Part 15 (2/2)

”What, ill? All at once?”

”Yes, all of a sudden, cutting the corn in the field.”

”Is he bad?”

”I don't know, I've given him some Haarlem oil, he's been sick; he's complaining of pains in his side and in his stomach; he's very pale: you wouldn't know him.”

They went indoors. Zalia took the lamp and both pa.s.sed in, between the loom and the wall by Zeen's bed.

He lay staring at the ceiling and catching his breath. Mite stood looking at him.

”You must give him some English salt,[11] Zalia.”

[11] Epsom salts.

”Why, Mite, I never thought of that; yes, he must have some English salt.”

And she climbed on to a chair and took from the plank above the bed a dusty calabash full of little paper bags and packets.

She opened them one by one and found canary-seed, blacklead, was.h.i.+ng-blue, powdered cloves, cinnamon, sugar-candy, burnt-ash ... but no English salt.

”I'll run home and fetch some, Zalia.”

”Yes, Mite, do.”

And Mite went off.

”Well, Zeen, no better yet?”

Zeen did not answer. She took a pail of water and a cloth, cleaned away the mess from beside the bed and then went back to peel her potatoes.

Mite came back with the English salt. Treze Wizeur and Stanse Zegers, who had heard the news, also came to see how Zeen was getting on. Mite stirred a handful of the salt in a bowl of water and they all four went to the sick man's bed. Zeen swallowed the draught without blinking. Mite knew of other remedies, Stanse knew of some too and Treze of many more: they asked Zeen questions and babbled to him, made him put out his tongue and felt his pulse, cried out at his gasping for breath and his pale colour and his dilated pupils and his burning fever. Zeen did not stir and lay looking at the ceiling. When he was tired of the noise, he said:

”Leave me alone.”

And he turned his face to the wall.

Then they all went back to the kitchen. The goat's food was done. Zalia hung the kettle with water on the hook and made coffee; and the four women sat round the table telling one another stories of illness. In the other room there was no sound.

A bit later, Mite's little girl came to see where mother was all this time. She was given a lump of sugar and sat down by her mother.

”Zalia, have you only one lamp?” asked Treze.

”That's all, Treze, but I have the candle.”

”What candle?”

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