Little Tora, The Swedish Schoolmistress and Other Stories | Page 9

usual return of her son from school, but the
mother had begun to go to the door to see if Nils could possibly be
coming. Perhaps the old habit of looking out occasionally up and down

the road, to reconnoitre as to what customers might be expected, had
lingered to keep the former hostess now constantly, as it were, on guard.
In one of these excursions for inspection she was surprised to see a big
wagon drawing up before the door, with the schoolmistress and Nils as
passengers.
The driver hastened to tell in an abridged form the story of their
experiences, and to hand over his charge, with as many orders that they
should be well looked after as if he were the only person interested in
the matter.
The doors to the little bedrooms were always kept ajar when
unoccupied, that they might be at least not chilly when needed. Two of
them were immediately put into requisition. Nils, as in the most
desperate case, was stripped and rubbed down, and put into bed at once;
and then the little schoolmistress was looked after. She had obeyed
orders, and her pale face lay on the pillow when she was visited. The
quondam hostess left her suddenly, and soon returned with a hot drink,
which she assured the patient would make her "quite natural." To Nils a
similar draught was administered, with the command that he should
dash it down at once, with "no sipping," and go to sleep afterwards.
"Wasn't that whisky?" exclaimed Nils, in surprise.
"There was a drop in it," owned the mother; adding, "I would give it
clear to anybody dying. I am not wild crazy about temperance, boy."
"Do you think I am dying?" said Nils; and then he hastily added, "I
should not like to leave you and the schoolmistress; but for anything
else I should not mind. Maybe I should be like other folks up there."
"Hush, child! You are not dying, nor likely to be; you are as strong as a
bear. A little dip in cold water is not going to hurt you. That stuff has
gone to your head and made you melancholy-like and weepish. It does
sometimes; it don't generally, though, just in a minute. You go to sleep;
and don't let me hear anything from you for one while."
The mother put down the thick paper shade, and set a pin here and there

along the edge, to keep out any adventurous rays of light that might be
peeping in at the sleeper--"a pin practice" she had sorely complained of
when ventured upon by restless lodgers. The same process was gone
through in the room where the mistress was lying. The locks and hinges
of the doors were carefully oiled, and then the agitated woman sat
down to meditate and be thankful. The meditation proved to be of the
perambulatory sort, for she peeped into one room and then into the
other, noiselessly appearing and retiring. She listened to see if her
patients were alive. The schoolmistress lay pale and still; her hands,
loosely spread out, dropped on the sheet almost as colourless as itself.
But she breathed regularly; that was an ascertained fact. Nils was
frequently visited. He gave audible tokens as to how he was enjoying
himself. The mother sat down for the fifth or sixth time, as it might be,
in the great, quiet room. She did not enter upon any of her favourite
branches of home industry; she thought them too noisy for the occasion.
She was not a reader. She could but nod a little in her chair, and then
make another round of observation.
At last, towards evening, the schoolmistress was fairly awake; and such
a dish of porridge as she was obliged to consume! Such a series of
inquiries she was subjected to as to her symptoms and sensations as
would have done credit to a young medical practitioner examining his
first patient, though the questions, in this case, were practically rather
than scientifically put, and could actually be understood by the
respondent.
To have quiet was all that the little schoolmistress craved, and that she
was at last allowed. As for Nils, it was plain that he considered that
small apartment his sleeping-car, for which his ticket had been taken
for the livelong night.
The schoolmistress rose early. Her room was soon in perfect order. She
was reading devoutly in the Bible: that had been an accessory in the
arrangement of her room, as of all the other small dormitories, since the
hostess "had her way in her own house."
Tora suddenly heard a quick repeated knock at her door. The
permission to enter was hardly given when Nils burst in, his face

glowing with delight.
"It's all right with me, teacher!"