The
doctor did what he could to ease the poor woman s sufferings, and then
asked who lived with her to take care of her.
"Not a soul," she said. "I am all alone. I haven't a chick nor child in all
the wide world!"
The doctor looked at the wood near the stove, and wondered to himself how
the sick old woman could chop and pile it so nicely; but he said nothing,
and she went on sadly:--
"I have had a hard time of it this winter, and I would have died sure if it
hadn't been for that blessed boy."
"Why, I thought you lived alone, and had no children!" exclaimed the
doctor.
"No more I haven't," she said. "I am all alone by me lone self, as I told
ye, but the good Lord has been a-takin' care of me; for a bit of a boy,
bless his heart! has been a-comin' here every day this winter for to help
me. He chopped the wood the minister sent me, and brought some in here
every night, and piled it up like that" (pointing to the sticks in the
corner): and the harder it stormed, the surer he seemed to come. He'd never
so much as tell me where he lived, and I only know his name is----"
"Jack?" asked the doctor, with unsteady voice.
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