d, with tears,--

"O, how glad I am, dear child, that your eyes are spared!"

A couple of miles away lived a doctor,--or an individual who wore
that title,--on whom, in emergencies, the scattered settlers were
wont to call. This queer Aesculapian specimen was remarkably tall and
lank, always went with his pants tucked in the tops of his thumping
cowhide boots, and wore a red woollen shirt, the soiled and limpsy
neck-band of which, coming nearly to his ears, served instead of a
collar. He dwelt alone, with his cat, in a rude, claim-shanty,
sleeping with his window open and door unfastened; and if his
services were needed in the night, the messenger would put his
head in at the window and call to him, or pull the latch-string
and walk in. The doctor was pompous in conversation, and affected
long words; but it was understood--unfortunately for his
patients--that his advantages had been poor.

For this worthy Charley had been promptly despatched by his mother;
and good time did the child make, so frightened was he about poor Tom.
He was an imaginative lad, and, when much excited, apt to see "two
hundred black cats fighting in the yard," when there was only a
frolicsome kitten chasing its tail; and at such times he had the bad
habit of running his words together. He was just the one to send on
the errand, so far as speed was concerned; but when he burst into the
doctor's cabin, shouting,--

"Blews-sed-off! blews-sed-off!" the slumbering man of herbs
prematurely awakened, rubbed his forehead, to be sure he was not
dreaming, and stammered,--

"Wha-wha-what's to pay?"

"Blews-sed-off! blews-sed off!" reiterated the urchin.

"Boy," said the doctor, now fully aroused, "be self-possessed and
collected, and state distinctly what has happened." And holding the
lad by the shoulders, he added, "Speak very slowly, that I may
understand you!"

"Blew--his--head--off!" emphatically repeated Charley, pausing after
each word.

"A shocking occurrence, truly!" ejaculated the physician. "I do not
wonder, boy, that one so unaccustomed to such sanguinary events should
be terrified. But who is the unfortunate victim of this tragical and
fatal accident--or was he murdered in cold blood?"

"Yes, sir," replied Charley, who, in turn, did not understand the
doctor, but supposed he must assent to all he said.

"Yes--what?" sharply asked the physician. "Was it, I say, an accident,
or was the man assassinated? Be quick, now!"

"Yesir!" i