Miss Mink's Soldier and Other Stories

								

keep you. They'd like to make one o' them dressed-up doll women outen
you! You're goin' back with me to the Fork, an' ef thar's ever any more
nussin' er doctorin' to do, I'm a-goin' to do hit. I've nussed three
women on their deathbeds, an' when your time comes I 'low I kin handle
you too."
Then his mood changed suddenly, and he sat down by the bed.
"Sal," he said almost persuasively, "you'll git over this here
foolishness. Ag'in' fall you'll be a-cappin corn, an' a-roastin' sweet
pertatoes, an' singin' them ole ballarts along with the Hicks gals, an'
Cy West, an' Bub Holly. An' I'll tote you behind me on the beast over
the Ridge to the Baptist Meetin' House the very next feet-washin' they
hev. Jes' think how good hit's goin' to be to see the sun a-risin' over
Ole Baldy, an' to hev room to stretch an' breathe in. Seems ez if I
hain't been able to git my lungs full of wind sense I left Jackson."
"I know it, Pop," Sally said miserably. "You growed old in the hills
afore you ever seen the Settlements. But sence I got a sight of whut
folks is a-doin' down here, 'pears like I can't be reconciled to goin'
back. 'Tain't the work back home, nor the lonesomeness, tho' the Lord
knows the only folks thet ever does pass is when they're totin' deads
down the creek bottom. Hit's the feelin' of bein' shet off from my
chanct. Ef I could git a larnin' I wouldn't ask nothin' better then to
go back an' pass it along. When I see these here gals a-larnin' how to
holp the sick, an' keer fer babies, an' doctor folks, I lay here an'
steddy 'bout all the good I could do back home ef I only knowed how."
"You do know how," Pop declared vociferously; "ain't you bin a-lookin'
after folks thet's ailin' around the Fork fer a couple of years or more?
Ez fer these new-fangled doctorin's, they won't nary one ov 'em do the
good yarbs will. I'd ruther trust bitter-goldenseal root to cure a
ailment than all the durn physic in this here horspittle. I ben
a-studyin' these here doctors, an' I don't take much stock in 'em;
instid of workin' on a organ thet gets twisted, they ups and draws hit.
Now the Lord A'mighty put thet air pertickler thing in you fer some good
reason, an' ther's bound to be a hitch in the machinery when hit's took
out. Hit's a marvel to me some of these here patients ain't a amblin'
round on all fours from what's been did to their insides!"
"But think whut the doctor did fer me," urged Sally.
"I ain't fergittin'," Pop said suddenly, "an' I've paid 'em fer hit. But
ef they calkerlate on yer takin' root here, they're treein' the wrong
possum. You're a-goin' home along o' me to-morrow."
That afternoon he left the hospital, and several hours later was seen
walking up Monument Street with his arm full of bundles.
"I believe he's been buying clothes to take Sally home in!" said one of
the nurses, who was watching him from an upper window. "He asked me this