Page:Cornelia Meigs-The Pirate of Jasper Peak.djvu/238

 As she stood stirring the pot he made another attempt to question her, trying again and again to  get some explanation of how affairs had come to  such a pass. But Laughing Mary merely jerked her head toward the bunk and said:

“Old—live hard—die.”

Thus she summed up what was, to her, the most ordinary thing in life.

It was the second time that he had tended a sick person in that house, so that Hugh already  knew the full resources of the Jasper Peak cabin. In John Edmonds’ behalf he had worked feverishly, feeling nervous, excited, starting at every sound from his patient, wondering and puzzled as  to what to do next. Now he felt himself entirely calm, at no loss what to do even though the state  of this man was far more desperate than the  other’s. He realized how much even a small amount of experience can do and how immeasurably older he had grown even in the month that  had passed since he had been in this same place.

He came and went steadily until at last he had done all he could, then he sat down by the fire to