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Stratton-Porter, Gene, 1863-1924

"At the Foot of the Rainbow"

The tumult was over and Mother Nature set to work to
see about repairing damages.
Dannie was so badly damaged, soul, heart, and body, that she
never would have been equal to the task, but another woman
happened that way and she helped. Dannie was carried to a house
and a doctor dressed his hurts. When the physician got down to
first principles, and found a big, white-bodied, fine-faced
Scotchman in the heart of the wreck, he was amazed. A wild man,
but not a whiskey bloat. A crazy man, but not a maniac. He stood
long beside Dannie as he lay unconscious.
"I'll take oath that man has wronged no one," he said. "What in
the name of God has some woman been doing to him?"
He took money from Dannie's wallet and bought clothing to replace
the rags he had burned. He filled Dannie with nourishment, and
told the woman who found him that when he awoke, if he did not
remember, to tell him that his name was Dannie Macnoun, and that
he lived in Rainbow Bottom, Adams County. Because just at that
time Dannie was halfway across the state.
A day later he awoke, in a strange room and among strange faces.
He took up life exactly where he left off. And in his ears, as he
remembered his flight, rang the awful cry uttered by Mary Malone,
and not until then did there come to Dannie the realization that
she had been driven to seek him for help, because her woman's
hour was upon her.


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