The Health bulletin [serial] - University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

December, 1927 The Health Bulletin 27
She came skipping across the lawn,
and threw her arms around the lady's
neck. She seemed mighty glad to see
her, and she wanted the lady to look at
her nesv shoes. She wanted to know
if she would be going home with her,
and the lady said she would. Then she
ran off again. "Her feet were worse
than yours when I brought her up here
two months ago, Jane," said the lady.
"See how good she can walk now, and
how happy she is. You'll be like her
when you go home."
Another ear came up behind them
and a man got out of it. Jane knew
he must be the man who had the dream,
because the children all started to calling
out to him, waving their hands
and laughing when he got out. He
waved back at them and came over to
speak to the lady. He saw Jane and
came over to her. She watched his
face, and she knew when she saw him
smile that he was the man who had
had the dream. She couldn't remember
what he said to her, but she knew he
was kind and gentle. He went over and
spoke to her mother.
CHAPTER III
Jane didn't remember about the
operation. They had taken her into a
place that was white and bright and
shiny, and she had been put on a
table. Her mother was standing there,
her face white and serious looking. Her
eyes were bright. Miss McCoUum was
moving around and a man with a white
apron or something. The lady was
standing there beside the table holding
her hand. She said they would not
hurt her a bit, and Jane was comforted
out of her panic.
When she woke up she was sort of
dizzy and her feet were cramped and
numb. She tried to lift them, but they
had something around them that felt
very awkward. Her mother was still
standing there, though they had moved
her out of the place where the table
was. The lady came in, smiling and
happy, and taking hold of her hand,
said that Jane had been a brave little
patient and would soon be well again.
Jane was drowsy and went to sleep
again.
The next day her mother and the
lady had gone home. They still kept
her in bed, but there was a nice pleasant
lady in a white dress who came in
to see how she was getting along. Now
and then other children hobbled in.
Some of them had one arm that was
not near as big as the other, and some
of the others had legs that were that
way. Others just had that white thing
they called a cast around their ankles.
They could walk in them as good as
Jane could walk before she came there.
Most of the time they stayed out of
doors. Jane was lonesome and a little
homesick for the first days, but the
children were all so happy and the
nurses were so kind to them that she
got over it.
Jane had never been among
children before, and she was silent and
awkward. She didn't know what to say
to them when they talked to her, but
there was one nurse who seemed to
know how Jane felt. She would come
over and sit on the edge of the bed
and talk in a low, soft voice, just to
Jane.
After a while they took the cast off
and put on another. They said her
feet were coming along fine, but Jane
couldn't tell any difference. They felt
mighty cramped up in that cast, and
she almost wished that she hadn't
come. She thought about the girl with
the new shoes, and decided that she
could stand it. She got more used to
the talking among the children, and to
hearing them laugh. Jane scarcely
knew how to laugh. Thei'e had never
been much to laugh about at home.
A lot of the words the children used
were so strange. They knew words
that were longer than any Jane had
ever heard of. They were names of
diseases, she reckoned. There was a
boy two cots away when they were out
of doors who used a lot of them. He
had something the matter with his back,
and Jane reckoned the words were the
names of the things that were the matter
with him. But he was going to be
well.
Almost every day the man who had
the dream came out. If they were in
the house he came through the wards.
He stopped to speak to every child
there, smiling and joking with them
and asking them bow they were doing.
Jane thought he must be a doctor until
one day she heard a big boy say he ran