How Janice Day Won | Page 8

cap was as stiff as
one o' them tin helmets ye read about them knights wearin' in the
middle ages--er-haw! haw! haw!
"I had ter laig it then, believe me!" pursued the expressman. "Was
cased in ice right from my head ter my heels. Could git erlong jest
erbout as graceful as one of these here cigar-store Injuns--er-haw! haw!
haw!
"I dunno how I made it ter Ma'am Kittridge's--but I done it! The old
lady seen the plight I was in, and she made me sit down by the kitchen
fire just like I was. Wouldn't let me take off a thing.
"She het up some kinder hot tea--like ter burnt all the skin off my
tongue and throat, I swow!" pursued Walky. "Must ha' drunk two
quarts of it, an' gradually it begun ter thaw me out from the inside.
That's how I saved my feet--sure's you air born!
"When I come inter her kitchen I clumped in with feet's big as an
elephant's an' no more feelin' in them than as though they'd been boxes
and not feet. If I'd peeled off that ice and them boots, the feet would ha'
come with 'em. But the old lady knowed what ter do, for a fac'.
"Hardest dollar ever I airned," repeated Walky, shaking his head, "and
jest carryin' a mess of goose feathers----
"Hullo! who's this here comin' aboard?"

Janice had run to answer a knock at the side door. Aunt 'Mira came
more slowly with the sitting room lamp which she had lighted.
"Well, Janice Day! Air ye all deef here?" exclaimed a high and rather
querulous voice.
"Do come in, Mrs. Scattergood," cried the girl.
"I declare, Miz Scattergood," said Aunt 'Mira, with interest, "you here
at this time o' night? I am glad to see ye."
"Guess ye air some surprised," said the snappy, birdlike old woman
whom Janice ushered into the sitting room. "I only got back from
Skunk's Holler, where I been visitin', this very day. And what d'ye
s'pose I found when I went into Hopewell Drugg's?"
"Goodness!" said Aunt 'Mira. "They ain't none o' them sick, be they?"
"Sick enough, I guess," exclaimed Mrs. Scattergood, nodding her head
vigorously: "Leastways, 'Rill oughter be. I told her so! I was faithful in
season, and outer season, warnin' her what would happen if she married
that Drugg."
"Oh, Mrs. Scattergood! What has happened?" cried Janice, earnestly.
"What's happened to Hopewell?" added Aunt 'Mira.
"Enough, I should say! He's out carousin' with that fiddle of
his'n--down ter Lem Parraday's tavern this very night with some wild
gang of fellers, and my 'Rill hum with that child o' his'n. And what d'ye
think?" demanded Mrs. Scattergood, still excitedly. "What d'ye think's
happened ter that Lottie Drugg?"
"Oh, my, Mrs. Scattergood! What has happened to poor little Lottie?"
Janice cried.
"Why," said 'Rill Drugg's mother, lowering her voice a little and
moderating her asperity. "The poor little thing's goin' blind again, I do
believe!"

CHAPTER III
"THE SEVENTH ABOMINATION"
Sorrowful as Janice Day was because of the report upon little Lottie
Drugg's affliction, she was equally troubled regarding the storekeeper
himself. Janice had a deep interest in both Mr. Drugg and 'Rill
Scattergood--"that was," to use a provincialism. The girl really felt as
though she had helped more than a little to bring the storekeeper and
the old-maid school-teacher together after so many years of
misunderstanding.
It goes without saying that Mrs. Scattergood had given no aid in
making the match. Indeed, as could be gathered from what she said
now, the birdlike woman had heartily disapproved of her daughter's
marrying the widowed storekeeper.
"Yes," she repeated; "there I found poor, foolish 'Rill--her own eyes as
red as a lizard's--bathing that child's eyes. I never did believe them
Boston doctors could cure her. Yeou jest wasted your money, Janice
Day, when you put up fer the operation, and I knowed it at the time."
"Oh, I hope not, Mrs. Scattergood!" Janice replied. "Not that I care
about the money; but I do, do hope that little Lottie will keep her sight.
The poor, dear little thing!"
"What's the matter with Lottie Drugg?" demanded Marty, from the
doorway. Walky Dexter had started homeward, and Marty and Mr. Day
joined the women folk in the sitting room.
"Oh, Marty!" Janice exclaimed, "Mrs. Scattergood says there is danger
of the poor child's losing her sight again."
"And that ain't the wust of it," went on Mrs. Scattergood, bridling. "My
darter is an unfortunate woman. I knowed how 'twould be when she
married that no-account Drugg. He sartainly was one 'drug on the
market,' if ever there was one! Always a-dreamin' an' never
accomplishin' anything.

"Now Lem Parraday's opened that bar of his'n--an' he'd oughter be
tarred an' feathered for doin' of it--I