human
I can't tell you yet, dear. I have ... all of us have done our mortal best and now the issues are in higher hands than ours. I hope ... But come, tell me, Rose, what made you feel so sure that the trouble _was_ a tumor on the brain. Was it merely a guess, based on what I had explained to you?
gpt
No. I ... I just _knew_ it. I reckon that God told me so,
human
Well, God was certainly right, then, smiled Donald, glad of any chance to relieve the tension.
gpt
Do you want to see the growth? See, it is as large, nearly, as a walnut. Do you wonder that, with this thing pressing more and more into her brain, Lou was robbed of her power to talk and act?
human
There, there, dear. Cry all you want to now. It's all over, and Dr. MacDonald will tell you that if she gets well--as we believe that she will--little Lou will be as healthy and happy a baby as she ever was in her life. He's taken out that wicked growth, kernel and all, and it will never come back again. Will it, doctor?
gpt
Almost certainly not. Rose, we couldn't have done without you to-night. You have been the brave little soldier that I told you to be; but I'm afraid that it has been a terrible strain for you. Of course, it was an exceptional operation, rare and dangerous; but it has given you a pretty vivid idea of what trained nurses have to go through frequently. Has it changed your mind? Do you still think that you want to go ahead and give your life to such work?
human
Would you ask a real soldier if he wanted to quit, or keep on fighting, after he had been in one battle, and seen men killed and wounded? It's got to be done, hasn't it, if the poor sick babies and grown-up people are to be made strong and well again? And I've just _got_ to help do it, Donald.
gpt
Well, unless you want another job--that of bringing back to life people who have starved to death--you had better get us a bite to eat and some of your strong coffee. My internal anatomy ...
human
Oh, I plumb forgot. You haven't had a thing to eat--nor poor granddaddy, either. I'm so ashamed I could _die_.