Page:A New England Tale.djvu/155

144 grasped it so firmly, that he found it difficult to remove it. He called his wife to his assistance, and placed the infant in her arms. Pity for so young a sufferer nerved the old man with unwonted strength, and enabled him to bear the mother to his hut. There he used the simple restoratives his skill dictated; but nothing produced any effect till the child, with whom the old woman had taken unwearied pains, revived and cried. "The sound," he said, "seemed to waken life in a dead body." The mother extended her arms, as if to feel for her child, and they gently laid it in them. She felt the touch of its face, and burst into a flood of tears, which seemed greatly to relieve her; for after that she took a little nourishment, and fell into a sweet sleep, from which she awoke in a state to make some explanations to her curious preservers. But as the account she gave of herself was, of necessity, interrupted and imperfect, we shall take the liberty to avail ourselves of our knowledge of her history, and offer our readers a slight sketch of it.