Oh! Christina!/Chapter 6
VI
A DOCTOR'S ASSISTANT
THE serving-maid at the doctor's house was again laid up, and Christina, almost feverish with importance, was assisting the doctor's wife. In vain Miss Purvis had protested against the girl's donning her Sunday clothes; Christina had retorted that she must be dressed in her best, lest she should be called upon to open the door and show people into the consulting-room, which, by the way, she called "the wee room wi' the queer smell an' the tooth-pullers."
During the early part of the day she was occupied with the dirtier work of the house, which she performed in an overall kindly supplied by her temporary mistress. But that work done, the overall was laid aside, and Christina admired herself in a muslin apron belonging to the invalid maid. The maid being tall of stature and Christina rather short, the apron reached considerably beyond the hem of the girl's skirt; but Christina did not mind that, and only wished she had a cap to complete her costume. While alone in the kitchen she wore on her head a paper bag, which had once held sugar biscuits, manipulated as nearly as possible into the semblance of a housemaid's cap, with strips of white paper, removed from a pound of bacon, for strings.
"My! it's awfu' tasty!" she remarked to herself, eyeing the small looking-glass near the sink. She did not, however, refer to the flavour of the bacon. It was later that she realized how much sugar had got into her thick fair hair.
Nothing of an exciting nature happened during the forenoon. Immediately after lunch the doctor went out to pay some professional visits, and Christina had just finished washing the dishes when her temporary mistress came into the kitchen dressed for out-of-doors. Christina hastily removed her improvised head-gear.
"Well, Christina," the lady said pleasantly, "do you think you could keep the house from running away till I return? I have a call to make on a lady who is leaving Kilmabeg to-morrow, otherwise I would not leave you alone."
Christina mentally blessed the lady who was on the eve of quitting Kilmabeg. She had never hoped for such responsibility as this!
"Oh, I'll manage fine, mem," she replied eagerly.
"Jane is asleep at present," the lady went on, "but, if she calls, you will attend to her. She should get her medicine at half-past two, but only if she is awake."
Christina mentally decided that Jane would be awake at 2.30 sharp.
"I don't think I shall be away longer than an hour, Christina. If any one calls for the doctor, you know what to do? Write the name and message on the slate, and say you will tell the doctor immediately he comes home. I expect he will be back within an hour. Now, take care of yourself and the house, like a good girl." And with a cheerful nod the doctor's wife departed.
"Oh, Jamaica!" murmured Christina in an ecstasy of delight at being left alone. She resumed her cap, held out her apron by the edges, and waltzed round the kitchen table. Halting at last, she looked at the clock, the hands of which were at ten minutes past two.
"I wish it was time for Jane to get her meddicine! Oh, I hope a customer 'll come soon! I best see if the sclate's clean."
She went into the hall and examined the white tablet, at the top of which was printed in gold the word "Engagements."
"I'll engage them!" she said to herself, giving the tablet an unnecessary rub. "Oh, I wish a customer would come!" she sighed. "A broken leg wud be fine!"
She strolled into the consulting-room and sniffed the iodoform. She sank into an easy-chair, remarking, "This is whaur he pulls the teeth."
Christina had a sense of honour that restrained her from opening any of the presses or little drawers, and presently she returned to the kitchen where she removed her cap, reflecting that it would hardly do for a "customer" to see her in it.
The clock now indicated 2.20.
"Och, I'll jist wauken her," thought Christina. "I'll dae it by accident." And she pushed a large tray off the dresser.
A groan came from the little room adjoining the kitchen; then an exclamation of "Oh, mercy, lassie! What ha'e ye broke?"
"Naethin'," returned Christina reassuringly, as she entered the little room. "I'm sorry I waukened ye, but ye'll be ready for yer meddicine noo, Jane."
"Oh, feech! the nesty stuff!" cried Jane. "I dinna want it. Did the mistress say I was to get it? Eh? Aweel, Teeny, my lass, if ye pour it doon the jawbox, [1] I'll gi'e ye a penny. There noo!"
"Na, na, Jane!"—Christina's tone was stern—"I promised the mistress ye wud get it, an' yer gaun to get it! Hoo much d'ye get?" she asked, picking up a bottle and spoon from the dressing-table.
"Oh, jist a wee, wee drap, Teeny," pleaded the hapless Jane. "Jist a teaspunfu' in plenty o' watter. It's got an awfu' bad taste. Oh, dear me, I'll never tak' service wi' a doctor again! He's faur ower free wi' his doses. Aw, jist a wee teaspunfu', Teeny."
Christina, in a firm voice, read aloud from the label: "A tablespunefu' in watter thrice a day efter meals."
"Oh, me! But I—I ha'ena had a meal," moaned Jane, clutching at a straw.
"Ye had yer breakfast. I gi'ed it masel'." And Christina, having measured out a brimming tablespoonful of the physic, poured it into a tumbler.
"I—I'll gi'e ye tippence!" cried Jane.
Christina added water to the medicine. "Ha'e!" she said briefly. "Snap it up! It'll dae ye guid."
"Leave it wi' me, an' I'll tak' it, Teeny."
"I believe ye!" said the girl, without moving.
Jane took the tumbler, looked at Christina in frantic appeal, and repeated her offer of twopence.
Christina shook her head. "Snap it up!" she said once more. "Shift it!" she added, remembering a Glasgow expression.
Abandoning hope, Jane gulped the dose, blindly handed the tumbler to the girl, and disappeared beneath the bedclothes, groaning fearsomely.
"That's the style!" remarked Christina, and retired glowing with a sense of duty done. In a minute, however, she was back at the bedside with a heaped spoonful of sugar.
She had scarcely returned to the kitchen when the bell rang. She rushed to the glass, inspected her face, pushed back her hair; then walked sedately to the front door. On opening it she met with a disappointment. A message-boy held out a parcel, grinned, and said familiarly—
"Hullo, Teeny! Ye've got on yer daidley [2] the day!"
"Impiddence!" muttered Christina, grabbing the parcel and banging the door. She walked back to the kitchen with her rather pretty nose in the air. "I'll gi'e Geordie M'Cubbin something for that, some day!" she said to herself.
She slammed the parcel on the table, and realized that it contained eggs.
Just then the bell rang again. She looked at the parcel, wondered how many were broken, felt like weeping, swallowed a lump, and—answered the bell. If it were only a broken leg! That, she reflected, would be worth several broken eggs, anyway.
She opened the door. A serving-maid, a stranger to Christina, stood on the step—a big bony creature, with a somewhat wild look.
"A customer!" thought Christina. "A tooth!"
"Mistress MacTougal's compliments, and she would pe opliged ef the toctor would pe pleased to come to see her to-day, thank you fery much."
Having emitted this declaration, the maid panted.
"Hielan'?" said Christina. "Tobermory?"
"Styornoway!" cried the maid. "Put I know Topermory. Wass you efer in Styornoway?"
"Na. But I was yinst at Gourock. D'ye want to see the doctor yersel'? because he's no' in," said Christina. Then she remembered the slate, and, turning, secured it.
Leaning negligently against the side of the doorway, she crossed one leg over the other, and said in a business-like voice—
"What did ye say was the name o' the pairty?" The maid looked bewildered.
"Wha sent ye?" Christina demanded.
"Mistress MacTougal!—I haf forgot the name of the house. I will haf come to this place last night."
"Mistress MacDougall—Och, I ken about her. Seaview's her hoose. Mind that, so as ye'll no' get lost. Is't her inside again?" Mrs. MacDougall had a local reputation for dyspepsia.
"I—I could not saay," said the Stornoway girl. "I think she wass saaying it will pe her asthma. Yess—I think it will pe her asthma. Thank you fery much."
"Haud on a shake!" said Christina. "That's peculiar! It sounds like an awfu' disease."
On the tablet she wrote large
Mrs. MacDougal. Seavue. Hurassma.
Then, with her best business smile, she turned to the maid.
"Onything else the day, miss?" she sweetly inquired.
Again the other looked bewildered.
"Tits!" said Christina. "I forgot I wasna in the shope." Somehow she felt sorry for the maid. "Wud ve like to tak' a walk wi' me some nicht?" she asked abruptly, but kindly.
"Inteed, inteed I would," cried the Stornoway girl gratefully. "I wass all alone. I will pe knowing nopody in this place."
Whereupon Christina made an appointment.
During the interview she had forgotten about the eggs, but on her return to the kitchen misery claimed her for its own. The paper bag had given way, and a horrid pool was forming on the table around it.
"Oh, what a muck!" she sighed in despair, and proceeded to ascertain the extent of the damage. Out of the dozen, five eggs had escaped uninjured, five had been cracked or chipped, and two were hopelessly smashed.
Christina turned from the sorry sight, and leaning against the dresser, buried her face in her hands. She had remained thus for five minutes when she heard the invalid maid calling.
"Teeny! Here!"
Christina dried her eyes, sniffed, pulled herself together, and went to the door of the maid's room. Halting outside, she inquired whether Jane wanted anything.
"Am I never to get onything to eat?" Jane cried querulously.
"Are ye hungry, Jane?"
"Hungry? Did the mistress no' leave word what I was to get? "
"She didna say. Maybe she forgot. Ye was sleepin', ye ken. Wull I get ye a piece, Jane?"
"A piece? An' the doctor said I was to be fed up and nourished! Is there nae soup in the larder?"
"I'll gang an' see," said Christina.
And then—oh, happy thought!
"Could ye no tak' an egg—twa eggs, Jane?"
"Could I no'!" the other exclaimed. "Twa eggs, poached, 'll dae fine. An' a cup o' tea! Haste ye, Teeny!"
Christina hesitated. "I—canna poach eggs," she stammered. "But I—I can scramble them."
"Dae onything ye like, lassie, but dae it quick," cried the famished one.
Christina skipped gaily back to the kitchen.
"Is the doctor in?"
An elderly gentleman put the question, not long after Christina had finished her cooking.
"He's no' in the noo," she replied, getting the tablet and her feet into position. "What's the name, please?"
"Mr. Reid, Burnside Cottage."
"D'ye spell yer name the common way or the ither way?"
"The other way," said the elderly gentleman, amused.
"Noo ye're chaffin'!" said Christina good- humouredly. "But it's nae odds to me hoo ye spell it." And she wrote down Mr. Read.
"An' what's the disease, if ye please, sir?" she inquired more respectfully.
"My good girl, are you the doctor's assistant?"
"Whiles," said Christina, thinking of the bottles she had washed. "But maybe," she went on, with a keen glance at the elderly gentleman, "maybe ye're no' a customer."
The man smiled. "Oh yes, I'm a customer," he said. "I called to see if the doctor would oblige me with a porous plaster, so you"
"That's peculiar!" she remarked. "I yinst had a porous plester when I was bad wi' ma kist. [3] Is't yer kist that's hurtin' ye, sir?" The inquiry was sympathetic. "Awfu' sticky thing a porous plester! Jist wait and I'll write it doon."
She began to write, halted suddenly, and looked up at him.
"Eh—wud ye no' tak' a dizzen when ye're at it?"
"A dozen!"
"Ay; I daursay the doctor wud gi'e ye discoont, if ye was takin' a dizzen. Weel, mak' it hauf-a-dizzen, sir. Awfu' usefu' things to ha'e aboot the hoose."
Here the elderly gentleman gave way to laughter.
Christina felt hurt, and looked it.
"There's no' muckle wrang wi' you, I'm thinkin'!" she muttered crossly.
At this juncture the doctor appeared on the scene. Christina suddenly felt afraid.
But Mr. Reid turned to the doctor and said, by no means unkindly, "This young woman is better than any of your tonics, doctor."
He then nodded in friendly fashion to the girl, who, covered with proud blushes, fled to the kitchen, and there waltzed round the table until she was giddy.