THE PRAIRIE MOTHER
THE
PRAIRIE MOTHER
By
ARTHUR STRINGER
AUTHOR OF
The Prairie Wife, The House of Intrigue
The Man Who Couldn’t Sleep, etc.
ILLUSTRATED BY
ARTHUR E. BECHER
INDIANAPOLIS
THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY
PUBLISHERS
Copyright 1920
The Pictorial Review Company
Copyright 1920
The Bobbs-Merrill Company
Printed in the United States of America
PRESS OF
BRAUNWORTH & CO.
BOOK MANUFACTURERS
BROOKLYN, N. Y.
THE PRAIRIE MOTHER
The Prairie Mother
I opened my eyes and saw a pea-green world allaround me. Then I heard the doctor say: “Give ’eranother whiff or two.” His voice sounded far-away,as though he were speaking through the SimplonTunnel, and not merely through his teeth, withintwelve inches of my nose.
I took my whiff or two. I gulped at that chloroformlike a thirsty Bedouin at a wadi-spring. I went downinto the pea-green emptiness again, and forgot aboutthe Kelly pad and the recurring waves of pain thatcame bigger and bigger and tried to sweep throughmy racked old body like breakers through the ribs ofa stranded schooner. I forgot about the hateful metallicclink of steel things against