The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine, September, 1913: Vol. LXXXVI, No. 5Various
General
The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine, September, 1913: Vol. LXXXVI, No. 5
Various
Periodicals
From a scene in her room with her two room-mates, in which
confidences are exchanged, she rushed to the office of the
Superintendent of Nurses, and hysterically demanded her own face.
The Senior Surgeon was sent for, and after tartly telling the girl
she was a fool, finally took her with him and his little crippled
daughter for a thirty-mile trip into the country, where he had been
summoned on a difficult case.
On their return, the Senior Surgeon lost control of the machine on
a steep hill, and the three were thrown out.
When the White Linen Nurse found anything again, she found herself
lying perfectly flat on her back in a reasonably comfortable nest of
grass and leaves. Staring inquisitively up into the sky she thought
she noticed a slight black-and-blue discoloration toward the west, but
more than that, much to her relief, the firmament did not seem to be
seriously injured. The earth, she feared, had not escaped so easily.
Even away off somewhere near the tip of her fingers the ground was as
sore, as sore as could be, under her touch. Impulsively to her dizzy
eyes the hot tears started, to think that now, tired as she was, she
would have to jump right up in another minute or two and attend to the
poor earth. Fortunately for any really strenuous emergency that might
arise, there seemed to be nothing about her own body that hurt at all
except a queer, persistent little pain in her cheek.
Not until the Little Crippled Girl’s dirt-smouched face intervened
between her own staring eyes and the sky did she realize that the pain
in her cheek was a pinch.
“Wake up! wake up!” scolded the Little Crippled Girl, shrilly.
“Naughty--pink-and-white Nursie! I wanted to hear the bump! You
screamed so loud I couldn’t hear the bump.”
With excessive caution the White Linen Nurse struggled up at last to a
sitting posture, and gazed perplexedly about her.
It seemed to be a perfectly pleasant field--acres and acres of mild old
grass tottering palsiedly down to watch some skittish young violets
and bluets frolic in and out of a giggling brook. Up the field? Up
the field? Hazily the White Linen Nurse ground her knuckles into her
incredulous eyes. Up the field, just beyond them, the great empty
automobile stood amiably at rest. From the general appearance of the
stone wall at the top of the little grassy slope it was palpably
evident that the car had attempted certain vain acrobatic feats before
its failing momentum had forced it into the humiliating ranks of the
backsliders.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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