Children of the Dear Cotswolds

fine house, with a carriage drive and a conservatory, right at the other end of the town. The waiting-room was very full on Mondays, peo

d a handsome lad of sixteen, who had come to consult the doctor about a sprained thumb. "One of the gentr

usly at the clock, clasping and un

ory to obeying the expected summons, when the woman rose hastily and came and stood in front of him, saying eagerly, "Sir, will you let me go in out of my tur

e first spoke, looking very shy and embarrassed, "and I am awfully sorry, yo

woman, casting a grateful look behind her, hurried into the presence of the docto

rs were always somewhat abrupt. He was saving of speech, though

now these three weeks; she don't get no better, and she does noth

done?" interrup

g Tonic.' My 'usband, 'e don't 'old with doctors

e," prefaced by a somewhat forcible adjective,

crew of paper. He waved it aside impatiently, saying, "Haven't

ted after her. His heart was

he said to himself, "with their faith-healing and their

the sect in question, but in his own mind lump

*

us if not affectionate father, and a diligent worshipper in that upper room, wherein assembled a handful of people of similar religious views. He indulged himself in few pleasures, and ra

hority, but having early laid to heart the maxim that "what a man doesn't

d respectable persons come by such

y" with herself, while her father uplifted his voice in prayer. Who turned up in the hunting-field when she ought to have been safe in school, ever ready to op

extreme to the worthy mistress, she did her lessons far better and more quick

f any well-regulated little girl; she had, during her six months' residence in our midst, attained to a notoriety which was apparently as much a matter of indifference to her as it was painful to her parents. Her father looked upon her as a cross to be borne with Christian fortitude. He wrestled in pra

elf could not have told. Perhaps because he admired the way she always made sure of her "fun" regardless of consequences-a disregard the str

at she looked for no change in him, but with a philosophy as pagan as the rest of her conduct accepted his existen

canal, and after which she walked about till she was, as she put it, "moderate dry"-"at least

e would stay the night with a hospitable brother; this fact, taken together with the fact th

y of people who could treat a case of acute pneumonia with "Dinver's Lung Tonic" for sol

d her head on the doctor's entrance. "Shall I go to hell?" sh

She had not voluntee

aimed. "You'll go to Weston-supe

"But if I don't get we

ce regarding the ultimate fate of the soul. But on this occasion he shook his head vigorously, holding the hot thin little hand in a firm comforting

parson wot plays cricket?" Ketu

tor turned to go. He hurried down the narrow stairs, but stopped at the front do

ht in, to find the cleric in question resting his slippered feet u

e's going to hell. She'd like to see you, so I said I'd send you. Her people ar

urate, swinging his feet off the mante

at is the cre

let Keturah die

t geniuses are just as likely to die of neglect as other folk--" But the curate had not waited for the rest of the sentence.

doctor as he climbed into his dog

found the curate there, in his shirt-sleeves, assisting Mrs. Moulder to make poultices. He often does such things. Hi

days later the doctor said, "She is better, but weak as a kitten. She

the curate, could not call her soul her own, "Oh, sir, I daren't.

it is. Give it her in milk like this!" and suiting the action to the word, he me

e doctor, with one of her dazzling smiles. "I don't think much on the taste of it,

he table the innocent-looking medicine bottle he had produced from his

eglected. She had been obliged to confess to the visits of the doctor, who might fly in at any moment when Matthew was at home. But she had not felt in any way called upon to tell her husband that the curate had sat up with Keturah the whole night that he was aw

alism in the curate's ministrations. He had come to make a convert of Keturah, of that he was sure; was there not an office-Matthew almost licked his lips over the word "office"-in the Book of Common Prayer especially adapted to

heard Keturah's weak little voice

lf to listen, and th

ship upon

the back bed

it full of

iling on t

saw and sev

in the nur

id, 'Let u

nd a slice

enough for

ailing on

along for d

e very bes

l out and h

s no one le

where he had been sitting, and stumbled somewhat blindly into the parlour, where he sat down on the slippery horse-ha

. There had been six babies before Keturah, and none had lived beyond babyhood. At that moment he forgot how naughty she was, how un

is suspicions of the curate were forgotten, and in their place came cold-ha

*

ate so far won upon Matthew Moulder that he persuaded him to allow the district nurse to be sent to sit up with Ketura

d at the instigation of the curate, a whole series of fantas

Keturah, in a burst of confidence to Thomas Beames, and Thomas, wit

when they be growed up b

*

ver said nothink. They giv' 'er champang one night, as she was so low, an' 'e hopened the bottle 'imself. But I will say this for 'em, they always says to Keturah, when they giv' 'er them liquors, 'Now, remember, you're never to tech this when you be got well. Y

Matthew Moulder who was