The
slightest cause would sometimes induce one of these, and when on
the morning after his arrival at Grassy Spring he awoke from a
troubled sleep he knew by certain unmistakable signs that a day of
suffering was in store for him. This on his own account he would
not have minded particularly, for he was accustomed to it, but his
presence was needed at home; and the knowledge of this added to
the intensity of his pain, which became so great that to rise from
his pillow was impossible, and Soph, when sent to his room to
announce that breakfast was waiting, reported him to her mother as
"mighty sick with blood in the face."
All the day long he lay in the darkened room, sometimes dreaming,
sometimes moaning, and watching through his closed eyes the
movements of Nina, who had constituted herself his nurse, treading
on tiptoe across the floor, whispering to herself, and apparently
carrying on an animated conversation with some imaginary
personage. Softly, she bathed his aching head, asking every moment
if he were better, and going once behind the door where he heard
her praying that "God would make the good doctor well.
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