you swallow enough water inside it keeps things even. If
Barney Thayer had drunk a gallon of water a day, he might have worked
in the wet swamp till doomsday an' he wouldn't have got the
rheumatiz."

"Has Barney Thayer got the rheumatiz, Cephas?"

Charlotte's pale face appeared in the pantry door.

"Yes, he has got it bad. 'Ain't stirred out of his bed since night
before last; been all alone; nobody knew it till William Berry went
in this forenoon. Guess he'd died there if he'd been left much
longer."

"Who's with him now?" asked Charlotte, in a quick, strained voice.

"The Ray boy is sittin' with him, whilst William is gone to the North
Village to see if he can get somebody to come. There's a widow woman
over there that goes out nussin', Silas said, an' they hope they can
get her. The doctor says he's got to have somebody."

"Rebecca can't do anything, of course," said Sarah, meditatively; "he
'ain't got any of his own folks to come, poor feller."

Charlotte crossed the kitchen floor with a resolute air.

"What are you goin' to do, Charlotte?" her mother asked in a
trembling voice.

Charlotte turned around and faced her father and mother. "I shouldn't
think you'd ask me," said she.

"You ain't--goin'--over--?"

"Of course I am going over there. Do you suppose I am going to let
him lie there and suffer all alone, with nobody to take care of him?"

"There's--the woman--comin'."

"She can't come. I know who the woman is. They tried to get her when
Squire Payne's sister died last week. Aunt Sylvy told me about it.
She was engaged 'way ahead."

"Oh, Charlotte! I'm afraid you hadn't ought to go," her mother said,
half crying.

"I've got to go, mother," Charlotte said, quietly. She opened the
door.

"You come back here!" Cephas called after her in a great voice.

Charlotte turned around. "I am going, father," said she.

"You ain't goin' a step."

"Yes, I am."

"Oh, Charlotte! I'll go over," sobbed her mother.

"You haven't gone a step out-doors for a month with your own lame
knee. I am the one to go, and I am going."

"You ain't goin' a step."

"Oh, Charlotte! I'm afraid you hadn't better," wailed Sarah.

Charlotte stood before them both. "Look here, father and mother,"
said she. "I've never gone against your wishes in my life, but now
I'm going to. It's my duty to. I was going to marry him once."

"You didn't marry him," said Cephas.

"I was willing to marry him, and that amounts to the sa