Wall, it wuz on the very day before we laid out to leave for home.I wuz a settin' in my room a mendin' up a rip in my pardner's best coat, previous to packin' in his trunk, when all of a sudden Miss Flamm's hired girl came in a cryin', and sez I, "What is the matter?"And sez she, "Ah! Miss Flamm has sent for you and Mr.Allen to come over there right away.There has been a axident.""A axident!" sez I.
"Yes," sez she."The little girl has got hurt, and they don't think she will live.Poor little pretty thing," sez the hired girl, and busted out a cryin' agin.
"How did she get hurt?" sez I, as I laid down the coat, and went to tyin' on my bunnet mekanically.
"Wall, the nurse had her out with the baby and the little boys.
And we s'pose she had been drinkin' too much.We all knew she drinked, and she wuzn't in a condition to go out with the children this mornin', and Miss Flamm would have noticed it and kep' 'em in, but the dog wuz sick all night, and Miss Flamm wuz up with it most all night, and she felt wore out this mornin'
with her anxtety for the dog, and her want of sleep, and so they went out, and it wuzn' more'n half an hour before it took place.
She left the baby carriage and the little boys and girl in a careless place, not knowin' what she wuz about, and they got run over.The baby and the little boys wuzn't hurt much, but they think the little girl will die.Miss Flamm went right into a caniption fit," sez she, "when she wuz brung in.""It is a pity she hadn't went into one before," sez I very dryly, dry as a chip almost.My axents wuz fairly dusty they wuz so dry.But my feelin's for Miss Flamm moistened up and melted down when I see her, when we went into the room.It didn't take us long for they are still to the tarven, and we met Josiah Allen at the door, so he went with us.
Yes, Miss Flamm felt bad enough, bad enough.She has got a mother's heart after all, down under all the strings and girtins, and laces, and dogs, etc., etc., that have hid it, and surrounded it.Her face wuz jest as white and deathly as the little girl's, and that wuz jest the picture of stillness and death.And Iremembered then that I had heard that the little girl wuz her favorite amongst her children, whenever she had any time to notice 'em.She wuz a only daughter and a beauty, besides bein'
smart.
The doctor had been there and done what he could, and go gone away.He said there wuz nothin' more to do till she came out of that stuper, if she ever did.
But it looked like death, and there Miss Flamm sot alone with her child, and her conscience.She wuzn't a cryin' but there wuz a look in her eyes, in her set white face that went beyond tears, fur beyond 'em.She gripped holt of my hand with her icy cold ones, and sez she, "Pray for me!" She wuz brung up a Methodist, and knew we wuz the same.My feelin's overcame me as I looked in her face and the child's, both lookin' like dyin' faces, and Isez with the tears a jest runnin' down my cleeks and a layin' my hand tender on her shoulder, "Is there anything I can do for you, you poor little creeter?""Pray for me," sez she agin, with her white lips not movin' in a smile, nor a groan.
Now my companion, Josiah Allen, is a class-leader, and though Isay it that mebby shouldn't -- That man is able in prayer.He prays as if he meant what he said.He don't try to show off in oritory as so many do, or give the Lord information.He never sez, "Oh Lord, thou knowest by the mornin' papers, so and so."No, he prays in simple words for what he wants.And he always seems to feel that somebody is nigh to him, a hearin' him, and if it is best and right, his requests will be granted.
So I motioned for that man to kneel down by the bed and pray, which he did.He wuz to the fore side of the bed, and Miss Flamm and I on the other side.Wall, Josiah commenced his prayer, in a low earnest askin' voice, then all of a sudden he begun to hesitate, waver, and act dretful agitated.And his actions and agitations seemed to last for some time.I thought it wuz his feelin's overcomin' of him, and of course, my hand bein' over my eyes in a respectful, decent way, I didin't see nothin'.
But at last, after what wuz seemingly a great effort, he began to go on as usual agin.About that time I heard sunthin' hit the wall hard on the other side of the room, and I heard a yelp.But then everything wuz still and Josiah Allen made a good prayer.
And before it wuz through Miss Flamm laid her head down onto my shoulder, and busted into tears.
And what wuz rooted up and washed away by them tears I don't know, and I don't s'pose anybody duz.Whether vanity, and a mistaken ambition, and the poor empty successes of a fashionable life wuz uprooted and floated away on the awakened, sweepin' tide of a mother's love and remorse; whether the dog floated down that stream, and low necked dresses, and high hazardus slippers, and strings for waists and corsets, and fashion, and folly, and rivalry, and waltzin', and glitter, and buttons, and show; whether they all went down that stream, swept along like bubbles on a heavin' tumultuous tide, I don't know, nor I don't s'pose anybody duz.
But any way, from that day on Miss Flamm has been a different woman.I stayed with her all that night and the next day, she a not leavin' the child's bed for a minute, and we a not gettin' of her to, much as we tried to; eatin' whatever we could make her eat right there by the bedside.And on the 2d day the doctor see a change in the child and she began to roust a little out of that stuper, and in a week's time, she wuz a beginnin' to get well.
We stayed on till she wuz out of danger and then we went home.
But I see that she wuz to be trusted with her children after that.She dismissed that nurse, got a good motherly one, who she said would help her take care of the children for the future;only help her, for she should have the oversight of 'em herself, always.
