Page:Ralph Connor - The man from Glengarry.djvu/54

  "Ah, a tree! But where did the tree strike him?"

"Here," pointing to his breast; "and it is sore in his breathing.

"Well, Ranald, if you put the saddle on Pony, I shall be ready in a minute."

Jessie was indignant.

"You will not stir a foot this night. You will send some medicine, and then you can go in the morning."

But the minister's wife heeded her not.

"You are not walking, Ranald?"

"No, I have the colt."

"Oh, that's splendid. We'll have a fine gallop—that is, if the moon is up."

"Yes, it is just coming up," said Ranald, hurrying away to the stable that he might escape Jessie's wrath and get the pony ready.

It was no unusual thing for the minister and his wife to be called upon to do duty for doctor and nurse. The doctor was twenty miles away. So Mrs. Murray got into her riding-habit, threw her knitted hood over her head, put some simple medicines into her hand-bag, and in ten minutes was waiting for Ranald at the door.