am to cool my
fevered blood. Poor Tom sat by my side, often wringing his hands in
despair, not knowing how to treat me, and yet anxious to do all in his
power to be of assistance. At length one day he jumped up as if a
bright thought had just struck him, and out he ran, leaving me alone. I
scarcely expected that I should be alive when he came back, so weak and
wretched did I feel. An hour or more passed when he reappeared,
accompanied by an old black woman with whom I had occasionally exchanged
a joke in passing, and I believe bestowed on her some trifle or other,--
Mammy Gobo I used to call her,--little thinking the service she would be
to me. She felt me all over and looked at my tongue, and then off she
trotted. She soon, however, came back with some pots and herbs and some
bricks. She first made Tom dig a hole, in which she lighted a fire and
at it heated some bricks. These she applied at once to my feet, and,
putting on her pots, formed some decoctions with the herbs, which she
made me swallow in large quantities. Had she not providentially come, I
believe that I should have died that very night. As it was, I was
evidently a subject requiring all her care and skill. She seemed
anxious to bestow both on me. All night long she sat up by my side, and
all day she watched over me. It appeared to me that she never slept.
If I opened my eyes they were certain to fall on her jolly ugly visage,
with her large eyes turned full upon me, seemingly to inquire what I
wanted. When at last she began to go away occasionally for half an hour
at a time to collect more herbs, or for some other purpose, Rockets was
always ready to take her place, and attended me with all the affection
of a true and warm friend. Strong as my constitution was, I am very
sure that had I not been watched over by Mammy Gobo and Tom I should not
have recovered--that is to say, I felt then, and I feel more strongly
now, that they were the instruments, under a merciful Providence, by
which I was preserved so long from destruction while hanging between
life and death, and ultimately of my recovery, though it was long before
that took place. Probably in consequence of his constant attendance on
me, before I had begun to recover, Tom himself was attacked with the
fever, and there he lay in the stall next to me, moaning and groaning,
and occasionally raging with delirium. I ought to have mentioned that
some time before this our old horse had been re