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Show 234 Stepping into the other room was like entering a refrigerator, but I found the material and tore off some squares, put one under and one over her hips and one in the middle of a quilt which I placed by the stove to warm. My husband arrived with my bag, the water came to a boil, and the baby was born simultaneously. I tied the cord in two places three inches apart, made the cut between and handed the infant to my husband. Both the mother and baby were chilled from the icy blast in spite of my working under cover as much as possible. The cook from the Lodge came back with the baby's father. "The lines are down and we couldn't get through to the doctor, " she reported. The husband seemed to be some sort of non-person. He didn't speak. When I took the baby's temperature it was down to 92° so we wrapped stove lids and some flatirons from the back of the stove in papers and packed them in the thicknesses of the quilt. The baby began to warm up, the mother was getting warm and had gone off to sleep, but I was filled with apprehension about the prospects of caring for them. "I can't take them home, " I said. "Taking care of them here is out of the question. " "Bring them to the Lodge, " said the cook. "I'll go ahead and get the tables and chairs out, put in a bed. When the bob sleigh comes I'll send them for you. So it was settled. What would Mr. Young think about such procedure ? Did the cook have that much authority? "Send all the hot water bottles you have, plus some fruit jars filled with hot water, " I instructed her. "If you have a box of some kind send that. " |