d for the
fire. Go out to the woodpile, and get some."

CHAPTER XXII

VICARIOUS ATONEMENT

In happy ignorance of the fact that the order had been given merely to
get her outside, Smiles stumbled to the door with blind thankfulness,
and, as soon as she had closed it behind her, crumpled up in an
unconscious heap on the snow.

Within doors, the nurse was saying, "I think she's fainted, doctor. I
heard her fall."

"Probably," was the callous response. "Don't worry about her, the cold
will bring her around. We've got to get these sutures in. But, say,
hasn't she been a brick?"

Donald's prophecy was correct. Rose came to her senses a moment later,
and, trembling and sobbing uncontrolledly, stumbled through the darkness
to the woodpile, and sat down on it. For a time she was powerless to
move, but when, at length, she did re-enter the cabin, with an armful of
wood, although her face was drawn and white, her self-control was fully
restored.

Already the surgeon and nurse were bathing off the sewn wound with
antiseptic fluid, and it was not long before the little injured head was
wrapped in the swathing bandages which covered it completely, down to
the deathlike, sunken cheeks.

The period of coming out from under the merciful anaesthesia ended, the
drooping flower was restored to its freshly made bed, the evidences of
what had occurred removed, and then Smiles turned to her beloved friend
with a pleading, unspoken question in her eyes.

"I can't tell you yet, dear. I have ... all of us have done our mortal
best and now the issues are in higher hands than ours. I hope ... But
come, tell me, Rose, what made you feel so sure that the trouble _was_ a
tumor on the brain. Was it merely a guess, based on what I had explained
to you?"

"No. I ... I just _knew_ it. I reckon that God told me so," was her
reply.

"Well, God was certainly right, then," smiled Donald, glad of any chance
to relieve the tension. "Do you want to see the growth? See, it is as
large, nearly, as a walnut. Do you wonder that, with this thing pressing
more and more into her brain, Lou was robbed of her power to talk and
act?"

The girl broke down at last and wept hysterically, which caused Donald
to look as uneasy as any mere man is bound to in such a circumstance;
but Miss Merriman came to his rescue with comforting arms, and the
words, "There, there, dear. Cry all you want to now. It's all over, and
Dr. MacDonald will tell you that if