nd how he had set his eyes by her, and I made up my mind to go in
the next mornin', unless she was better, and see what I could do; but
the next mornin' I see her at the window, and pretty soon she came
steppin' out as spry as you please, and a little while afterward Mrs.
Babbit came in and told me that the Doctor had got a girl from out of
town, a Sarah Jones, to come there, and she said she was pretty sure
that the Doctor was goin' to marry Luella.

"I saw him kiss her in the door that night myself, and I knew it was
true. The woman came that afternoon, and the way she flew around was a
caution. I don't believe Luella had swept since Maria died. She swept
and dusted, and washed and ironed; wet clothes and dusters and carpets
were flyin' over there all day, and every time Luella set her foot out
when the Doctor wa'n't there there was that Sarah Jones helpin' of her
up and down the steps, as if she hadn't learned to walk.

"Well, everybody knew that Luella and the Doctor were goin' to be
married, but it wa'n't long before they began to talk about his lookin'
so poorly, jest as they had about the others; and they talked about
Sarah Jones, too.

"Well, the Doctor did die, and he wanted to be married first, so as to
leave what little he had to Luella, but he died before the minister
could get there, and Sarah Jones died a week afterward.

"Well, that wound up everything for Luella Miller. Not another soul in
the whole town would lift a finger for her. There got to be a sort of
panic. Then she began to droop in good earnest. She used to have to
go to the store herself, for Mrs. Babbit was afraid to let Tommy go for
her, and I've seen her goin' past and stoppin' every two or three steps
to rest. Well, I stood it as long as I could, but one day I see her
comin' with her arms full and stoppin' to lean against the Babbit
fence, and I run out and took her bundles and carried them to her
house. Then I went home and never spoke one word to her though she
called after me dreadful kind of pitiful. Well, that night I was taken
sick with a chill, and I was sick as I wanted to be for two weeks.
Mrs. Babbit had seen me run out to help Luella and she came in and told
me I was goin' to die on account of it. I didn't know whether I was or
not, but I considered I had done right by Erastus's wife.

"That last two weeks Luella she had a dreadful hard time, I guess. She
was pretty sick, and as near as I could make out nobody dar