It is certainly a new state of affairs, said the doctor. And there s
no denying it is better than the old one.
I believe Susan Sowerby s right I do that, said Mrs. Medlock. I
stopped in her cottage on my way to Thwaite yesterday and had a bit of
talk with her. And she says to me, Well, Sarah Ann, she mayn t be a
good child, an she mayn t be a pretty one, but she s a child, an
children needs children. We went to school together, Susan Sowerby and
me.
She s the best sick nurse I know, said Dr. Craven. When I find her
in a cottage I know the chances are that I shall save my patient.
Mrs. Medlock smiled. She was fond of Susan Sowerby.
She s got a way with her, has Susan, she went on quite volubly. I ve
been thinking all morning of one thing she said yesterday. She says,
Once when I was givin th children a bit of a preach after they d
been fightin I ses to em all, When I was at school my jography told
as th world was shaped like a orange an I found out before I was ten
that th whole orange doesn t belong to nobody. No one owns more than
his bit of a quarter an there s times it seems like there s not enow
quarters to go round. But don t you none o you think as you own th
whole orange or you ll find out you re mistaken, an you won t find it
out without hard knocks. What children learns from children, she
says, is that there s no sense in grabbin at th whole orange peel
an all. If you do you ll likely not get even th pips, an them s too
bitter to eat.
She s a shrewd woman, said Dr. Craven, putting on his coat.
Well, she s got a way of saying things, ended Mrs. Medlock, much
pleased. Sometimes I ve said to her, Eh! Susan, if you was a
different woman an didn t talk such broad Yorkshire I ve seen the
times when I should have said you was clever.
That night Colin slept without once awakening and when he opened his
eyes in the morning he lay still and smiled without knowing it smiled
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