Flower of the Dusk

by Myrtle Reed

  XIII

  "Woman Suffrage"

  There was a shuffling step on the stairway, accompanied by spasmodicshrieks and an occasional "ouch." Roger looked up from his book insurprise as Miss Mattie made her painful way into the room.

  "Why, Mother. What's the matter?"

  [Sidenote: Miss Mattie's Back]

  Miss Mattie sat down in the chair she had made out of a flour barrel andscreamed as she did so. "What is it?" he demanded. "Are you ill?"

  "Roger," she replied, "my back is either busted, or the hinge in it isrusty from overwork. I stooped over to open the lower drawer in mybureau, and when I come to rise up, I couldn't. I've been over half anhour comin' downstairs. I called you twice, but you didn't hear me, andI knowed you was readin', so I thought I might better save my voice toyell with."

  "I'm sorry," he said. "What can I do for you?"

  "About the first thing to do, I take it, is to put down that book. Now,if you'll put on your hat, you can go and get that new-fangled doctorfrom the city. The postmaster's wife told me yesterday that he'd sentBarbara one of them souverine postal cards and said on it he'd be downlast night. As you go, you might stop and tell the Norths that he'scomin', for they don't go after their mail much and most likely it'sstill there in the box. Tell Barbara that the card has a picture of aterrible high buildin' on it and the street is full of carriages, bothhorsed and unhorsed. If he can make the lame walk and the blind see,I reckon he can fix my back. I'll set here."

  "Shan't I get someone to stay with you while I'm gone, Mother? I don'tlike to leave you here alone. Miss Miriam would----"

  "Miss Miriam," interrupted his mother, "ain't fit company for a horse orcow, let alone a sufferin' woman. She just sets and stares and neversays nothin'. I have to do all the talkin' and I'm in no condition totalk. You run along and let me set here in peace. It don't hurt so muchwhen I set still."

  [Sidenote: Roger's Errand]

  Roger obediently started on his errand, but met Doctor Conrad half-way.The two had never been formally introduced, but Roger knew him, and theDoctor remembered Roger as "the nice boy" who was with Ambrose Northand Eloise when he went over to tell them that Barbara was all right.

  "Why, yes," said Allan. "If it's an emergency case, I'll come therefirst. After I see what's the matter, I'll go over to North's and thencome back. I seem to be getting quite a practice in Riverdale."

  When they went in, Roger introduced Doctor Conrad to the patient."You'll excuse my not gettin' up," said Miss Mattie, "for it's about thegettin' up that I wanted to see you. Roger, you run away. It ain'tproper for boys to be standin' around listenin' when woman suffrage isbein' discussed by the only people havin' any right to talk of it--womenand doctors."

  Roger coloured to his temples as he took his hat and hurried out. Withan effort Doctor Conrad kept his face straight, but his eyes werelaughing.

  [Sidenote: What's Wrong?]

  "Now, what's wrong?" asked Allan, briefly, as Roger closed the door.

  "It's my back," explained the patient. "It's busted. It busted all of asudden."

  "Was it when you were stooping over, perhaps to pick up something?"

  Miss Mattie stared at him in astonishment. "Are you a mind-reader, ordid Roger tell you?"

  "Neither," smiled Allan. "Did a sharp pain come in the lumbar regionwhen you attempted to straighten up?"

  "'Twan't the lumber room. I ain't been in the attic for weeks, though Iexpect it needs straightenin'. It was in my bedroom. I was stoopin' overto open a bureau drawer, and when I riz up, I found my back was busted."

  [Sidenote: The Prescription]

  "I see," said Allan. He was already writing a prescription. "If your sonwill go down and get this filled, you will have no more trouble. Taketwo every four hours."

  Miss Mattie took the bit of paper anxiously. "No surgical operation?"she asked.

  "No," laughed Allan.

  "No mortar piled up on me and left to set? No striped nurses?"

  "No plaster cast," Allan assured her, "and no striped nurses."

  "I reckon it ain't none of my business," remarked Miss Mattie, "but whydidn't you do somethin' like this for Barbara instead of cuttin' her up?I'm worse off than she ever was, because she could walk right spry withcrutches, and crutches wouldn't have helped me none when I was risin' upfrom the bureau drawer."

  "Barbara's case is different. She had a congenital dislocation of thefemur."

  Miss Mattie's jaw dropped, but she quickly recovered herself. "And whathave I got?"

  "Lumbago."

  "My disease is shorter," she commented, after a moment of reflection,"but I'll bet it feels worse."

  "I'll ask your son to come in if I see him," said Doctor Conrad,reaching for his hat, "and if you don't get well immediately, let meknow. Good-bye."

  Roger was nowhere in sight, but he was watching the two houses, and assoon as he saw Doctor Conrad go into North's, he went back to hismother.

  [Sidenote: Miss Mattie's "Disease"]

  "Barbara's disease has three words in it, Roger," she explained, "andmine has only one, but it's more painful. You're to go immediately withthis piece of paper and get it full of the medicine he's written on it.I've been lookin' at it, but I don't get no sense out of it. He said totake two every four hours--two what?"

  "Pills, probably, or capsules."

  "Pills? Now, Roger, you know that no pill small enough to swallow couldcure a big pain like this in my back. The postmaster's wife had therheumatiz last Winter, and she took over five quarts of Old DoctorJameson's Pain Killer, and it never did her a mite of good. What do youthink a paper that size, full of pills, can do for a person that ain'table to stand up without screechin'?"

  "Well, we'll try it anyway, Mother. Just sit still until I come backwith the medicine."

  He went out and returned, presently, with a red box containing forty orfifty capsules. Miss Mattie took it from him and studied it carefully."This box ain't more'n a tenth as big as the pain," she observedcritically.

  Roger brought a glass of water and took out two of the capsules. "Takethese," he said, "and at half past two, take two more. Let's give DoctorConrad a fair trial. It's probably a more powerful medicine than itseems to be."

  [Sidenote: A Difficulty]

  Miss Mattie had some difficulty at first, as she insisted on taking bothcapsules at once, but when she was persuaded to swallow one after theother, all went well. "I suppose," she remarked, "that these long narrowpills have to be took endways. If a person went to swallow 'emcrossways, they'd choke to death. I was careful how I took 'em, butother people might not be, and I think, myself, that round pills aresafer."

  "I went to the office," said Roger, "and told the Judge I wouldn't bedown to-day. I have some work I can do at home, and I'd rather not leaveyou."

  "It's just come to my mind now," mused Miss Mattie, ignoring histhoughtfulness, "about the minister's sermon Sunday. He said thateverything that came to us might teach us something if we only lookedfor it. I've been thinkin' as I set here, what a heap I've learned aboutmy back this mornin'. I never sensed, until now, that it was used inwalkin'. I reckoned that my back was just kind of a finish to me andwas to keep the dust out of my vital organs more'n anything else. Thismornin' I see that the back is entirely used in walkin'. What gets me isthat Barbara North had to have crutches when her back was all right.Nothin' was out of kilter but her legs, and only one of 'em at that."

  "Here's your paper, Mother." Roger pulled _The Metropolitan Weekly_ outof his pocket.

  "Lay it down on the table, please. It oughtn't to have come untilto-morrow. I ain't got time for it now."

  "Why, Mother? Don't you want to read?"

  [Sidenote: Proper Care]

  The knot of hair on the back of Miss Mattie's head seemed to rise, andher protruding wire hairpins bristled. "I should think you'd know," shesaid, indignantly, "when you've been takin' time from the law to readyour pa's books to Barbara North, that no sick person has got thestrength to read. Even if my di
sease is only in one word when hers is inthree, I reckon I'm goin' to take proper care of myself."

  "But you're sitting up and she can't," explained Roger, kindly.

  "Sittin' up or not sittin' up ain't got nothin' to do with it. If myback was set in mortar as it ought to have been, I wouldn't be settin'up either. I can't get up without screamin', and as long as I've knowedBarbara she's never been that bad. That new-fangled doctor hasn't comeout of North's yet, either. How much do you reckon he charges for avisit?"

  "Two or three dollars, I suppose."

  Miss Mattie clucked sharply with her false teeth. "'Cordin' to that,"she calculated, "he was here about twenty cents' worth. But I'm willin'to give him a quarter--that's a nickel extra for the time he was writin'out the recipe for them long narrow pills that would choke anybody but ahorse if they happened to go down crossways. There he comes, now. If hedon't come here of his own accord, you go out and get him, Roger. I wanthe should finish his visit."

  [Sidenote: The Doctor's Visit]

  But it was not necessary for Roger to go. "Of his own accord," DoctorConrad came across the street and opened the creaky white gate. When hecame in, he brought with him the atmosphere of vitality and good cheer.He had, too, that gentle sympathy which is the inestimable gift of thephysician, and which requires no words to make itself felt.

  His quick eye noted the box of capsules upon the table, as he sat downand took Miss Mattie's rough, work-worn hand in his. "How is it?" heasked. "Better?"

  "Mebbe," she answered, grudgingly. "No more'n a mite, though."

  "That's all we can expect so soon. By to-morrow morning, though, youshould be all right." His manner unconsciously indicated that it wouldbe the one joy of a hitherto desolate existence if Miss Mattie should beperfectly well again in the morning.

  "How's my fellow sufferer?" she inquired, somewhat mollified.

  "Barbara? She's doing very well. She's a brave little thing."

  "Which is the sickest--her or me?"

  "As regards actual pain," replied Doctor Conrad, tactfully, "you areprobably suffering more than she is at the present moment."

  "I knowed it," cried Miss Mattie triumphantly. "Do you hear that,Roger?"

  But Roger had slipped out, remembering that "woman suffrage" was not aproper subject for discussion in his hearing.

  [Sidenote: Wanderin' Fits]

  "I reckon he's gone over to North's," grumbled Miss Mattie. "When my eyeain't on him, he scoots off. His pa was the same way. He was foreverchasin' over there and Roger's inherited it from him. Whenever I'vewanted either of 'em, they've always been took with wanderin' fits."

  "You sent him out before," Allan reminded her.

  "So I did, but I ain't sent him out now and he's gone just the same.That's the trouble. After you once get an idea into a man's head, itstays put. You can't never get it out again. And ideas that otherpeople puts in is just the same."

  "Women change their minds more easily, don't they?" asked Allan. He wasenjoying himself very much.

  "Of course. There's nothin' set about a woman unless she's got a bustedback. She ain't carin' to move around much then. The postmaster's wifewas tellin' me about one of the women at the hotel--the one that'swritin' the book. Do you know her?"

  "I've probably seen her."

  [Sidenote: All a Mistake]

  "The postmaster's wife's bunion was a hurtin' her awful one day whenthis woman come in after stamps, and she told her to go and help herselfand put the money in the drawer. So she did, and while she was doin' itshe told the postmaster's wife that she didn't have no bunion and nopain--that it was all a mistake."

  "'You wouldn't think so,' says the postmaster's wife, 'if it was yourfoot that had the mistake on it.' She was awful mad at first, but, aftershe got calmed down, the book-woman told her what she meant."

  "'There ain't no pain nor disease in the world,' she says. 'It's allimagination.'

  "'Well,' says the postmaster's wife, 'when the swellin' is so bad, how'mI to undeceive myself?'

  "The book-woman says: 'Just deny it, and affirm the existence of good.You just set down and say to yourself: "I can't have no bunion causethere ain't no such thing, and it can't hurt me because there is no suchthing as pain. My foot is perfectly well and strong. I will get right upand walk."'

  "As soon as the woman was gone out with her stamps, the postmaster'swife tried it and like to have fainted dead away. She said she mighthave been able to convince her mind that there wasn't no bunion on herfoot, but she couldn't convince her foot. She said there wasn't no suchthing as pain, and the bunion made it its first business to do a littledenyin' on its own account. You have to be awful careful not to offend abunion.

  [Sidenote: A Test]

  "This mornin', while Roger was gone after them long, narrow pills thathas to be swallowed endways unless you want to choke to death, Ireckoned I'd try it on my back. So I says, right out loud: 'My backdon't hurt me. It is all imagination. I can't have no pain because thereain't no such thing.' Then I stood up right quick, and--Lord!"

  Miss Mattie shook her head sadly at the recollection. "Do you know," shewent on, thoughtfully, "I wish that woman at the hotel had lumbago?"

  Doctor Conrad's nice brown eyes twinkled, and his mouth twitched, everso slightly. "I'm afraid I do, too," he said.

  "If she did, and wanted some of them long narrow pills, would you give'em to her?"

  "Probably, but I'd be strongly tempted not to."

  [Sidenote: Surprise]

  When he took his leave, Miss Mattie, from force of habit, rose from herchair. "Ouch!" she said, as she slowly straightened up. "Why, I dobelieve it's better. It don't hurt nothin' like so much as it did."

  "Your surprise isn't very flattering, Mrs. Austin, but I'll forgive you.The next time I come up, I'll take another look at you. Good-bye."

  Miss Mattie made her way slowly over to the table where the box ofcapsules lay, and returned, with some effort, to her chair. She studiedboth the box and its contents faithfully, once with her spectacles, andonce without. "You'd never think," she mused, "that a pill of that sizeand shape could have any effect on a big pain that's nowheres near yourstomach. He must be a dreadful clever young man, for it sure is asearchin' medicine."