The Street of the City Read Free

them. But she wasn’t thinking about being cold now. She was thinking of that little child and a poor mother lying unconscious on the floor. She must get the doctor before he started on his rounds!
    She waited frantically as it rang, wondering what to do if the doctor was gone. Was there some other doctor she would feel like sending in his place if her doctor was not available? Then she was relieved to hear the doctor’s voice answering.
    “Yes, Mrs. Winthrop? You’re not ill, I trust? Yes, of course I recognized your voice. There isn’t another voice like yours. You see, I sent Miss March out on an errand, and I was just leaving myself—that’s how I happened to be taking the call. Is anything the matter?”
    “Not with me, Doctor, but I am afraid there is terrible trouble across the river from me, and I don’t know what to do about it. I sent the servants to the city shopping for me, and I’m here alone for the moment. They have a lot of errands and will be some time, I’m afraid, and this may be a matter of life and death. Doctor, could you possibly go right away and see? A little child came rushing across the ice to my door screaming for help. She said her mother had fallen down on the floor and wouldn’t answer her when she called. She was half frightened to death, nearly frozen, and crying bitterly. She had come across the river without hat or coat and was blue with cold and shivering. Perhaps the woman has only fainted, but you know I can’t walk over, and I thought someone ought to investigate at once, for maybe she is dying. The child said they had just moved here and didn’t have a doctor. Can you take the time to go?”
    “Of course. I’ll go at once. Where is it?”
    “Number ten Rosemary Lane, a little, old redbrick house across the river from our house. The name is Fernley.”
    “All right, I’ll go at once. And I’ll be reporting back to you afterward. Don’t you worry, and don’t think of going out yourself. It would be suicidal for you. There is a glare of ice everywhere, and the wind is bitter. Good-bye! I’m leaving immediately.”
    She turned from the telephone and hurried over to the window again, but the skater and the child had disappeared. She stood there a moment watching to see if the young man would be coming back, but the river was empty, no skater in sight either way.
    With a sigh she turned away from the window, suddenly aware that she was very cold. She went to the hall closet and took out a warm, soft, old-fashioned shawl, wrapping it close around her, remembering the little shivering child who had come crying for help.
    Back at the window there was still no sign of anyone. If only Joseph and Hannah would come she would have them drive her over at once to find out what this was all about anyway. It was hard to have to be helpless and wait. And that poor woman over there dying perhaps. Was the young man staying in the house all this time, or could he possibly have gone by while she was getting her shawl? She could see the river perfectly from the telephone, and she had been watching the window every minute. She hadn’t been a second getting that shawl. Probably he was doing something for the sick woman. Of course. Reviving her perhaps, if it was a faint. But would he know how? Not every young man was versed in first aid in such an emergency. This young man was at the age when he would have recently been away to college. They didn’t have much time to study first aid in college, did they? Although if they were in athletics they might have some experience.
    Of course her own boys, if they had been here, would know what to do; at least enough to keep the woman alive if she was still living. And this young man looked like a wise fellow. He had intelligent eyes. Who was he, anyway, and how had he happened to know her name? Had she ever seen him before? The boys nowadays grew up so fast. And then, of course, she hadn’t been around the young people of the neighborhood as much