Produced by Suzanne Shell, Wendy Bertsch and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at www.pgdp.net. A COUNTRY DOCTOR by Sarah Orne Jewett Published 1884 * * * * * CONTENTS I. THE LAST MILE II. THE FARM-HOUSE KITCHEN III. AT JAKE AND MARTIN'S IV. LIFE AND DEATH V. A SUNDAY VISIT VI. IN SUMMER WEATHER VII. FOR THE YEARS TO COME VIII. A GREAT CHANGE IX. AT DR. LESLIE'S X. ACROSS THE STREET XI. NEW OUTLOOKS XII. AGAINST THE WIND XIII. A STRAIGHT COURSE XIV. MISS PRINCE OF DUNPORT XV. HOSTESS AND GUEST XVI. A JUNE SUNDAY XVII. BY THE RIVER XVIII. A SERIOUS TEA-DRINKING XIX. FRIEND AND LOVER XX. ASHORE AND AFLOAT XXI. AT HOME AGAIN * * * * * I THE LAST MILE It had been one of the warm and almost sultry days which sometimes come in November; a maligned month, which is really an epitome of the other eleven, or a sort of index to the whole year's changes of storm and sunshine. The afternoon was like spring, the air was soft and damp, and the buds of the willows had been beguiled into swelling a little, so that there was a bloom over them, and the grass looked as if it had been growing green of late instead of fading steadily. It seemed like a reprieve from the doom of winter, or from even November itself. The dense and early darkness which usually follows such unseasonable mildness had already begun to cut short the pleasures of this spring-like day, when a young woman, who carried a child in her arms, turned from a main road of Oldfields into a foot-path which led southward across the fields and pastures. She seemed sure of her way, and kept the path without difficulty, though a stranger might easily have lost it here and there, where it led among the patches of sweet-fern or bayberry bushes, or through shadowy tracts of small white-pines. She stopped sometimes to rest, and walked more and more wearily, with increasing effort; but she kept on her way desperately, as if it would not do to arrive much later at the place which she was seeking. The child seemed to be asleep; it looked too heavy for so slight a woman to carry.