p before the door, with the schoolmistress and
Nils as passengers.

The driver hastened to tell in an abridged form the story of their
experiences, and to hand over his charge, with as many orders that they
should be well looked after as if he were the only person interested in
the matter.

The doors to the little bedrooms were always kept ajar when unoccupied,
that they might be at least not chilly when needed. Two of them were
immediately put into requisition. Nils, as in the most desperate case,
was stripped and rubbed down, and put into bed at once; and then the
little schoolmistress was looked after. She had obeyed orders, and her
pale face lay on the pillow when she was visited. The quondam hostess
left her suddenly, and soon returned with a hot drink, which she assured
the patient would make her "quite natural." To Nils a similar draught
was administered, with the command that he should dash it down at once,
with "no sipping," and go to sleep afterwards.

"Wasn't that whisky?" exclaimed Nils, in surprise.

"There _was_ a drop in it," owned the mother; adding, "I would give it
clear to anybody dying. I am not wild crazy about temperance, boy."

"Do you think I am dying?" said Nils; and then he hastily added, "I
should not like to leave you and the schoolmistress; but for anything
else I should not mind. Maybe I should be like other folks up there."

"Hush, child! You are not dying, nor likely to be; you are as strong as
a bear. A little dip in cold water is not going to hurt you. That stuff
has gone to your head and made you melancholy-like and weepish. It does
sometimes; it don't generally, though, just in a minute. You go to
sleep; and don't let me hear anything from you for one while."

The mother put down the thick paper shade, and set a pin here and there
along the edge, to keep out any adventurous rays of light that might be
peeping in at the sleeper--"a pin practice" she had sorely complained of
when ventured upon by restless lodgers. The same process was gone
through in the room where the mistress was lying. The locks and hinges
of the doors were carefully oiled, and then the agitated woman sat down
to meditate and be thankful. The meditation proved to be of the
perambulatory sort, for she peeped into one room and then into the
other, noiselessly appearing and retiring. She listened to see if her
patients were alive. The schoolmistress lay pale and still; her hands,
loosely spread out, dropped on th