Her Healing Ways Read Online Free PDF

home. “Let’s pull the trunk along. There must be some rooming houses in a town this size.” The two of them moved to the drier edge of the muddy track through town.
    Mercy’s heart stuttered as she contemplated once again facing a town unsympathetic to a female doctor and a black nurse. Lon Mackey’s withdrawal from her sphere also blunted her mood. As she strode up the unpaved street, she tried to center herself, calm herself. God is a very present help in time of trouble. Lon Mackey helped me and accepted me for what I am—there will surely be others, won’t there?
    A large greenwood building with big hand-painted letters announcing “General Store” loomed before her. Mercy left the trunk on the street with Indigo and entered. Her heart was now skipping beats.
    â€œGood day!” she greeted a man wearing a white apron standing behind the rough wood-slab counter. “I’m new in town and looking for lodging. Can thee recommend a boardinghouse here?”
    The man squinted at her. “You’re that female doctor, aren’t you?”
    Mercy offered her hand. “Yes, I am Dr. Mercy Gabriel. And I’m ready to set up practice here.”
    He didn’t take her hand.
    She cleared her throat, which was tightening under his intense scrutiny.
    â€œI’m Jacob Tarver, proprietor. I never met a female doctor before. But I hear you helped out nursing the cholera patients.”
    â€œI doctored the patients as a qualified physician,” Mercy replied, masking her irritation. Then she had to suffer through the usual catechism of how she’d become a doctor, along with the usual response that no one would go to a female doctor except maybe for midwifing. She could have spoken both parts and he could have remained silent. People were so predictable in their prejudices.
    Finally, she was able to go back to her question about lodging. “Where does thee suggest we find lodging, Jacob Tarver?”
    He gave her an unhappy look. “That girl out there with you?”
    Mercy had also been ready for this. Again, she kept her bubbling irritation hidden. If one chose to walk a path much different than the average, then one must put up with this sort of aggravation—even when one’s spirit rebelled against it. “Yes, Indigo is my adopted daughter and my trained nursing assistant.”
    The proprietor looked at her as if she’d lost her mind but replied, “I don’t know if she’ll take you in,but go on down the street to Ma Bailey’s. She might have space for you in her place.”
    Mercy nodded and thanked him. Outside, she motioned to Indigo and off they went to Ma Bailey’s. Mercy’s feet felt like blocks of wood. A peculiar kind of gloom was beginning to take hold of her. She saw the boardinghouse sign not too far down the street, but the walk seemed long. Once again, Mercy knocked on the door, leaving Indigo waiting with the red trunk.
    A buxom woman in a faded brown dress and a soiled apron opened the door. “I’m Ma Bailey. What can I do for you?”
    Feeling vulnerable, Mercy prayed God would soften this woman’s heart. “We’re looking for a place to board.”
    The interrogation began and ended as usual with Ma Bailey saying, “I don’t take in people who ain’t white, and I don’t think doctorin’ is a job for womenfolk.”
    Mercy’s patience slipped, a spark igniting. “Then why is it the mother who always tends to sick children and not the father?”
    â€œWell, that’s different,” Ma Bailey retorted. “A woman’s supposed to take care of her own.”
    â€œWell, I’m different. I want to take care of more than my daughter. If God gave me the gift of healing, who are thee to tell me that I don’t have it?”
    â€œYour daughter?” The woman frowned.
    Mercy glanced over her shoulder. “I adopted Indigo when she