"
Branch was utterly shameless, utterly selfish and uncompassionate.
"I'm sick, too--sicker than he is. Have a heart! Remember, I
risked my life to get you something nice to eat---"
"Yes! The most ridiculous procedure I ever heard of. What ever
made you do such a crazy thing?" Norine was honestly indignant
now.
"I did it for you. It seems to me that the least you can do in
return---"
"The least, and the most, I can do is to try and save this poor
man's life," she firmly reasserted. "Now run along. I'd take the
baby if I could, but I simply can't."
"It'll die on me," Branch protested.
"Nonsense! It's the healthiest little thing I ever saw. Wait until
it has its supper. You'll see." She disappeared into her tent and
Branch reluctantly turned away.
Next he bore the infant to Judson and O'Reilly in turn; but both
gruffly refused to assume the least responsibility for it. In the
matter of advice concerning its welfare, however, they were more
obliging. They were willing to discuss the theory of child-rearing
with him as long as he would listen, but their advice merely
caused him to glare balefully and to curse them. Nor did he regard
it as a mark of friendship on their part when they collected an
audience that evening to watch him milk the cow--a procedure, by
the way, not devoid of excitement and hazard, inasmuch as Branch's
knowledge of cows was even more theoretical than his knowledge of
babies.
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