"
Mechanically his sister did look, and her horrified eyes rested upon
a face which streaked with inky spots and lines seaming it in every
direction.
In her first confusion, Rachel did not understand the nature of her
mishaps, but hastily jumped to the conclusion that she had been
suddenly stricken by some terrible disease like the plague, whose
ravages in London she had read of with the interest which one of her
melancholy temperament might be expected to find in it.
Accordingly she began to wring her hands in an excess of terror, and
exclaimed in tones of piercing anguish,--
"It is the fatal plague spot! I feel it; I know it! I am marked for
the tomb. The sands of my life are fast running out!"
Jack broke into a fresh burst of merriment, so that an observer
might, not without reason, have imagined him to be in imminent
danger of suffocation.
"You'll kill me, Aunt Rachel; I know you will," he gasped out.
"You may order my coffin, Timothy," said Rachel, in a sepulchral
tone. "I sha'n't live twenty-four hours. I've felt it coming on for
a week past. I forgive you for all your ill-treatment. I should like
to have some one go for the doctor, though I know I'm past help. I
will go up to my chamber."
"I think," said the cooper, trying to look sober, "that you will
find the cold-water treatment efficacious in removing the
plague-spots, as you call them.
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