pidemic of typhoid
break out in the town that kept me going so that I hardly had time for
the courting that a fellow wants to carry on with his sweetheart while
he is still young enough to call her his girl. I fumed, but duty was
duty, and I kept to my work night and day. It was now that Jube proved
how invaluable he was as a coadjutor. He not only took messages to
Annie, but brought sometimes little ones from her to me, and he would
tell me little secret things that he had overheard her say that made me
throb with joy and swear at him for repeating his mistress'
conversation. But best of all, Jube was a perfect Cerberus, and no one
on earth could have been more effective in keeping away or deluding the
other young fellows who visited the Dalys. He would tell me of it
afterwards, chuckling softly to himself. 'An,' Doctah, I say to Mistah
Hemp Stevens, "'Scuse us, Mistah Stevens, but Miss Annie, she des gone
out," an' den he go outer de gate lookin' moughty lonesome. When Sam
Elkins come, I say, "Sh, Mistah Elkins, Miss Annie, she done tuk down,"
an' he say, "What, Jube, you don' reckon hit de----" Den he stop an'
look skeert, an' I say, "I feared hit is, Mistah Elkins," an' sheks my
haid ez solemn. He goes outer de gate lookin' lak his bes' frien' done
daid, an' all de time Miss Annie behine de cu'tain ovah de po'ch des' a
laffin' fit to kill.'

"Jube was a most admirable liar, but what could I do? He knew that I
was a young fool of a hypocrite, and when I would rebuke him for these
deceptions, he would give way and roll on the floor in an excess of
delighted laughter until from very contagion I had to join him--and,
well, there was no need of my preaching when there had been no beginning
to his repentance and when there must ensue a continuance of his
wrong-doing.

"This thing went on for over three months, and then, pouf! I was down
like a shot. My patients were nearly all up, but the reaction from
overwork made me an easy victim of the lurking germs. Then Jube loomed
up as a nurse. He put everyone else aside, and with the doctor, a friend
of mine from a neighbouring town, took entire charge of me. Even Annie
herself was put aside, and I was cared for as tenderly as a baby. Tom,
that was my physician and friend, told me all about it afterward with
tears in his eyes. Only he was a big, blunt man and his expressions did
not convey all that he meant. He told me how my nigger had nursed me as
if I were a sick kitten and