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Page 63
The big brown car was waiting outside the hedge gate when, nearly as good
as her word, Charlotte ran down the path. She had pulled a long linen
coat over her blue morning dress, and a veil floated over her arm.
"Dear me, you all look so correct in your bonnets and caps! Must I tie up
my head, or may I leave off the veil until my hair gets to looking wild?"
"It never looked wild yet that I can recall, so jump in and go as you
please. It's too hot for caps, and I'll keep you company," responded
Macauley, from the front seat. His wife, Martha, sat beside him, swathed
in brown from head to foot. Martha had acquired a motoring costume which
she considered matched the car and was particularly smart besides, and
she seldom left off any detail, no matter how warm the day. Martha looked
around as Charlotte took her place beside Miss Mathewson on the broad
rear seat. The two swinging seats which equipped the car to carry seven
passengers were occupied by Bobby Burns and young Tom Macauley.
"People who have hair like Miss Ruston can go bareheaded where the rest
of us have to tie ourselves together to keep from blowing away," observed
Martha.
Her husband laughed. "I never heard you own quite so frankly before that
parts of you were detachable," said he.
"They're not!" cried Martha, indignantly. "But Miss Ruston's hair is that
crisp, half curly sort that stays just where you put it, and mine is so
straight and fine that it gets stringy. It makes all the difference in
the world."
The car moved off. After a minute it turned a corner and came to a
standstill before a house. Macauley sounded a penetrating horn, and after
a minute the door opened and John Leaver came out.
"Come on, Doctor," called Macauley. "R.P. has been telephoning in, in the
usual fever of haste, to have us get out there. It seems the place is in
order and two patients have arrived. He wants a doctor, nurse, and
photographer on the job at once. Find a place on the back seat, there?"
Leaver came quickly down the walk. He looked like a well man now, whether
he felt like a well one or not. He had gained in weight, his face had
lost its worn look, his eyes were no longer encompassed by shadows. The
sun was in his eyes as he opened the rear door and prepared to take the
one seat left in the car, that beside Charlotte Ruston, who had moved to
one side as she saw what was about to happen. Her shoulder pressed close
against that of Miss Mathewson, she left so large a space for the
newcomer.
After the first exchange of small talk, it was a silent drive. Macauley
was making haste to obey the summons he had received, and the rush of air
past those in the car with him was not conducive to frequent speech. Soon
after they were off Charlotte drew her big white veil over her head and
face, and was lost to view beneath its protecting expanse. One of the
veil's fluttering ends persisted in blowing across Leaver's breast, quite
unnoticed by its owner, whose head did not often turn that way. The man
did not put it aside, but after a time he took hold of it and kept it in
his hand, secure from the domineering breeze.
"Here we are! Behold Sunny Farm, the dream of Doctor and Mrs. Red Pepper,
given tangible shape. Not a bad-looking old rambling place, is it?"
Macauley brought his car to rest beside the long green roadster already
there. Its occupants jumped out and strolled up the slope toward the
white farmhouse, across whose front and wing stretched long porches, on
one of which stood a steamer chair and a white iron bed, each holding a
small form. Upon the step sat Ellen Burns and a nurse in a white uniform;
by the bed stood Burns himself.
Miss Mathewson's observant eyes were taking veiled note of her recent
charge as he went up the steps and approached the bed. The little patient
upon it had not lifted his head, as had the child in the chair, to see
who was at hand.
"Oh, the little pitiful face!" breathed Charlotte Ruston in Amy's ear, as
she looked down into a pair of great black eyes, set in hollows so deep
that they seemed the chiseling of merciless pain.
"This is Jamie Ferguson," said Burns, with his hand on the boy's head.
"He is very happy to be here in the sunshine, so you are not to pity him.
Come here, Bob, and tell Jamie you will play with him when he is
stronger. He knows wonderful things, does Jamie. And this is Patsy Kelly,
in the chair."
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