Angel Agnes | Page 7

in a hurry. You have given me impudence enough for the rest
of your life. You have got to go back now with me to the office of the
Superintendent, where I will have you discharged and then punished as
you deserve."
Perhaps thoughts of dark and cruel acts he had already been guilty of,
flashed across his mind, and made him tremble for the consequences to
himself. He evidently believed that Agnes knew more about him than
he thought. Or perhaps it was that mysterious influence which a
positive mind in motion--like Miss Arnold's--wields over a vacillating
temperament like the dead-wagon driver's.
Whichever of these causes it was, could of course never be positively
known, but, like a flash of lightning, the fellow changed his insolent,
braggart manner to one of the most contemptible, cringing cowardice.
"Don't, Missus, don't! Ef I've 'sulted yer, 'pon my dirty soul I'll beg yer
double-barrelled pardon. Please don't yer go to complainin' on me. For
ef I'd lose my place, my wife and young 'uns 'ud starve to death in no
time. I oughter knowed better then to sass you anyhow, when I seed
how good and purty ye wuz!"
"Please don't leave us! don't leave us, Miss Agnes, for you've been our
Good Angel. You have saved our lives!" piteously exclaimed Mrs.
Burton and her children in chorus at this moment, fearful that their
nurse was really going away, and dreading if she did, that they would
all be carried off either to the cemetery or some other dreadful place.
"Now, please go back, and don't go a tellin' on me fur a sassin yer. I
oughter to be ashamed; and I am double-barrelled ashamed. An' ef
you'll jest say you'll furgiv' me, I'll go down on my knees. There now,
Miss Agony, ain't that 'nuff? Ef it ain't, why I'll do whatever you say fur
me to do."
The fellow pulled off his hat, and set himself in such a ludicrously

woebegone attitude, that Miss Arnold had great difficulty in restraining
herself from laughing outright. She managed, however, to keep a
straight face, and replied:
"Well, this time I will allow it to pass; but never let me hear of such
conduct again, or I will not be so lenient."
"Thank you, missus; and may I ask you a queshun?"
"Yes."
"I want ter ask you, how yer kep' them there fel's from a dyin'? 'Cause
when they're bin tuk like they wuz tuk yer could jest bet every muel in
the kerral that they'd peg out in twenty-seven hours at furthest."
"God did it, not I," replied Agnes.
"Don't call me sassin' yer, agin, Miss Agony, but that ain't so; 'cause
thar's nuthin' 'll fetch 'em, when they're tuk the way they wuz tuk. It's
magic done it, nuthin' else!"
"Well, in case you should feel the headache, sick stomach, and chill
coming on at any time, or fall in with any person suffering that way,
remember the following recipe. Take out your book again and put it
down."
"Yes, Miss Agony, willin'."
The fellow produced his book and pencil, and holding the former flat
up against the door, wrote at Miss Arnold's dictation:
"Put the feet immediately into hot and very strong mustard water--put
in plenty of mustard. Quickly take a strong emetic of ipecac or mustard
water. Go to bed immediately, and send for the doctor. While waiting
for the doctor, get salt mackerel, directly out of the brine, and bind
them to the soles of the feet. And the moment the patient craves any
particular article of food or drink, do not hesitate to give it moderately.
If mackerel cannot be obtained, use strong raw onions or garlic. In a

few hours the mackerel will most likely become putrid; if so, remove
them, and apply others."
"Golly! Golly! I knowed it was magic--somethin' like that, and not
medicine at all!" exclaimed the fellow, nodding his head to himself.
"Let me look at your book, to see if you have it correctly written," said
Agnes, stepping partially behind the driver.
"Lor' bless you, Miss Agony!" he exclaimed, "you'd never be able to
read my writin'. Hold on, an' I'll read fur you myself, an' then yer ken
tell me ef I'm wrong."
As Agnes still manifested a desire to look at the book, however, he held
it for her inspection. But with the exception of here and there a small
word, like a or the, she could not decipher any of the scrawl. So she
expressed her desire to hear it read.
The fellow promptly read it all off without a single mistake, much to
the astonishment of Miss Arnold.
"Is that all straight, hey, Miss Agony?" asked he, with a comical
expression of mingled pride and curiosity running over