"I wasn't thinking about school," persisted Katy. "I was thinking about
my grandfather."
Grandmother Gaumer laid a trembling hand on Katy's head.
"He was always good and kind, Katy, you must never forget that. He was
first of all good; that is the best thing. He did what he could for
everybody, and everybody loved him. You see what Millerstown thought of
him. See that Millerstown thinks that well of you! You must never forget
him, never. He loved you--he loved you--"
Grandmother Gaumer repeated what she had said in a strange way, then she
ceased to speak, and Katy, startled, lifted her head. Then she got to
her feet. She had become familiar in these last weeks with the gray
pallor of a mortal seizure.
"Gran'mom!" shrieked Katy. "Gran'mom!"
Only the gaze of a pair of bright, troubled eyes answered her.
Grandmother's face was twisted, her hands fell heavily into her lap.
Katy threw her arms round her and laid her cheek against the white hair.
"I will be back, dear, dear gran'mom," said Katy. "You know how I can
run!"
An instant later, Katy had flung open the door of the squire's office
where sat the squire and Dr. Benner. Her grandmother had insisted upon
her putting on her red dress after the funeral. She paused now on the
sill as she had paused in her bird-like attitude to call to Caleb
Stemmel in the store at Christmas time. But this was a different Katy.
"Oh, come!" she cried. "Oh, come, come quickly!"
CHAPTER X
KATY MAKES A PROMISE
GRANDMOTHER GAUMER was not dead. When the squire and the doctor reached
her side, she sat just as Katy left her, erect, motionless, bright-eyed.
They put her to bed and there she lay with the same bright, helpless
gaze.
"Can you understand me?" asked the doctor gently.
The expression in the brown eyes changed. The flash of perception was
almost invisible, but it was there; to the eyes of Katy who stood by the
bed, breathless, terrified, it was as welcome as the cry of a first-born
child to its mother.
"She is conscious," the doctor assured them.
Uncle Edwin and Aunt Sally, whom Katy considered so dull, returned
presently in tearful haste from their farm at the edge of the town. They
sat with grandmother while the doctor gave directions for the night to
Katy in the kitchen.
Katy looked at the doctor wildly. The lamp cast dark shadows into the
corners of the room; it surrounded Katy with a glare of light. Her hands
clasped and unclasped, tears rolled down her cheeks.
"Will my grandmother die?" asked Katy in a hollow voice.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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