for all Shores’ flaxseed ‘n’ all Kimball’s cotton, ‘n’ then if he did n’t pitch in!  I was there by that time, ‘n’ we set Polly to fryin’ poultices, ‘n’ Mrs. Macy ‘n’ me slapped ’em on hot.  Sam was sent with the horse to get the doctor’s darnin’-needles ‘n’ thread, ‘n’ young Dr. Brown told him to drive by the station ‘n’ tell Johnny to telegraph to Meadville f’r old Dr. Carter to come over ‘n’ help him ’s fast as he could.

“Well, Mrs. Lathrop, I wish ’t you could ‘a’ been there to see us.  The water jus’ streamed off Mrs. Macy ‘n’ me, ‘n’ I bet them poultices was hot, for no one never asked f’r a nother o’ their own free will.  Young Dr. Brown soon had to take off his vest, ‘n’ roll up his sleeves c’nsiderably more high, ‘n’ I will say ‘t beavers was nothin’ to the way he worked.  When he had the last one sewed off ‘n’ was ready to go, he looked like there was nothin’ left ’s he did n’t know how to do.  He brung me home in his buggy.  I know it was pretty late, ‘n’ I never was no great hand to approve o’ buggy-ridin’ after dark, but he’s married ‘n’ I thought ‘s no real harm could come o’ it, so I up ‘n’ in.  Mrs. Macy said she ’d stay all night ‘n’ sleep with ’Liza Em’ly ‘n’ Rachel Rebecca in the little half-bed.  We come up along through town, ‘n’ I tell you I never see the square so gay any election night ’s it was last night.  Not a store was closed, ‘n’ Mr. Kimball was sellin’ soda-water ‘t four cents a glass, with a small sheet o’ court plaster throwed in at that.  Dr. Brown stopped to go in back o’ the fountain ‘n’ mix suthin’ ’t they keep there for him, ‘n’ it was then ’s I hear about Jathrop.

“Seems ’t along about ’n hour after the cow ’d run over everybody, Jathrop come moonin’ back from where the butcher lives out Cherry Pond way.  Seems ‘t the sight o’ his calmness jus’ sort o’ set every one ’s wasn’t a wreck plum crazy.  Seems ’t when he asked what was up Deacon White shook his fist ’t him ‘n’ said he was what ’d ought to be up—­strung up, ‘n’ Hiram Mullins wanted to souse him in the waterin’-trough.  Seems ’t Hiram was mad ’cause he paid for them teeth o’ Gran’ma Mullins, ‘n’ the teacups too.  Well, it was pretty lively, ‘n’ the first thing any one knew Mr. Weskin drawed Jathrop off to one side to cross-examine him a little, ‘n’ Hiram see him start to run f’r the station.  Hiram didn’t waste no words findin’ fault ’t Lawyer Weskin’s lettin’ him go, but he went after him jus’ jumpin’.  He didn’t catch him, though, ‘n’ so that’s the end o’ Jathrop.”

Miss Clegg paused, and drew a long, refreshing breath.

“I guess you’ve had a nice breakfast,” she said in a minute, “only you’d ought to eat more.”

“I didn’t feel much—­” said Mrs. Lathrop.

“Well, you ’d ought to.  How’s your leg?  C’n you feel it this mornin’?”

“Oh, yes, I c’n—­”

“Then it’s all right so far.  But I hear last night ’s you c’n feel a leg even after it ’s been cut off.  Mrs. Macy says she heard of a man ’s suffers awful yet in a leg as he lost in a planin’-mill over thirty years ago.”