THE STUDENT PHYSICIAN AND THE CHILD.
Softly she came like a spirit of light,
And her goodness shone out like the glow in a gem;
As she waited and watched through the wearisome night,
The fall of her footstep was music to them.
Another day went by. New patients were crowded into the hospital, and
some were carried out with their feet toward the door. For an hour or
two that day Mary Fuller slept a little, with her head resting against
Mrs. Chester's cot. The groans and the depression of the sick did not
shake her nerves as they had at first; and the poor thing was so
exhausted that even in that place, and in the poisoned atmosphere, her
slumber was deep and tranquil; and then came a remembrance of her
father's dying words, that no human being was so humble or weak that
some good to humanity might not be won from her exertions. She looked
around the ward and saw a blessing in every eye, and she knew that one
in heaven was blessing her also.
Oh, if Mrs. Chester could have slept for one hour like that little
creature at her feet. But the poison seemed kindling afresh in her
brain; her fancies grew wild and terrible; she was climbing mountains,
sinking deep, deep, deep into the very bowels of the earth, where
serpents coiled and hissed, and writhed with horrid joy as they saw
her descend. Now she clung to the point of some sharp rock, holding on
with her fingers, while those huge serpents trailed themselves upward,
crawling slowly from the abyss from which she was saved only by the
grip of her own slender fingers.
Then you knew by her voice that the scene had changed. She was
pleading for Chester--pleading with low broken tones, that would have
touched a heart of stone. She besought the Mayor not to wrong her
husband, not to press and wring his proud spirit so cruelly as he had
done; and then she believed that her sweet eloquence had prevailed,
for her lips trembled with thanks; she murmured nothing but soft
blessings upon the man who had been to her worse than a murderer.
Another change, and she passed on to some new hallucination, visionary
as the last, for day and night her brain never rested. When they
questioned her, the poor woman always answered that she was not ill,
that nothing was the matter, nothing whatever--she only wondered the
people would tease her so with inquiries that had no meaning.
Another night came on, and again Mary prepared herself to watch by the
sick. The few hours of slumber she had obtained, made quite a new
creature of her. She was resolved to be doubly vigilant--that no one
of the suffering persons around her should lack nourishment or care.
How cheerful and strong the little creature grew, as a sense of her
power to accomplish good increased upon her. It was strange, but after
the first few minutes she never once thought of the danger. There she
was, feeble and helpless, in the very midst of a pestilence that would
have terrified the strongest man; but it seemed quite impossible to
the brave girl that the fever should reach her. Perhaps this very
confidence protected her, for while she inhaled poison with every
breath, it produced no harmful effect upon her.
The nurses were sullen and bitter in their language to the child all
day. They seemed to think her an intruder, and, but for the young
physician, she must have been driven forth from the ward by her own
mother. Toward night these two women whispered much together, going
frequently into the passage where several nurses from other wards met
them stealthily. As the night drew on, Mrs. Chester sunk into a fitful
sleep, and this encouraged the little watcher, who sat gazing
wistfully on her face, scarcely daring to move, though the noise
around was unabated. The hours crept on, and darkness gathered over
those pauper-couches. Mary looked up through the gloom, and saw her
mother creeping softly from couch to couch, making herself very busy
with the medicines. The doctor had just paid his last visit for the
night; finding Mrs. Chester low, and evidently sinking, he had ordered
both brandy and wine to be given in small quantities, but very
frequently, during the night.
The tin-cups which held the precious stimulants--for they were
precious in the sick-room, holding life and death in their
strength--stood upon a little stool near Mrs. Chester's cot. It was
these tin-cups that drew the nurse like a vampire to the spot where
her child sat watching.
"Go," she said, in a more kindly tone than she had hitherto used when
addressing the gentle girl, "go and bring that little curly-headed
doll in, if she wants to kiss her mother again to-night--I suppose she
would like to see her fast asleep, as she is now!"
Mary arose, dissatisfied, she knew not why, with the tone of cajoling
kindness in which she had been addressed. But Mrs. Chester slept, and
during the next ten minutes would not require her attendance. Isabel
had been drooping like a strange bird, since she came to the Alms
House, and Mary knew that it would cheer her to see her poor mother in
that calm sleep. Still the child went forth with unaccountable
reluctance. The moment she was out of sight, that wretched woman
pounced like a bird of prey upon those tin-cups, and poured
three-fourths of their contents into a dark earthern pitcher that she
carried under her apron. Then she hastily filled the cups with water,
leaving just enough of the original contents to color the whole.
The next and next patient was robbed in like manner; then with her
black pitcher reeking with the life she had plundered from those poor
creatures, the wretch went out, comparing with a chuckle her horrid
spoil, with the jar half-full of brandy, which the younger nurse had
gathered from her end of the ward.
"Hurry, hurry, or we shan't get through before the young cockatrice
comes back to catch us at work! She has got the eye of a hawk, I can
tell you," cried the woman, emptying her pitcher into the jar, which
was carried away to a safe corner by her accomplice.
"Come, bring the water and fill up after me. There is twenty beds left
yet. I gave the right sort of symptoms to the doctor, and he left the
kind of medicine that we like best for almost the whole lot."
The young woman followed her ruthless leader into the ward, carrying
the water-pitcher in her unsteady hand, for she had not reached the
hardened audacity of her preceptress, and there was something in the
scene to make even a debased nature tremble.
"Don't, don't take more than half; they will die before morning if we
do!" she whispered, as the eyes of a patient, full of heart-rending
reproach, was turned upon their work. "See, this one is so feeble."
"Poh, a little brandy, more or less, what does it signify?" cried Mrs.
Fuller.
"The wine, then leave the wine. I did not take a drop!"
"More fool, you!"
"Hush!" said the young woman, "I hear her coming. Leave the rest; we
shall be found out."
"Take this and give me the water. Out of the way, now, and see that
you don't drink any till I come!"
The young woman hurried out of the room, meeting Mary Fuller and
little Isabel in the passage.
"They want water. I am going for more water. It is wonderful how they
keep us running night and day!" she said, hoping to draw off their
attention with a gratuitous falsehood.
Neither of the little girls answered, but passed gently into the ward.
Mrs. Fuller was by a cot near the door, holding her water-pitcher
to the lips of a patient; nothing could appear more kind than her
demeanor. "Ah, here you are," she said, nodding to the children,
"she is asleep yet! Don't make any more noise than you can help."
Isabel went up to her mother's cot, and kneeling by it looked
earnestly upon the pale and languid features.
"_Is_ she better?--see how white she is, how her eyes are sunken. She
hardly breathes at all. Oh, Mary, _is_ she better?"
"Yes, the Doctor says so--and she does not mutter to herself or seem
so restless as she did. I think, Isabel that she _is_ better!"
The tears gushed into Isabel's eyes. She bent down and softly kissed
the pale hand of her mother. Mrs. Chester started and opened her eyes;
they fell upon her child, and instantly that full gaze was blended
with tears.
"Isabel, my child." The words were very, very faint, but oh, how
sweetly they fell upon those young hearts.
"She knows me--oh, Mary, she knows me!" cried the child, and her
beautiful face grew radiant amid the tears that covered it, like a
flower struck with sunshine when the dew is heaviest on its petals.
"Mamma, oh, my own mamma, this is Mary, our Mary Fuller!"
The sick woman turned her eyes toward her little nurse. She tried to
lift her hand, but it only shook on the checked quilt.
"Mary, my good, good Mary!"
Mary knelt down softly by her friend, and bowing her head wept in
sweet and grateful joy.
"Where am I? Where have I been?" asked the invalid, still more
faintly.
"You are with us, this is our home!" answered Mary, almost catching
her breath, for she dared not tell the poor lady where she really was.
Mrs. Chester was now quite exhausted, her eyes closed, and she
scarcely breathed. Mary started up and poured out a spoonful of what
she supposed to be wine.
"Every ten minutes--every ten minutes we must give her this, with the
beef tea when she can take it."
"Let me--oh, let me give it to her this one time," pleaded Isabel.
Mary resigned the pewter spoon with a faint smile, and Isabel held the
colored water to her mother's pale lips. Then Mrs. Chester slept again
while the two girls sat watching her with their hopeful eyes. Once
every ten minutes these little creatures would steal up to the pillow
and pour the mockery of strength between those white and parted lips,
hoping each time that she would open her eyes and speak to them
again--but no, she slept on and each moment her breath grew fainter.
While the two girls sat with their arms interlinked watching that
beloved face, the nurses stole out from the ward, and crept, each with
an earthen pitcher in her hand, down the Hospital stairs, and out into
the open grounds.