Peter Trawl | Page 6

W.H.G. Kingston
her food and a
cordial in which she had great confidence, the girl slightly revived, but
it became more evident than before that she was fearfully ill. She
sobbed and groaned, and sometimes shrieked out in a way terrible to
hear, but would give no account of herself. At length, mother,
mistrusting her own skill, sent Nancy and me off to call Dr Rolt, the
nearest medical man we knew of. He came at once, and shaking his
head as soon as he saw the stranger, he advised that she should be
removed forthwith to the hospital.
"Not to-night, doctor, surely," said mother. "It might be the death of her,
poor young creature!"
"She may rapidly grow worse, and it may be still more dangerous to
move her afterwards," remarked Dr Rolt.
"Then, please God, I'll keep charge of her till she recovers, or He thinks
fit to take her," said mother, in her determined way.
"She will never recover, I fear," said the doctor; "but I will do the best
for her I can."
Telling mother how to act, and promising to send some medicine, he
went away. When father, who had been across to Ryde in the wherry,
came home, he approved of what mother had done.

"Why, you see, Jack, what I think is this," I heard her say; "I've no right
to point a finger at her, for if I hadn't had a good mother to show me
right and wrong, I might have been just as she is."
The next morning the doctor came again. He looked grave when he left
the stranger's room. "You are still resolved to let this poor outcast
remain in your house, Mrs Trawl?" he asked.
"Yes, sir, my good man thinks as I do, that we ought," answered mother,
positively.
Dr Rolt returned in the afternoon, accompanied by a gentleman wearing
a broad-brimmed hat and a straight-cut broadcloth coat of sombre hue.
He smiled pleasantly at mother as he took the seat she offered him
without doffing his hat, and beckoning to Mary and me, put his hands
on our heads, while he looked into our faces and smiled as he had done
to mother.
"I have brought Mr Silas Gray, a member of the Society of Friends,
knowing that I should have your leave, Mrs Trawl, as he desires to see
the poor girl you have taken care of," said Dr Rolt.
"Verily, sister, thou hast acted the part of the Good Samaritan towards
the hapless one of whom friend Rolt has told me, and I would
endeavour to minister to her spiritual necessities, the which I fear are
great indeed; also with thy leave I will help thee in supplying such
creature comforts as she may need," said Mr Gray.
"Thank you kindly, sir," answered mother. "I couldn't say much on the
matter of religion, except to tell her that God cares for her as well as He
does for the richest lady in the land, and will pardon her sins if she will
but turn to Him through Christ; and as to food, kickshaws fit for sick
folk are not much in my way, still I'll--"
"Thou knowest the very gist of the matter, sister," observed Mr Gray,
interrupting her; "but time is precious. I'll go in with friend Rolt and
speak to the wandering child." Saying this, Mr Gray accompanied the
doctor into the stranger's room.

He, after this, came again and again--never empty-handed--oftener
indeed than the doctor, whose skill failed, as he feared it would, to
arrest the poor girl's malady, while Mr Gray's ministrations were
successful in giving her the happy assurance that "though her sins were
as scarlet, she had become white as snow," so he assured mother.
"Praise the Lord," was her reply.
So the young stranger died--her name, her history, unknown. Mr Gray
paid the expenses of her funeral, and frequently after that came to see
us, to inquire, as he said, how we were getting on.
We had not heard from brother Jack since he went aboard the Lapwing.
Mother thought that he might have got some one to write for him,
though he was no great hand with a pen himself. All we knew was that
the brig had gone out to the East Indies, which being a long way off
would have accounted for our not often getting letters from him; but
just one father hoped he would have contrived to send after he had been
a year away; now nearly three years had passed since then. Had the
Lapwing been fitted out at Portsmouth, we should have got news of
him from others, but as none of her crew hailed from our town, there
was no one to whom we could go to ask about him. Father had
Continue reading on your phone by scaning this QR Code

 / 142
Tip: The current page has been bookmarked automatically. If you wish to continue reading later, just open the Dertz Homepage, and click on the 'continue reading' link at the bottom of the page.