit, and the baby was used to avert
suspicion, as no sentinel would think of scrutinizing a man closely who
went across accompanied with his wife and child. The excess of travel
had weakened her frame, and now this shock came to still further shake
her system; the result was a premature confinement, and a long and weary
illness.
Ere she recovered she got a letter from her husband, bearing the
New York postmark. It seems he had been liberated on bail, (having
influential friends) and had at once made the best of his way to the
United States. His wife soon joined him, taking with her the redoubtable
rag-baby, which had afforded us so much food for gossip and conjecture.