“It’s lucky I left a drop,” he murmured to himself, and a keener satisfaction than he had ever experienced even from drinking it himself filled him as he watched the colour slowly come back to the ashen face. But it took a deal of rubbing again before the eyes opened, before any breath seemed to come struggling through those pale lips. Several times he was for leaving her and running for assistance, because he was frightened.
But the village was far behind, and he was afraid she might die while he was gone; so he waited with a beating heart, and at last she moved and tried to speak.
He passed his hand under her head and set her up against his knee.
But the head drooped again, and she began to shiver.
“She didn’t ought to be ’ere,” he muttered to himself; “it’s freezin’ plaguey ’ard, and she soaked through.”
“D’ye think ye can walk?” said he to her ear.
She did not answer, and he scratched his head.
Then suddenly an inspiration came to him. He knew a way into the old home by the back; it would be empty and cheerless, but it would be safer than the frosty night air, and maybe he might be lucky enough to find a morsel of old wood with which he might light a bit of a fire.
It was worth trying, and without more ado he took the poor thing in his arms, and stumbled up the meadow with her.
She was light enough in all conscience, and she lay passive.
Yes, the rotten old door was broken, as he last remembered it, and he pushed it open and bore her in. The place was bare, but he lay her down beside the cold hearth, with her head against the chimney-corner, and ran to the outhouse. The luck was with him to-night as it was not wont to be: there were some remnants of brushwood scattered about; he swept together a handful, and with the matches that luckily were safe and dry in the pocket of the coat he had cast off, he soon kindled a bit of a blaze in the forsaken old dwelling-room.
Then he hung her jacket to dry and set to work again to rub her body.
The warmth revived her, she crept as close as she could to it, shivering still.
He took out the bottle again, his best notion of help; but she shook her head at the sight of it, and a sudden idea struck him.
“When did ye ’ave yer food last?” he asked.