The woman lifted her eye to the dim
peak above her, with the pale mists
streaming, tress-like, about its crown,
from which Mount Greylock takes its
name; then her anxiou's glance returned
to the sufferer. "Ha! there he goes--making
faces at the pain again," she
murmured pityingly. "And, mercy! I
suppose 'twill be a blue moon yet--a dog's
age--before his son can get here."

It was a long age anyhow; although,
in reality, little more than an hour--a
wild, wind-ridden, fire-painted hour--before
three haggard men came stumbling
up the trail.

Two carried a stretcher between them.
One had a bag in his hand.

As they hoisted that collapsible
stretcher between its poles over the last
bleak hurdle of rock, one, the youngest,
dropped his end of it, which the doctor,
shifting his bag, took up.

Jack at a Pinch rushed forward.

And ever afterwards Pem liked that
[[292]]

p291 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p292w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p293

v?