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§q “LlTTLE MAN, WHAT NOW?"
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  By LOUISE MOWBRAY, R. N., s. c. M.
  EDITOR’S NOTE: Twenty years ago in the Hebridean Islands, off
=‘ the coast of Scotland, I found the same desolate poverty, and the same
winning courtesy and consideration, so characteristic of our poorer Ken-
tucky mountaineers. Many of the Hebrideans still lived in "black houses"
with earthen floors and no windows, and with the live stock often in the
. S3.1'I1€ €I‘1ClOS'l1I'€.
It was one of those nights of breath-taking beauty, which
one finds on occasion in every season among the Kentucky hills:
· a full moon over a silent, snow-clad valley; each branch and
4 twig glittering in its icy coatings, clearly outlined against the i
" sky; the icebound creek, snapping and cracking as it wound its
way towards the river. I took one last look before bedtime at
all the loveliness and at the rapidly dropping termometer.
Christmas Eve! I looked out on a world of extraordinary
brilliance and clarity. Even the dark, rough cabins with hearth-
_ nre smoke curling from their chimneys blended into the picture.
  How it was freezing! The ice in the creeks would be pretty
Q. bad and it would be "slick" as anything if one had to go out.
There came a loud "Halloa" from the gate. The call had come!
r An inadequately clad and poorly shod Paul from Turkey
‘ Trot scrunched up the path. Yes, Cordelia had been "sick" for
. about an hour before he left home. Yes, she was "punishing
— pretty bad." He had made very sure because he would not like
" to get the nurse out on a night so cold and so bad underfoot
- unless he had to. Paul, a jobless renter, had laboriously broken
j rock with a borrowed sledge hammer to build up a particularly
nasty fall in the branch, so that the nurse might have a "road"
Q up to his house. He would be sure.
J So We gathered together the bundle of baby clothes for
3 Cordelia and the bags; saddled Puck, snorting at the indignity
* of being ousted from his warm, cozy barn to travel over ice and
snow at midnight, and set forth.
_ As we made our way out of the creek and up the road, my
  mind was engrossed with our progress. Would Puck be ridicu-
  lous and balk at the ice'? Would he choose his places to step
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