I then left.
Experience of the McWilliamses with Membranous Croup
[As related to the author of this book by Mr. McWilliams, a pleasant New York gentleman whom the said author met by chance on a journey.]
Well, to go back to where I was before I digressed to explain to you how that frightful and incurable disease, membranous croup, was ravaging the town and driving all mothers mad with terror, I called Mrs. McWilliamss attention to little Penelope, and said:
Darling, I wouldnt let that child be chewing that pine stick if I were you.
Precious, where is the harm in it? said she, but at the same time preparing to take away the stick for women cannot receive even the most palpably judicious suggestion without arguing it, that is married women.
I replied:
Love, it is notorious that pine is the least nutritious wood that a child can eat.
My wifes hand paused, in the act of taking the stick, and returned itself to her lap. She bridled perceptibly, and said:
Hubby, you know better than that. You know you do. Doctors all say that the turpentine in pine wood is good for weak back and the kidneys.
Ah I was under a misapprehension. I did not know that the childs kidneys and spine were affected, and that the family physician had recommended
Who said the childs spine and kidneys were affected?
My love, you intimated it.
The idea! I never intimated anything of the kind.
Why, my dear, it hasnt been two minutes since you said
Bother what I said! I dont care what I did say. There isnt any harm in the childs chewing a bit of pine stick if she wants to, and you know it perfectly well. And she shall chew it, too. So there, now!
Say no more, my dear. I now see the force of your reasoning, and I will go and order two or three cords of the best pine wood to-day. No child of mine shall want while I
Oh, please go along to your office and let me have some peace. A body can never make the simplest remark but you must take it up and go to arguing and arguing and arguing till you dont know what you are talking about, and you never do.
Very well, it shall be as you say. But there is a want of logic in your last remark which
However, she was gone with a flourish before I could finish, and had taken the child with her. That night at dinner she confronted me with a face a white as a sheet:
Oh, Mortimer, theres another! Little GeorgI Gordon is taken.
Membranous croup?
Membranous croup.
Is there any hope for him?
None in the wide world. Oh, what is to become of us!
By and by a nurse brought in our Penelope to say good night and offer the customary prayer at the mothers knee. In the midst of Now I lay me down to sleep, she gave a slight cough! My wife fell back like one stricken with death. But the next moment she was up and brimming with the activities which terror inspires.
She commanded that the childs crib be removed from the nursery to our bedroom; and she went along to see the order executed. She took me with her, of course. We got matters arranged with speed. A cot-bed was put up in my wifes dressing room for the nurse. But now Mrs. McWilliams said we were too far away from the other baby, and what if he were to have the symptoms in the night and she blanched again, poor thing.
We then restored the crib and the nurse to the nursery and put up a bed for ourselves in a room adjoining.
Presently, however, Mrs. McWilliams said suppose the baby should catch it from Penelope? This thought struck a new panic to her heart, and the tribe of us could not get the crib out of the nursery again fast enough to satisfy my wife, though she assisted in her own person and well-nigh pulled the crib to pieces in her frantic hurry.
We moved down-stairs; but there was no place there to stow the nurse, and Mrs. McWilliams said the nurses experience would be an inestimable help. So we returned, bag and baggage, to our own bedroom once more, and felt a great gladness, like storm-buffeted birds that have found their nest again.
Mrs. McWilliams sped to the nursery to see how things were going on there. She was back in a moment with a new dread. She said:
What can make Baby sleep so?
I said:
Why, my darling, Baby always sleeps like a graven image.
I know. I know; but theres something peculiar about his sleep now. He seems to to he seems to breathe so regularly. Oh, this is dreadful.
But, my dear, he always breathes regularly.
Oh, I know it, but theres something frightful about it now. His nurse is too young and inexperienced. Maria shall stay there with her, and be on hand if anything happens.
That is a good idea, but who will help you?
You can help me all I want. I wouldnt allow anybody to do anything but myself, anyhow, at such a time as this.
I said I would feel mean to lie abed and sleep, and leave her to watch and toil over our little patient all the weary night. But she reconciled me to it. So old Maria departed and took up her ancient quarters in the nursery.
Penelope coughed twice in her sleep.
Oh, why dont that doctor come! Mortimer, this room is too warm. This room is certainly too warm. Turn off the register quick!