Miss Clare Remembers and Emily Davis Read Online Free PDF Page A

lunged sideways to catch at the roof, missed his hold, and crashed to the ground, with one leg trapped in the ladder which fell across him.
    The noise brought the labourer and his wife running from their back door, and the old crone, who lived next door, hobbling after them. They found Francis, with his eyes closed, blood oozing from a gash at the temple, and his left leg bent at an unusual angle, and still threaded through the ladder.
    ''E be dead!' said the old woman flatly. She took off her apron calmly and began to spread it over the unconscious face of Francis.
    With some exasperation her neighbour twitched it off.
    'Give 'im time,' begged John Arnold roughly. ''E's winded, that's all. Cut back and get a drop of water, gal,' he commanded his wife.
    Francis Clare came round to feel the sting of cold water upon his forehead, the blue sky above him, and an overpowering smell of rabbit stew blowing upon his face from the anxious countenances that bent over him.
    'Take it easy, mate,' said John Arnold kindly. 'You bin and done a bit of damage to your leg. We'll lift you inside.'
    'You looked dead to me,' quavered the old lady. She sounded disappointed. 'Cut down like grass, you was. White as a shroud. I said to John 'ere: '"E's dead!" Didn't I then, John? I thought you was, you see,' she explained, her silver head nodding and shaking like a poplar leaf.

    The journey from the hard earth to the rickety sofa in John Arnold's living-room seemed the longest one of Francis's life. He lay there with sweat running down his ashen face, listening to the three making plans for him.
    'I'll run up to Mr Miller. He'll know what's best, and meantime you get on up to Doctor's and see if he be home to his dinner,' said John, taking command. 'And you, granny, bide here with the poor chap and see he don't move. Come 'e do, he'll have them bone ends ground together or set all ways. That wants setting straight again in a splint, but us'll do more harm than good to meddle.'
    He turned to Francis and patted his shoulder encouragingly.
    'Don't fear now. We'll be back afore you knows where you are.'
    'But you haven't had your dinner!' protested Francis weakly, looking at the plates which steamed upon the table.
    'That don't matter,' said John heartily, and disappeared through the door, followed by his wife who tugged on her coat as she ran.
    Francis heard their hurrying footsteps fade away and thought how good people were to each other. John must be hungry, his wife had spent all the morning preparing that savoury dish, yet not a nicker of reproach had crossed their faces at this interruption. Their only concern was for his comfort.
    The old lady had turned a chair sideways to the table and sat with one elbow on the scrubbed top, gazing at him with dark beady eyes.
    Francis smiled weakly at her, but his bead throbbed so violently and he felt so giddy that he was unable to talk to her. He closed his eyes and listened to the whisper of the fire in the kitchen range and the rhythmic wheezing of the old woman's breathing. Within two minutes he had fallen asleep.

    The doctor could not be found. He was still out on his rounds, rattling along the country lanes in his gig, and not likely to be back until well after dark, his wife said.
    Francis was carried back to his home in one of Jesse Miller's carts. A bed of straw and sacks lessened the jolting, but the deeply rutted road caused many a sickening lurch and Francis could have wept with relief when the cart stopped at his gate and John Arnold went in to break the news to Mary.
    For almost three months Francis was unable to go to work, growing more anxious and dispirited as December made way for January and the weather grew more bitter. It was now Mary's turn to comfort, and this she did as well as she could.
    Lack of money was their immediate problem, for with the bread winner useless nothing came into the house. Francis's father came forward at once and insisted on doing his son's outstanding work as