Dreamy Hollow : $b a Long Island romanceBritton, Sumner Charles
General
Dreamy Hollow : $b a Long Island romance
Britton, Sumner Charles
Long Island (N.Y.) -- Fiction
To talk with himself was no trouble at all, but to sit and laugh at his
own jokes when no one seemed near lent a pathos to those who chanced to
look on. But the Winifred of his first love heard him, and evidently
applauded, for when unduly excited he ran to the window and clapped both
his hands--then called out her name! Just why Mrs. Bond should cry and
run out of his presence was a mystery to him. And Santzi, wide-eyed,
when he took the master to drive, sometimes felt compelled to signal
Jacques to turn back. To avoid passers-by the woods road were used, but
the birds seemed to know that a friend was out riding. The blue jays
shouted at him and he shouted back, as near in their language as he
could imitate.
Then one day came a great specialist from over the ocean. A cable to
Updyke told the date of his sailing, and when the big liner warped in at
her Hoboken dock, he was on hand to welcome, and took the expert in
charge. A few days went by before arrangements were ready, and certain
experts engaged to help on the case. It was quite a big party that
trailed the Updyke machine down from the city. Among them several
nurses--one of them Winifred--with Carver's consent--for hers was the
one name that Villard seemed to remember--so Carver himself came along
as her escort.
Of course Winifred had nothing to do with the others, or the lances and
things--but she was there all in white, as the patient came to, and she
was the first person he knew when he opened his eyes. There she was in
the life, all smiles, with her husband, and Villard smiled at him, too.
"I--thought you had--all deserted me," said he weakly, but Winifred put
a finger over his blue lips, and whispered----
"Don't talk, Uncle Drury--just rest--that's a dear. We're not going to
leave you until you are strong and well! There now, close your dear eyes
and go back to rest. We'll--not leave you--go back to sleep--back to
dreamland--you'll soon be----" And with a smile on his lips Villard
lapsed into slumber.
As the great surgeon looked on, a smile lighted his face, and with
actual tears in his eyes he grasped Winifred's hand. He had risked his
reputation in coming to "far-off America" on such a hopeless case. And
to win!----
"Most wonderful!" said he. "There's nothing that answers the call of
returning reason as the voice of a sweet woman," he concluded, as he
again grasped her hand, and this time squeezed it hard.
Then to George Carver he said: "You're the right kind, young man. You'll
go far in the world."
In less than a week Villard sat out in the sunshine, with light blankets
about him, and Winifred near. She read to him, sang to him, laughed at
him, called him a bear, and teased him for trying to live alone.
"If you and George move down here and live with me, I'll will to you
both, in common, a cold million dollars," said Villard eagerly.
"And me leave my dear little white cottage! Oh, how could you dare to
tempt me, Uncle Drury!" she exclaimed, with a laugh.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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