ns as to food.

"Is I goin' t' die?" asked the boy anxiously.

"No, no, lad, not if you do as your mother tells you, now. You'll be
all right, but it'll be some time. Can't weigh your anchor and hoist
your sails for a little while. Better luck by and by, though."

"What's th' matter with un, Skipper?" asked Captain Higgles when they
were again on deck.

"Measles," answered Skipper Ed.

"Measles! Measles!" exclaimed the Captain in instant consternation. "My
eyes! Oh--my--eyes! And we're all like to cotch measles! And measles
kills folks! Oh--my--eyes! 'Tis like t' ruin th' v'yage!"

"'Tis too bad, but it can't be helped," Skipper Ed sympathized. "The lad
has the measles, and if any of you haven't had measles you're likely to
get 'em now. The only thing for you to do if any one breaks out with the
rash, is to treat him just as I said to treat the boy. Don't let 'em go
out or get chilled till the rash is well."

"My eyes!" said Captain Higgles. "Measles! 'Tis a wonderful dangerous
complaint. I minds when th' folks cotched un one summer in Black Run
Harbor, and most every one that cotched un died! Oh, my eyes!"

"Aye, 'tis like t' be a dangerous complaint down here on The Labrador,
where we folk have poor means for caring for our sick," agreed Skipper
Ed, dropping into the dialect of the people, as he often did when
conversing with them. "But you have a schooner, and you're not so badly
off as we are in our tents."

"My eyes!" repeated Captain Higgles. "Measles! 'Tis like t' ruin th'
v'yage!"

The _Good and Sure_ spread her canvas and sailed away that morning, and
quite as though nothing had occurred to disturb the even tenor of their
every-day existence Abel Zachariah and Skipper Ed and Bobby and Jimmy
turned their attention to jigging cod, and Mrs. Abel to splitting the
fish and spreading them to dry, and all worked from morning until night
each day, that none of the harvest might be lost, for that year there
was a plentiful run of fish.

But Skipper Ed had something on his mind. After the departure of the
_Good and Sure_ his face looked troubled, and more than once he
murmured, "Better luck, I hope. Better luck." And as the days passed his
anxiety increased, and Bobby and Jimmy frequently surprised him looking
intently at them.

Then came a morning when Bobby complained of feeling ill, and Skipper Ed
directed that he must not go with the others of them to jig, but must
remain in the tent, and he prepared a