golden • gilbert bylthe

✨CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE✨

"What on earth do you think you're doing?!" Josephine Barry yelled, "Do you wish her to freeze to death as well?!"

"Cold air is a doctor's best friend when it comes to treating croup."

"You are not a doctor! I do not condone this!"

"Good for you. Now, excuse us while we try and save your niece," Marigold shouted as she dapped a cold, wet washcloth on Minnie May's head.

"I know what I'm doing. Sorry. If you could please stay out of the way..." Anne trailed off as she moved around the older woman.

"Well! Dear God, please save this child."

"It's all right, Minnie May. Do you see the moon?" Marigold comfort the girl, "Oh, isn't she lovely? She's watching over you."

"I wish you had some peppermint or eucalyptus so I could make a plaster," Anne thought aloud.

"What about an onion?" Mary considered, thinking back to what she read in a medical journal when she went with Gilbert to one of his father's doctor apportionments. Anne's face light up at the idea and ran to the kitchen.

"Pardon me," Anne excused as she rushed around Josephine.

"How much longer will it be before that blasted doctor comes?! Oh, I hate the country."

"Sorry! It really would help if you could keep out of the way!"

"What would help would be a medical professional."
"What would help if you be quiet and stay out of her way," Mary shot back, getting annoyed with the woman.

"I expect they'll be another hour or two, if they come at all," Anne inform her.

"Why do you say that?"

"Almost everyone went to Charlottetown to see the premier."

"That is precisely why I left."

"It remains to be seen if the doctor went along as well."

"Next you'll be brewing eye of newt in a cauldron," Josephine joked as she watched Anne put onions in Minnie May's socks.

"Raw onion on the soles of the feet helps bring a fever down," Marigold explained.

"You haven't ever heard of that?" Anne asked.

"Why would I have?"

"Because it's an old wives' tale."

"I might be one, but not the other. Evidently, one doesn't have to be either thing to know it."

"True enough. In any case, I believe it works, and I'm not above a desperate measure or two."

"If I had a desperate measure to offer, I would. But I know nothing of children or their illnesses."

"Mrs. Hammond had twins three times, so I know quite a lot about it."

"You were in service?"

"My whole life before I came to Green Gables."