bing of the well, I took hold of the rope; but the windlass was free,
and I fell in."

"And you have been there all this time!" cried the man, reproachfully;
"while I lay here, recovering my strength, and expecting you to come
every minute with help. Oh! if I had but heard you call, nothing could
have prevented me from crawling out to rescue you, child. And did these
boys get you out?"

"Yes, and we owe them more than we can ever pay, father," she replied,
warmly; "for I could not have held on much longer; and the water was
deep enough to drown a helpless girl."

"Oh! Sarah, child! what a blessing that they came!" exclaimed the man,
thrusting a weak and trembling hand out, first toward Fred, whom he saw
was wet, and somehow guessed must have borne the brunt of the rescue;
and then repeating the act with regard to Bristles.

The sick man asked Fred a number of questions. As a rule these concerned
his daughter, and in what condition they had found the poor girl at the
bottom of the well; but he also seemed anxious as to whether they had
seen anything of the three tramps.

"One of them was terribly enraged when they failed to find even a dollar
for their pains, and I assured him I did not have such a thing to my
name," the aged man said, almost pathetically, Fred thought. "He would
have struck me with the poker, as he threatened to do, only his
companions held his arm. I have been in mortal fear that he might
return."

"No danger of that sir," Fred went on to say; and already in his mind he
was determined that some of the good people of Riverport should quickly
know about the sick man and his devoted daughter, who lived in such a
lonely place, and were almost at the point of starvation.

"I used to have a man who worked on shares with me," the other
continued, as though he thought some explanation was due to account for
the situation; "but he changed his mind suddenly this summer past, and
left me alone. I might have managed, only for this sickness. Sarah has
tried to do everything, but, poor child, she was unable to take care of
me and the farm too. So it has come to this, and my heart is nearly
broken worrying about her."

"Never mind, it will be all right, sir," Fred continued to assure him.
"We are from Riverport, and we know a lot of good people there who will
be only too glad to do everything they can for you. It is not charity,
you see, but just what one neighbor ought to be ready to do for
another."

Fo