His mother came in from another room.

"Have you got that learned ?" said she, and Ephraim bent over his task again.
Ephraim had not been quite as well as usual this winter, and his mother had been more than usually anxious about him.

She called the doctor in finally, and followed him out into the cold entry when he left.

"He's worse than he has been, ain't he ?" she said, abruptly.
The doctor hesitated.

He was an old man with a moderate manner.