d crone, continually stirring a pot bubbling on
the coals. She threw one glance at Religion, and went on stirring. The
doctor never moved. A splendid-looking mulatto noiselessly brought a
box, and the girl subsided upon it.

There were other visitors. A young man wanted help to get money that was
due him; another sought assistance in settling a difficulty. A woman
with a child in her arms wanted to charm her recreant husband back to
her; a sick one desired relief from the spell which was making her cough
her life out.

But the great man slumbered on with a gentle snore, and the old woman
stirred the pot. There was not a sound in the room save his snore, the
swish of the spoon, and the occasional dropping of a coal. Every one sat
in silent, intense expectation, waiting for--they knew not what.

The oaken logs had died down to a bed of glowing coals when suddenly a
red glare flashed from it. Religion closed her eyes, blinded by the
light. When she opened them the doctor was sitting upright, his head
hanging back, his eyes wide open and staring upward, and his breast
heaving as if in pain. His wife was in the room holding whispered
consultations with each person. The men stated their complaints
briefly, but the women detained her longer. When she had been the round
she glided back to the side of the doctor.

Then in a low chant, sweet and sorrowful, she repeated the story which
each had told her, running them into a continuous recitative. The old
woman rose from the floor, and joining in the chant in a quavering
croon, sprinkled salt at the thresholds of the doors and at the feet of
every person, ending by throwing a large handful up the chimney. It fell
back and sputtered and cracked in the fire. Seizing one of the
cigar-boxes, she sprinkled a pinch of its contents over the fire. A
dense gray vapor rose. The doctor raised his arms, and let them fall
slowly, three times.

"The fire holds many secrets," he uttered, in a hollow, unnatural voice,
like one talking in his sleep; "he who would see his enemy about his
work of destruction, let him look in the fire."

With eyes ready to start from her head, Religion with the rest bent
forward to look. She saw, or thought she saw, in the curling gray cloud
a woman's face. It seemed to take shape and expression, as she gazed,
until it grew familiar. The forsaken woman, who had seen the face of a
successful rival, sank heavily upon the floor. Some of the others
screamed, some m