Luella, she
up and had hysterics again at that, and I jest let her have 'em. All I
did was to bundle her into the room on the other side of the entry
where Aunt Abby couldn't hear her, if she wa'n't past it--I don't know
but she was--and set her down hard in a chair and told her not to come
back into the other room, and she minded. She had her hysterics in
there till she got tired. When she found out that nobody was comin' to
coddle her and do for her she stopped. At least I suppose she did. I
had all I could do with poor Aunt Abby tryin' to keep the breath of
life in her. The doctor had told me that she was dreadful low, and
give me some very strong medicine to give to her in drops real often,
and told me real particular about the nourishment. Well, I did as he
told me real faithful till she wa'n't able to swaller any longer. Then
I had her daughter sent for. I had begun to realize that she wouldn't
last any time at all. I hadn't realized it before, though I spoke to
Luella the way I did. The doctor he came, and Mrs. Sam Abbot, but when
she got there it was too late; her mother was dead. Aunt Abby's
daughter just give one look at her mother layin' there, then she turned
sort of sharp and sudden and looked at me.

"'Where is she?' says she, and I knew she meant Luella.

"'She's out in the kitchen,' says I. 'She's too nervous to see folks
die. She's afraid it will make her sick.'

"The Doctor he speaks up then. He was a young man. Old Doctor Park
had died the year before, and this was a young fellow just out of
college. 'Mrs. Miller is not strong,' says he, kind of severe, 'and
she is quite right in not agitating herself.'

"'You are another, young man; she's got her pretty claw on you,' thinks
I, but I didn't say anythin' to him. I just said over to Mrs. Sam
Abbot that Luella was in the kitchen, and Mrs. Sam Abbot she went out
there, and I went, too, and I never heard anythin' like the way she
talked to Luella Miller. I felt pretty hard to Luella myself, but this
was more than I ever would have dared to say. Luella she was too
scared to go into hysterics. She jest flopped. She seemed to jest
shrink away to nothin' in that kitchen chair, with Mrs. Sam Abbot
standin' over her and talkin' and tellin' her the truth. I guess the
truth was most too much for her and no mistake, because Luella
presently actually did faint away, and there wa'n't any sham about it,
the way I always suspected there was abo