ebrile symptoms, and saying that
"it wouldn't be long ere some one came to relieve me," he bent over the
sleeping patient for an instant, and the next was gone.

I think a half-hour must have fled in silence, when Jeffy stole in, his
eyes opening as Chloe's had done not many days agone, when the vision
of myself was painted thereon. I upheld a cautionary index, and he was
still as a mouse, but like a mouse he proceeded to investigate; he
opened a bureau-drawer the least way, and pushing his arm in where my
laces were wont to dwell, he drew out, with exultant delight, the wig
before mentioned.

"What _do_ you s'pose _he_ wants with this thing'?" whispered Jeffy; and
he pointed to the soft, fair masses of curling hair that rested against
the pillow.

Jeffy was a spoiled boy,--"my doing," everybody said, and it may
have been truly. He was Chloe's son, and had inherited her ways and
affectionate heart, and for these I forgave him much.

I said, "Hush!"--whereupon he lifted up the wig and deposited it upon
the top of his tangled circlets of hair before I could stay him.

I reached out my hand for it, not venturing on words, for fear of
disturbing the patient; but Jeffy, with unpardonable wilfulness, danced
out of my circuit, and at the same instant the sick man turned his head,
and beheld Jeffy in the possession of his property. Jeffy looked very
repentant, said in low, deprecatory tones, "I'm sorry," and, depositing
the wig in the drawer, hastened to escape, which I know he would not
have done but for the disabled condition of the invalid, who could only
look his wrath. I had so hoped that he would sleep until some one came;
but this unfortunate Jeffy had dissipated my hope, and left me in
pitiable dilemma.

In the vain endeavor to restore the scattered influence of Morpheus,
I flew to one of the aids of the mystic god, and beseeching its
assistance, I prepared to administer the draught. I could not find a
spoon on the instant. When I did, I made a mistake in dropping the
opiate, and was obliged to commence anew, and all the while that
handsome face, with large, pleading eyes in it, held me in painful
duress. When I turned towards him and held the glass to his lips, I
trembled, as I had not done, even in the church, when Abraham Axtell and
I stood before the opened entrance into earth. All the words that I that
day had heard in the tower were ringing like clarions in the air, and
they shook me with their vibrant forc