A slatternly woman stared at
the intruders; a dirty child crawled over the hearth. Daisy
could not endure to touch anything, except with the soles of
her shoes. So she stood upright in the middle of the floor;
till the doctor turned round.
"Daisy! — are you going to stand there till the shower is
over?"
"Yes, sir," — Daisy answered, patiently. A smile curled the
doctor's lips. He opened the door and lifted in the chair with
its long poles, which indeed half filled the little room; but
Daisy sat down. The woman looked on in astonishment.
"Be she weakly, like?" she asked at length of the doctor.
"Has been —" he answered.
"And what be that thing for?"
"It is for going up and down mountains."
"Have you come from the mountings!" she asked, in great
surprise. The doctor was in for it. He was obliged to explain.
Meanwhile the darkness continued, and the rain did not yet
fall. A breath of wind now and then brushed heavily past the
house, and sunk into silence. The minutes passed.
"It will be a happiness if they get here before it begins,"
said Dr. Sandford; "it will come when it comes!"
"Be there _more_ comin'?" said the woman.
"A housefull. We are only the beginning.
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