He was aye able
to mak' deaf folk hear, wasn't he, Miss Cam'ell?" said Geordie, with a
bright smile as he turned to his young teacher.
They had now got ready a sort of litter, on which they meant to carry
him to the farm; for Mistress Gowrie felt convinced that only more
comfortable surroundings and a visit from the doctor was necessary for
his complete recovery, and was resolved that no care of nursing on her
part should be wanting to atone for any past indifference to the welfare
of the little herd-boy with which she might reproach herself.
Geordie, seeing her anxiety to perform this deed of kindness, at last
consented that they should take him from his lowly heather couch, and
carry him to all the comforts of the best bedroom at Gowrie. But each
time they tried to lift him the boy got so deathly pale, and seemed to
suffer so intensely, that even Mistress Gowrie was obliged to
acknowledge that it might be best to wait till the doctor came. Indeed,
it soon became evident to all that Blackie's blows had touched some
vital part, and Geordie's herding days were done.
He lay for a little while with closed eyes, seeming thankful to be
undisturbed, and a silence fell on the group round him, not broken when
Walter Campbell joined it; for a glance from Grace, and a look at
Geordie's face, told him all. He stood there, in the freshness and
strength of his youth, looking at the ebbing life of the boy whom he
felt then as if he would have died to save.
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