`` I 'm not a barbarian , I hope , to refuse to go to the help of a sick person , if 't was my worst enemy . I 'll go in and get ready and you go straight to the hall stove and warm yourself . There 's a good fire in it yet . What on earth do you mean , starting out on a bitter night like this without an overcoat or even mittens , and you with a cold like that ? '' `` I never thought of them , I was so frightened , '' said David apologetically . `` I just lit up a fire in the kitchen stove as quick 's I could and run . It rattled me to hear Zillah moaning so 's you could hear her all over the house . '' `` You need someone to look after you as bad as Zillah does , '' said Josephine severely . In a very few minutes she was ready , with a basket packed full of homely remedies , `` for like as not there 'll be no putting one 's hand on anything there , '' she muttered . She insisted on wrapping her big plaid shawl around David 's head and neck , and made him put on a pair of mittens she had knitted for Jack Sentner . Then she locked the door and they started across the gleaming , crusted field . It was so slippery that Josephine had to cling to David 's arm to keep her feet . In the rapture of supporting her David almost forgot everything else . In a few minutes they had passed under the bare , glistening boughs of the poplars on David 's lawn , and for the first time Josephine crossed the threshold of David Hartley 's house . Years ago , in her girlhood , when the Hartley 's lived in the old house and there were half a dozen girls at home , Josephine had frequently visited there . All the Hartley girls liked her except Zillah . She and Zillah never `` got on '' together . When the other girls had married and gone , Josephine gave up visiting there . She had never been inside the new house , and she and Zillah had not spoken to each other for years . Zillah was a sick woman -- too sick to be anything but civil to Josephine .
David started at once for the doctor XXXXX the Creek , and Josephine saw that he was well wrapped up before she let him go .
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