the latter for the
young man's acceptance he pushed it from him, saying that camphor was
his detestation, but he shouldn't object particularly to smelling of
the other bottle!

"No, you don't," said Hagar, who thought him in not quite so
deplorable a condition as she had expected to find him. "My creed is
never to give young folks brandy except in cases of emergency." So
saying, she made him more comfortable by placing a pillow beneath his
head; and then, thinking possibly that this to herself was a "case of
emergency," she withdrew to a little distance, and sitting down upon
the gnarled roots of an upturned tree drank a swallow of the old
Cognac, while the young man, maimed and disabled, looked wistfully at
her.

Not that he cared for the brandy, of which he seldom tasted; but he
needed something to relieve the deathlike faintness which occasionally
came over him, and which old Hagar, looking only at his mischievous
eyes, failed to observe. Only those who knew Henry Warner intimately
gave him credit for many admirable qualities he really possessed--so
full was he of fun. It was in his merry eyes and about his quizzically
shaped mouth that the principal difficulty lay; and most persons,
seeing him for the first time, fancied that in some way he was making
sport of them. This was old Hagar's impression, as she sat there in
dignified silence, rather enjoying, than otherwise, the occasional
groans which came from his white lips. There were intervals, however,
when he was comparatively free from pain, and these he improved by
questioning her with regard to Maggie, asking who she was and where
she lived.

"She is Maggie Miller, and she lives in a house," answered the old
woman rather pettishly.

"Ah, indeed--snappish, are you?" said the young man, attempting to
turn himself a little, the better to see his companion. "Confound that
leg!" he continued, as a fierce twinge gave him warning not to try
many experiments. "I know her name is Maggie Miller, and I supposed
she lived in a house; but who is she, anyway, and what is she?"

"If you mean is she anybody, I can answer that question quick,"
returned Hagar. "She calls Madam Conway her grandmother, and Madam
Conway came from one of the best families in England--that's who she
is; and as to what she is, she's the finest, handsomest, smartest girl
in America; and as long as old Hagar Warren lives no city chap with
strapped-down pantaloons and sneering mouth is going to foo