Beadle's Dime Novels No. 35: East and West — page 28: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

28 THE BEAUTY OF WILLARD’S MILL. CHAPTER IV. TWO TATIENTS. An occasional groan during the doctor’s examination gave encouragement to the hearers that consciousness was return- ing. Soon the trying scene was over, and the opinion of the medical man given, that with careful attention to administer- ing the medicine, the patient would rapidly recover not only his consciousness but his good health. Particular directions were given concerning the treatment of symptoms, and Dr. . Parker departed. “T wonder what has become of Minnie,” said Mrs. Willard, anxiously; “I haven’t seen her since Constance came. Can she have gone down to Frank’s to let him know of the arrival ?” — ‘ “She was out at the mill when the accident happened,” replied Nat Arnold, who had just come to the door with a letter. “She had just gone into the mill-room before Mr. Harris came in to look at the machinery, and she hadn’t come out yet.” “ Why, where can she be now, Nat ?—she must have heard of the accident !” A sudden alarm spread among all present, lest Minnie, too, had been a victim to the bursting of the grindstone. Mr. ‘Willard caught up his hat and ran out hurriedly, but Nat was younger and more active, and reached the mill-room first. There, lying on Nat’s own couch, her eyes glassy with de- lirium, and her cheeks red with fever, lay the poor little fawn. It was true, though no one guessed it, that the fever had been ready for development at the slightest cause for several days. The agitation of the ardently-desired arrival had quickened the excitable pulse to such a degree that to hide her emotion she had escaped to the mill, where she habitually went and - eame with childish freedom. When the accident oceurred, she had heard the cries of alarm and consternation, and Jook- ing out, unobserved by the terrified men, had seen the appar- ently dead body of Fletcher Harris carried toward the house. . a . conmmicloooks.corn