Got any sulphur in the house , Susan ? ' `` Yes , we had sulphur . Susan went down with Mary to get it , and I held Jims . I had n't any hope -- not the least . Mary Vance might brag as she liked -- she was always bragging -- but I did n't believe any grandmother 's remedy could save Jims now . Presently Mary came back . She had tied a piece of thick flannel over her mouth and nose , and she carried Susan 's old tin chip pan , half full of burning coals . '' ` You watch me , ' she said boastfully . ` I 've never done this , but it 's kill or cure that child is dying anyway . ' `` She sprinkled a spoonful of sulphur over the coals ; and then she picked up Jims , turned him over , and held him face downward , right over those choking , blinding fumes . I do n't know why I did n't spring forward and snatch him away . Susan says it was because it was fore-ordained that I should n't , and I think she is right , because it did really seem that I was powerless to move . Susan herself seemed transfixed , watching Mary from the doorway . Jims writhed in those big , firm , capable hands of Mary -- oh yes , she is capable all right -- and choked and wheezed -- and choked and wheezed -- and I felt that he was being tortured to death -- and then all at once , after what seemed to me an hour , though it really was n't long , he coughed up the membrane that was killing him . Mary turned him over and laid him back on his bed . He was white as marble and the tears were pouring out of his brown eyes -- but that awful livid look was gone from his face and he could breathe quite easily . '' ` Was n't that some trick ? ' said Mary gaily . ' I had n't any idea how it would work , but I just took a chance . I 'll smoke his throat out again once or twice before morning , just to kill all the germs , but you 'll see he 'll be all right now . '
`` Jims went right to sleep -- real sleep , not coma , XXXXX I feared at first .
as at before from in of on over though to