That Girl of Johnson's — page 178: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THAT GIRL OF JOHNSON’S. 167 borned. An’ theys ken tell’t ye left us ’thout nothin’ an’ outen yer life tell jest now when’t ain’t no use; an’ es long es I’ve got breath ’nough left ter tell’t, I’ll jest say this. An’ I ain’t goin’ ter be put in no horsepital neither where a feller ken stay ferever, an’ folks’d never know but he’s dead an’ buried, ’stead 0’ livin’ locked up in a cell like a crim’nal an’ kept thyar an’ never let out. Mebby et do run in thes fam’ly ter be shef’less an’ no ’count, but I hev es good sense es ye hev, Lem Johnsing, an’ I ain’t ter be tom-fooled like a woman.” ~ Dr. Dunwiddie laid his strong hand on his shoulder, and spoke to him sharply. “Tie down,” he said, “man, and listen to us. We give you the choice. You shall have from now till to-morrow morning to consider; after that will be too late. Choose one of two alternatives: Remain just where you are, from sheer stubborness and die, for die you must if you persist in this, and in such a slow, torturing manner as you cannot comprehend, or comply with our wishes that may doubtless be painful at first, and may even end fatally—tI place it all before you, holding nothing back—but with ten chances to one of your recovery and a long life. | ‘‘Remember you are not a child to be ruled by impulse and passion, but a man, and aman of whom much is re- quired with such muscles and cords as these. And do not forget that you have a life besides your own to care for, a life which owes to you its existence, to which, in conse- quence of this if for none other, you owe care and a home and such comforts as are in your power to give. Choose, man, but choose speedily, for life and death wait for little when one hangs in the balance against the other with but a hair’s breadth between.” : Johnson’s face lost its defiance and cunning; it grew livid and paled toa deathly hue. His sinister eyes were fixed on the doctor’s face with an expression of cowardly terror in them. His brother’s fit of violent temper he could meet with equal force, but Dr. Dunwiddie’s voice and Gomicbooks (e(e)