Whisper Town Read Online Free PDF Page A

of coffee, Stu.” Mrs. Forrester disappeared behind a green kitchen door. The parlor steamed up again.
    “Doc, I got my hands full as it is with the Welbys and I don’t have a woman around the house to see to this child’s needs,”
     said Jeb.
    Dr. Forrester lifted Myrtle out of the basket. “You’re hungry, aren’t you?”
    “All I had to give her was milk from the icebox.”
    “Cow’s milk makes them sick, Reverend. What you need is a wet nurse.”
    “I need a home for this baby.”
    “Thelma, could you come and change this baby for the reverend?” Thelma appeared, her face red and damp. Dr. Forrester placed
     the baby in her arms.
    Jeb watched her lift the baby expertly and whisk her into the next room. He slumped down into a chair. “I’m grateful to you,
     Doc. Angel changed her before school. Diaper handling is not my calling, so to speak.”
    “You thought about driving her out to Tempest’s Bog, asking the families if they know of a girl who may have gotten herself
     in trouble? Could be this baby belonged to a girl too young to care for her.”
    “I’m headed that way, but truth be told, I don’t have it in me to track down her family. Myrtle kept me up all night. One
     end of her or the other, it seems, always needs fixing. She’s troubled, I believe.”
    “She’s a healthy girl. Newborns take their time about getting their days and nights straightened out. They don’t know when
     it’s time to go to bed, only when they’re hungry or wet.”
    “You know of a foundlings’ home or some such that would have women who could care for her?”
    “Only orphans’ home I heard of was up in Batesville. They shut it down in ’31, from what I hear.”
    “Well, hang it, Doc! There’s got to be a solution to this here dilemma other than the fact I need to go out in search of mother’s
     milk.”
    Dr. Forrester pulled out a slip of paper and wrote a name on it. “Only wet nurse in town is a handful herself, but she could
     give you what you need. Had a baby out of wedlock and she’s been hiring herself out to a couple of the town’s wealthy mothers.
     Can’t say as I know of a perfect wet nurse. They all tend to be a rough lot.”
    “You saying I have to pay this woman for her services to feed Myrtle?”
    “She lives right outside town. Follow Main through downtown and then on out to Bellow’s Pond. She lives in a shack with her
     other two children and her own baby. Name’s Belinda Tatum.”
    “Here’s your bundle, Reverend, all clean and fresh.” Thelma slipped Myrtle into Jeb’s arms again. “You’ve got a dozen diapers
     under those blankets. If I were you, I’d make a place for them other than right under her. She’ll need a clean one again soon.
     You may as well drop in at the Woolworth’s and pick up a couple dozen more diapers while you’re at it.”
    “I wish you the best of luck, Reverend. You’re the best-natured man I’ve ever met. I figure that when word of a good reputation
     spreads, things like this happen,” said the doctor.
    “You’re an instrument of God.” Thelma leaned over and stroked Myrtle’s face. “Couldn’t have asked for a prettier baby.”
    Jeb headed straight for Tempest’s Bog. The rest of his day would not be spent in folding diapers or in dealing with a hard-to-get-along-with
     wet nurse.
    He checked his watch. The noon hour had come and gone and he still had not gone to see Fern. Oz Mills had taken up permanent
     residence in Nazareth and that was a bother.
    Myrtle sighed.
    Jeb’s memory of Tempest’s Bog was a blur. He had been through the neighborhood once when he’d heard of a sick woman dying
     of the influenza. He’d never found her even after he had asked around, house to house, for a solid hour. Since then, he had
     not gotten any requests to visit Tempest’s Bog. It was prettier than its name in the daylight with sunlight bleeding through
     the tree limbs like fairy highways. The sky overhead had blued up nicer than it had