The stocking was removed from his leg, and then it was seen that his
foot--the left foot--had turned a livid white.
"Go and heat a brick," said the housewife to one of her daughters; "it
is just the circulation has stopped."
But no artificial warmth served to restore the flow of blood, and the
natural heat.
Jacob passed a sleepless night.
Next morning he rose, but limped; all feeling had gone out of the foot.
His wife vainly urged him to keep to his bed. He was obstinate, and
would get up; but he could not walk without the help of a stick. When
clothed, he hobbled into the kitchen and put the numbed foot to the
fire, and the stocking sole began to smoke, it was singed and went to
pieces, but his foot was insensible to the heat. Then he went forth,
aided by the stick, to his farmyard, hoping that movement would restore
feeling and warmth; but this also was in vain. In the evening he seated
himself on a bench outside the door, whilst his family ate supper. He
ordered them to bring food to him. He felt easier in the open air than
within doors.
Whilst his wife and children were about the table at their meal, they
heard a scream without, more like that of a wounded horse than a man,
and all rushed forth, to find Jacob in a paroxysm of terror only less
severe than that of the preceding night.
"He came on me again," he gasped; "the same man, I do not know from
whence--he seemed to spring out of the distance. I saw him first like
smoke, but with a white flicker in it; and then he got nearer and became
more distinct, and I knew it was he; and he had another of those white
napkins in his hand. I could not call for help--I tried, I could utter
no sound, till he wrapped it--that white rag--round my calf, and then,
with the cold and pain, I cried out, and he vanished."
"Father," said Pete, "you fell asleep and dreamt this."
"I did not. I saw him, and I felt what he did. Give me your hand. I
cannot rise. I must go within. Good Lord, when will this come to an
end?"
When lifted from his seat it was seen that his left leg dragged. He had
to lean heavily on his son on one side and his wife on the other, and he
allowed himself, without remonstrance, to be put to bed.
It was then seen that the dead whiteness, as of a corpse, had spread
from the foot up the calf.
"He is going to have a paralytic stroke, that is it," said Pete. "You,
Samuel, must ride for a doctor to-morrow morning, not that he can do
much good, if what I think be the case."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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