sfy any reasonable person. I divided the hair into four braids and
plaited them, and you can see I have hung up the ends here just loose
enough to save any pulling, and yet the hair is out of the way, so that
I keep her head cool with this India-rubber ice-bag. I will be
responsible for the blister."

Mrs. Singleton spread her arms over the sick girl, as a hen shelters
her brood from a swooping hawk.

"But, Susie, the Doctor knows better what is--"

"Hush, Ned. Perhaps he does; but I 'detailed' myself to nurse this
case; and I don't propose to surrender all my common sense, and all my
womanly judgment, and maternal experience, in order to keep the Doctor
in a good humor. I will have my own head shaved before hers shall be
touched."

Mr. Singleton discreetly withdrew from the conference, softly closing
the door behind him; and Doctor Moffat bent over the thermometer with
which he was testing the temperature. When he raised his head, a kindly
smile lurked in his deep set eyes:

"I can't afford to quarrel with you, madam; you are too faithful and
watchful a nurse. After all, the chances are, that it will ultimately
make very little difference; she grows worse so rapidly. I will come in
again before bed-time, and meanwhile make no change in the medicine."

The warden's wife replenished the ice in a bowl, whence a tube supplied
the cap or bag on the head of the sufferer, and taking a child's apron
from her work-basket on the floor, resumed her sewing. After a while,
the door opened noiselessly, and glancing up, she saw Mr. Dunbar.

"May I come in?"

"Yes. You need repentance; and this is a good place to begin."

"Is there any change?"

"Only for the worse. No need now to tip-toe; she is beyond being
disturbed by noise. I think the first sound she will notice, will be
the harps of the angels."

"I trust the case is not so hopeless?"

"Queer heart you must have! You are afraid she will slip through your
fingers, and get to heaven without the help of the gallows and the
black cap? Death cheats even the lawyers, sometimes, and seems to be
snatching at your prey. You don't believe in prayer, and you have no
time to waste that way. I do; and I get down here constantly on my
knees, and pray to my God to take this poor young thing out of the
world now, before you all convict her, and punish her for crimes she
never committed."

"Madam, her conviction would grieve me as much as it possibly could
you; and unless she