Now,
what to say was a puzzle to me, and I began to think pretty fast.
It was an awkward business to have to explain things to that
sharp-set old woman. The fact is, I didn't know how to begin,
and was a good deal afraid, besides, but she didn't give me no
time for considerin'. `I think it's her brain,' said she, `but
perhaps you'll know better. Catherine, uncover your head!' And
with that the patient turned over a little and uncovered her
head, which she had had the sheet over. It was a young woman,
and she gave me a good look, but she didn't say nothin'. Now I
WAS in a state of mind."
"Of course you must have been," I answered. "Why didn't you
tell her that you were not a doctor, but that I was. It would
have been easy enough to explain matters. She might have thought
my uncle could not come and he had sent me, and that you had come
along for company. The patient ought to be attended to without
delay."
"She's got to be-attended to," said Uncle Beamish, "or else
there will be a row and we'll have to travel--storm or no storm.
But if you had heard what that old woman said about young
doctors, and you in particular, you would know that you wasn't
goin' to have anything to do with this case--at least, you
wouldn't show in it. But I've got no more time for talkin'. I
came down here on business. When the old lady said, `Catherine,
hold out your hand!' and she held it out, I had nothin' to do but
step up and feel her pulse.
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