Page:On to Pekin.djvu/200

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176
ON TO PEKIN

bind up his head. Is there a doctor anywhere about?"

"There is a doctor on the street behind ours,—Dr. Fairchild."

The water and a bandage were brought; and Amos Bartlett was raised up, taken into the house, and placed on a couch. By this time he was regaining his senses, and he slowly opened his eyes.

"Oh!" he murmured, and looked around him. "My wife and Jennie, where are they?"

"We are safe, Amos," answered his wife; "but you have been hurt." And the tears sprang to her eyes. "Oh, how I wish we had all gone to Taku!"

"Yes, perhaps it would have been best. Oh, my head and my back! I feel as if I should never be able to walk again!"

"O papa, do not say that!" burst out Jennie. "Does your back hurt you very much?"

"It feels numb, as if it was paralyzed." Amos Bartlett gave a groan he could not suppress. "The weight of the—the tree was more than I—I—could stand!" He gave a gasp, and then fainted away.

More alarmed than ever, Mrs. Bartlett begged