Geoffrey Strong | Page 4

and he has
carried raisins for forty years, and never had a twinge of rheumatism in
all that time. The same raisins, too; they have hardened into stone, as
you may say, with what they have absorbed. I don't need to see things
clearer than that."
"H'm!" said Miss Phoebe, with the suspicion of a sniff. "Did he ever
have it before?"
"I wasn't acquainted with him before," said Mrs. Weight, stiffly.
There was a pause; then the visitor went on, dropping her voice with a
certain mystery. "You may talk of superstition, Phoebe, but I must say
I'd sooner be what some folks call superstitious than have no belief at
all. I don't wish to reflect upon any person, but I must say that, in my
opinion, Doctor Strong is little better than an infidel. To see a perishing

human creature set himself up against the Ordering of Providence is a
thing I am sorry to meet with in this parish."
"Has Doctor Strong set himself against Providence?" asked Miss
Phoebe, her back very rigid, her knitting-needles pointed in stern
interrogation.
"You shall judge for yourselves, girls!" Mrs. Weight spoke with
unction. "At the same time, I wish it to be understood that what I say is
for this room only; I am not one to spread abroad. Well! it has never
been doubted, to my knowledge, that the lower animals are permitted to
absorb diseases from children, who have immortal souls to save. Even
Doctor Stedman, who is advanced enough in all conscience, never
denied that in my hearing. Well! Mrs. Ezra Sloper-- I don't know
whether you are acquainted with her, girls; I have my butter of her. She
lives out on the Saugo Road; a most respectable woman. She has a
child with a hump back; fell when it was a baby, and never got over it. I
found she wasn't doing anything for the child,--nice little boy, four
years old; hump growing right out of his shoulders. I said to her,
'Susan,' I said, 'you want to get a little dog, and let it sleep with that
child, and let the child play with it all he can, and get real attached to it.
If anything will cure the child, that will.'
"She said, 'Mis' Weight,' she said, 'I'll do it!' and she did. She thanked
me, too, as grateful as ever I was thanked. Well, girls,"-- Mrs. Weight
leaned forward, her hands on her knees, and spoke slowly and
impressively,--"as true as I sit here, in three months' time that dog was
humpbacked, and growing more so every day."
She paused, drawing a long breath of triumph, and looked from one to
the other of her hearers.
"Well!" said Miss Phoebe, dryly. "Did the child get well? And where
does Doctor Strong's infidelity come in?"
"The child would have got well," said Mrs. Weight, with tragic
emphasis. "The child might be well, or near it, this living day of time, if
the Ordering of Providence had not been interfered with. The child had
a spell of stomach trouble, and Doctor Strong was sent for. He ordered
the dog out of the house; said it had fleas, and sore eyes, and I don't
know what. Susan Sloper is a weak woman, and she gave in, and that
child goes humpbacked to its grave. I hope Doctor Strong is prepared
to answer for it at the Last Day."

Miss Phoebe laid down her knitting-needles; but before she could reply,
Doctor Strong himself came in, bringing the breeze with him.
"How do you do, Mrs. Weight?" he said, heartily. "How is Billy?
croupy again? Does he go out every day? Do you keep his window
open at night, and give him a cold bath every morning? Fresh air and
bathing are absolutely necessary, you know, with that tendency. Have
you taken off all that load of flannel?"
Mrs. Weight muttered something about supper-time, and fled before
the questioner. The young doctor turned to his hostess, with the quick,
merry smile he had. "I had to send her away!" he said. "You are flushed,
Miss Blyth, and Miss Vesta is tired. Yes, you are, Miss Vesta; what is
the use of denying it?"
He placed a cushion behind Miss Vesta, and she nestled against it with
a little comfortable sigh. She looked at the young doctor kindly, and he
returned the look with one of frank affection.
"Your mother must have had a sight of comfort with you," said Miss
Vesta. "You are a home boy, any one can see that."
"I know when I am well off!" said the young doctor.
Geoffrey Strong certainly was well off. In some singular way, which no
one professed wholly to understand, he had won the confidence of both
the "Blyth girls," who