to get a doctor. No, I won't leave you
all alone--not for long," she added hastily, for Miss Charity was
gazing at her imploringly and Miss Hope's eyes were full of tears.
"I'll come back and stay all night and as long as you need me. But I
must get some things and I must tell the Watterbys where I am. I'll
hurry as fast as I can."
She ran out and saddled Clover, for she had been turned out to grass
to enjoy a good rest, and, having got the proper direction from Miss
Hope, urged her up the road at a smart canter. She knew where the
Flame City doctor lived; that is, the country doctor who had
practised long before the town was the oil center it was now. There
were good medical men at the oil fields, but Betty knew that they
were liable to be in any section and difficult to find. She trusted
that Doctor Morrison would be at home.
He lived about two miles out of the town and a mile from the Watterby
farm, and, as good luck would have it, he had come in from a hard
case at dinner time, taken a nap, and was comfortably reading a
magazine on his side porch when Betty wheeled into the yard. She knew
him, having met him one day at the oil wells, and when she explained
the need for him, he said that he would snatch a bit of supper and go
immediately in his car.
"I know these two Saunders sisters," he said briefly. "They've lived
alone for years, and now they're getting queer. It's a mercy they
ever got through last winter without a case of pneumonia. Both of 'em
down, you say? And impossible to get a nurse or a housekeeper for
love or money."
"Oh, I'm going back," explained Betty quickly. "They need some one to
wait on them. Uncle Dick will let me, I know, and I really know quite
a lot about taking care of sick people, Doctor Morrison."
"But you can't stay there alone," objected the doctor. "Why, child, I
wouldn't think of it. Some one will come along and carry you off."
"Bob will come and stay, too," declared Betty confidently. "There are
horses and cows to take care of, you know. I found them nearly dead
of thirst, and all tied in their stalls."
The doctor interrupted impatiently.
"Nice country we live in!" he muttered bitterly. "Every last man so
bent on making money in oil he'd let his neighbor die under his very
eyes. Here are two old women sick, and no one to lift a hand for 'em.
I suppose they haven't been able to get a hired man to tend to the
stock since the oil boom struck Flame City. Well, child, I d
|