Page:Samantha on Children's Rights.djvu/96

 *sician to help you." She lifted up her head and was just about to git out of bed agin, and I sez, "You can ask Him right where you be, for He don't mind; what He minds is the true reverence of the soul—the dependent call for help from them that need His care and who believes He can help 'em."

"Yes, mom," sez she; "I always say my prayers every night."

"Well," sez I, "so do." And I kissed her and couldn't help it. I wuz beginnin' to like her the best that ever wuz. But jest as I wuz leavin' the room she looked up anxiously with her big blue eyes and sez, "Oh, Aunt Samantha, won't you close the window at the foot of the bed and the one in the next room?" That wuz another little bedroom that opened out of hers and I used it for a clothes-press.

"Why," sez I, "Honey, the wind couldn't touch you at all if there wuz any; your bed is out of the range on't; but," sez I, goin' into the next room and bringin' out a big screen (one I made myself out of the old iron-*in' bars and some pretty cretonne), "here," sez I, "I'll put this between your bed and the winder, and you couldn't git cold in a cyclone, much less in this sweet June air that comes up fresh from the heart of Nater and brings a touch of her own healin' and rest with it."

But she looked frightened still, most as if she'd faint away, and sez she, "Mamma told me special to have you cork the windows up tight if there wuz any airholes round 'em."

"Cork 'em up," sez I mekanically, "I would fur ruther oncork 'em," sez I, and I went on, "What is the reason for her desire for corkin'?"

"The night air is so deadly," sez she; "Mamma is