Page:Wiggin--Ladies-in-waiting.djvu/142

  “If they ain’t got wit enough to find that out for themselves it ain’t likely any woman’ll take the trouble to tell ’em!” exclaimed Amanda with some spirit.

“Don’t get stuffy, Amanda! Just be a good Christian and take hold here for a few days till we see whether we’ve got to have a nurse from Portland. Man’s extremity is God’s opportunity; maybe Caleb’ll come to his senses before he gets over this sickness.”

“I wonder if he ever had any senses?” said Amanda.

“Plenty,” the doctor answered as he prepared the medicines; “but he has n’t used them for twenty years.—I’ll come back in an hour and fetch Bill Benson with me. Then I’ll stay till I can bring Caleb back to consciousness. We shall have to get him downstairs as soon as he can be moved; it will be much easier to take care of him there.”

The details of Caleb Kimball’s illness would be such as fill a nurse’s bedside rec-