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to get hurt.’
    Surprise caused Hubert to stop his moaning and he stared at Calamity. ‘H-how’d you know?’
    ‘Done the same fool trick when I was ten,’ she replied, looking around her and seeing what she wanted.
    ‘C-can’t you stop the bleeding?’ asked Mrs. Bloom; but for once it sounded like a mild request for help, not a royal command,
    ‘Just now figuring to,’ answered Calamity, hauling Hubert after her towards one of the trees. ‘Where at’s your knife, boy?’
    ‘I dropped it back there.’
    ‘Then soon’s I’ve fixed this scratch, you’re going straight out to find it. Hey one of you fellers loan me a knife.’
    Several young hands darted into pockets and Calamity had the offer of half-a-dozen assorted knives. Taking a jack-knife from one of the boys, Calamity—who could never resist a chance to grandstand a mite—drew admiring gasps by opening its blade with her teeth. The tree had a number of blister-like swellings on its bark and the girl slit one open, allowing a flow of thick syrup-like gum to ooze out. Dipping her forefinger into the flow, Calamity coated the wound with the gum.
    ‘Wh-what is that you’re putting on?’ asked Mrs. Bloom.
    ‘The best damned wound salve you’ll find anyplace,’ Calamity replied. ‘It’ll stop the bleeding and help the wound heal. One of you girls haul up your skirt and tear a strip off your underskirts so’s I can bandage this.’
    Departing behind a bush, Molly Johnson followed Calamity’s orders. She returned with a long strip of white cloth in her hands, giving it to Calamity and watching the other girl swiftly bandage the wound.
    ‘That’s as good as any doctor could do it,’ one of the women remarked.
    ‘Most times out here there’s not a doctor around,’ Calamity answered. ‘Gal gets to know how to do her own doctoring. There, boy, now go find that knife and bring it back in here.’
    ‘Shouldn’t he be in bed?’ inquired Mrs. Bloom.
    ‘It’s not night yet,’ Calamity grunted. ‘Anyways, it’s no more’n a scratch. But there’s an open knife lying someplace out in the trees, maybe some poor fool critter’ll step on it and get hurt. You fetch it. boy, and don’t waste time. You should be attending the class.’
    Like his brother and sister, Hubert tended to be unruly and disobedient; but for once he did not argue. Turning, he scuttled off into the trees and his mother stared after him. Then she became aware that Rodney and her daughter, Beryl, were both pulling at her skirt and demanding her attention.
    ‘How’s about what she done to us, Maw?’ Rodney asked.
    ‘Yeah,’ Calamity agreed. ‘What about that. They was making fuss and stopping the class.’
    ‘That’s a 1—!’ Rodney began.
    His words chopped off as his mother landed a ringing smack across his ear and sent him staggering. Then Mrs. Bloom brought her hand around to apply its palm in a slap to Beryl’s rump that lifted the girl almost a foot into the air.
    ‘Just let me hear of you misbehaving in class again!’ she snorted. ‘Miss Johnson is here to teach you. See that you behave and try to learn something.’
    If somebody had walked up and handed Molly Johnson a diamond necklace, she would not have felt more pleased than she did at that moment.
    ‘Take your seats, please,’ she said.
    Without fuss, noise or objection the youngsters hurried back to their places and prepared to start their lessons. Behind them Mrs. Bloom’s party gathered around Calamity.
    ‘What sort of tree is this?’ Mrs. Bloom asked, indicating the one from which Calamity drew the gum.
    ‘Balsam fir,’ the girl replied. ‘It’s good for stopping bleeding. So’s powdered witch hazel leaves, or a poultice made by stewing bark, buds or twigs of a slippery elm. Fact being, there’s medicine for nearly all your ailments growing in the woods happen you know what to look for.’
    ‘How can we tell which sort of trees to use?’ a woman inquired; forgetting her earlier comments