CHAPTER IX.
THE CHILD BURNT—A NEGRO CHILD CURED BY COTTON-WOOL.
THE next day, at breakfast, Alice asked when they might go in a boat again. ‘I like it so much, grandmamma. I love to be on the sea.’
‘I like it too, my Alice; but we must not go often; for yesterday you know we did nothing else but amuse ourselves, and now we will stay at home and work and do lessons.’
‘Please, ma’am,’ said Mary, entering the room rather hastily, ‘Mrs. Dunne’s little girl has been scalded with hot water. Will you please go and see the poor child? The boy says that she is screaming so much.’
‘Yes, indeed I will; but whilst I am putting on my cloak and bonnet, get me some cotton-wool; you will find some in the lowest drawer.’
Alice and Beatrice were very sorry that the little child was hurt, for they knew the child quite well, and they sometimes went to the village to see Mrs. Dunne, who was a washer-woman.
Their grandmamma told Mary to bring the two little girls to meet her in an hour’s time, and walked very quickly to the village.
When she came near Mrs. Dunne’s cottage she heard the child’s screams; so she opened the door, and went in. Mrs. Dunne was holding the little girl on her lap; and the poor child was crying as loud as she could, and her mother was crying too.
‘Mrs. Dunne,’ said grandmamma, ‘put little Betsy on the bed, and show me where she is hurt.’
Little Betsy knew the lady, and looked up at her, and left off crying for one minute; and whilst her mother put her on the bed, grandmamma made a glass of sugar and water and held it to the child to drink, and though she still went on crying, she did not scream so loud, and Mrs. Dunne was able to show the lady where her child was hurt.
The little leg was very red, and was covered with large blisters. The lady first took off the poor child’s shoe, and then drew off her little sock so quietly that it did not hurt her, and wrapped the whole leg and foot in the cotton-wool she had brought, and wound it round and round with some broad tape.
The little girl soon appeared to have less pain, for her cries were less; and then Mrs. Dunne told the lady how her poor little Betsy, who was but four years old, had met with this accident.
‘But I am glad that the boiling water that went on to her leg did not go into my dear child’s face or neck, for then it would have been much worse.’
‘You see, Mrs. Dunne, that in everything we have reason to thank God for His mercy.’
‘Yes, ma’am,’ said Mrs. Dunne, wiping her eyes: ‘I thank God, and you too, that you have come and helped me so kindly.’
‘I will leave Betsy some medicine,’ said the lady, ‘and I will come again in the evening and see how the poor child is; but do not move the cotton-wool on any account.’
Whilst Betsy’s medicine was preparing, Mrs. Dunne was pleased to see that her little child was much easier; and after the lady had given her a spoonful of the medicine, she went away, and she met Alice and Beatrice not far from the cottage.
The two children had their hoops, and were running with them till they saw grandmamma in the distance; then they stopped their hoops, and came running to meet her.
‘How is poor little Betsy?’ asked Beatrice.
‘Where is she hurt, grandmamma?’ asked Alice.
Grandmamma told them all about Betsy, and what she had done for her, and said that the little girl was much easier when she left her.
‘May we take her something nice for her dinner or for her tea?’ asked Alice: to which Beatrice added, ‘Please let us, grandmamma.’
‘You may take Betsy a little basketful of strawberries, and you may gather them yourselves.’
‘Thank you, dear grandmamma,’ said the little girls; ‘may we go now for them?’
‘No, not now, dear children,’ said grandmamma; ‘you must come in and do your lessons.’
‘Do let us go first and pull some strawberries,’ said they.
‘No; I cannot let you go till after your dinner.’ Upon which, Alice and Beatrice seemed very much inclined to cry, but they knew that their grandmamma did not like them to ask again after she had refused; so they walked on slowly, and did not speak at first.
At last Alice said, ‘Why did you wrap Betsy’s leg up in cotton-wool, grandmamma?’
‘Because it has been found that cotton-wool lessens the pain of a burn, and helps to make it get well.’
‘How did people find this out?’
‘There is a pretty story about it, and I will tell it you:—
‘In North America the cotton plant grows—for this white wool grows on a small plant—and the plant has little pods. You know what a pod is, do you not?’
‘Yes, grandmamma; a pea has a pod, and the peas are in it.’
‘Well, the cotton plant has a pod which holds its seeds—of a different shape to the peas-pod, and not so long or so large; but the seeds are wrapped up in this soft woolly stuff, which the negroes pick and clean and wash.
‘It happened once that the little child of a poor negro woman was burnt all over—I do not know how; and as the mother had nothing to put on, she laid her little screaming child down on a heap of the picked cotton-wool, and returned to her work. After she had finished her appointed work she went to her child, and found that in its pain it had rolled about in the cotton-wool till it was covered with the wool, and was lying quiet and asleep; and the poor negro woman was very glad.
‘Some one who had seen the accident, and also seen the child asleep, examined the child, and found that the blisters had gone down, and the burnt places, which had been quite red, were nearly well.
‘After this, people tried cotton-wool for burns, and found it nearly always of the greatest service in relieving the pain and healing the injuries.’
Basket of Strawberries for the Burnt Child.—
‘Thank you, grandmamma; that is a nice story. How glad that poor woman must have been to find her little child nearly well!’
Now they were quite close to their own house, their own dog came running to them, and jumped up at them, and nearly threw little Beatrice down, which made her laugh, and she said, ‘Down, Wolf, down. Grandmamma, Wolf will kiss me, he has licked my face.’
‘And he has licked mine too,’ said her sister.
Wolf ran on in front, and then turned back to the children, and played with them and jumped round them, and they had already forgotten their disappointment about the strawberries.
When they were in the house again, they both tried to be very good and obedient, and they were very attentive to everything their grandmamma said to them.
In the afternoon they were very happy gathering the strawberries for the poor little burnt child, and each of them had a very pretty little basket; and the gardener showed them how to put strawberry leaves into their baskets first, and then to put the ripe strawberries upon the leaves till the baskets were nearly full. Then they gathered some more leaves to cover over the strawberries. Alice and Beatrice ran back to the house and showed their baskets to their grandmamma, and lifted the leaves a little that she might see the strawberries. She told them that they were good children, and that she would go with them to Mrs. Dunne’s cottage, as she wished to see how the poor little child was. They found little Betsy sitting up on her mother’s bed, looking very happy.
‘I return you many thanks, ma’am, for the nice broth you sent Betsy, and for the milk. She has just finished eating her broth, for she fell asleep soon after you went away this morning, and her leg does not seem to hurt her now.’
‘I am very glad to hear it,’ said the lady; ‘but you must leave the cotton-wool on her leg and foot for a few days, and then I expect that the skin will be quite well again.’
‘Look, Betsy!’ cried Beatrice, ‘look at these strawberries!’ And Alice and Beatrice held their baskets to the little child, who lifted up the leaves and called out with joy, ‘Strawberries, mammy, pretty strawberries!’
‘Eat them,’ said Alice, ‘they are for you; we gathered them for you.’
Little Betsy put a large ripe strawberry into her mouth, and Alice and Beatrice stood next the bed, and were glad that the little girl liked what they had brought her.
Mrs. Dunne thanked them, and emptied the fruit on to two plates, and gave the children back their baskets; and then they bade Mrs. Dunne and Betsy good-bye, and went home.
