FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   >>  
ctually feel as I used to when I was a little girl and Christmas Eve had come, or Hallowe'en, and--and-- What other night in the year was it that I used to feel creepy and expectant--as if something wonderful was going to happen?" The fire coughed twice, as if it would have liked to remind her that it was May Eve, but felt it might be an intrusion. "I believe," she continued, speculatively--"I believe I am going to begin to think things and do them again; and what's more, I believe I am going to like doing them." The fire chuckled again, and danced about for a minute in an absurd fashion; it was so absurd that one of the logs broke a sap-vessel. After that the fire settled down to its intended vocation, that of making dream-pictures out of red and gold flames, and black, charred embers. The widow of the Richest Trustee watched them happily for a long time, until they became very definite and actual pictures. Then she got up, went to her desk, and wrote two letters. The first was addressed to "The Board of Trustees of Saint Margaret's Free Hospital for Children"; the second was addressed to "Miss Margaret MacLean." They were both sealed and mailed that night. What befell the other trustees does not matter, either from the standpoint of Fancy or of what happened afterward; moreover, it was nearly midnight, and what occurs after that on May Eve does not count. IX THE LOVE-TALKER All through the evening Saint Margaret's had been frankly miserable. Nurses gathered in groups in the nurses' annex and talked about the closing of the incurable ward and the going of Margaret MacLean. The passing of the incurables mattered little to them, one way or another, but they knew what it mattered to the nurse in charge, and they were just beginning to realize what she had meant to them all. The Superintendent felt so much concerned that she dropped her official manner when she chanced upon Margaret MacLean on her way from supper. "Oh, my dear--my dear"--and the Superintendent's voice had almost broken--"what shall we do without you? You have kept Saint Margaret's human--and wholesome for the rest of us." The House Surgeon had been miserable unto the third degree. It had forced him into doing all those things he had left undone for months passed; and he bustled through the building--from pharmacy to laboratory and from operating-room to supply-closets--giving the impression of a very scientific man, w
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   >>  



Top keywords:
Margaret
 

MacLean

 

things

 

miserable

 

addressed

 
Superintendent
 
mattered
 

pictures

 
absurd
 

incurable


operating

 

talked

 
passing
 

closing

 
closets
 

charge

 
supply
 
incurables
 

impression

 

TALKER


occurs

 

evening

 

Nurses

 

gathered

 

groups

 

giving

 

beginning

 

scientific

 

frankly

 

nurses


laboratory

 
months
 

midnight

 

passed

 

wholesome

 
undone
 

degree

 
Surgeon
 

official

 
manner

chanced
 

dropped

 
concerned
 
forced
 

supper

 

broken

 
pharmacy
 

building

 
bustled
 

realize