Page:Augusta Seaman--Jacqueline of the carrier pigeons.djvu/59

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OF THE CARRIER PIGEONS
37

the startled glance with which Vrouw Voorhaas raised her head at these words. Jacqueline continued:

“It seems to he all about medicine. Thou knowest how that subject interests me, Gysbert. I long, when I grow up to practice the healing art. I feel in some way as if the gift were in me.”

“Poof!” said the boy. “Women are not fashioned to be physicians,—they have other duties! Thou art mad, Jacqueline! Such business is not for thee!”

“Ah! I know it is not considered a woman’s business, and few if any have tried it. Yet there is the famous Queen Marguerite of Navarre. They say she is the wisest woman in France, for all she is so young, and knows not only Latin, Greek and other languages, but much about medicine and the healing art also! I have been reading in this old book, but I can make little out of it, for there is much Latin in it, of which I under-