, gently, "and on Christmas night, too."

"Yes, I am down on my luck," returned the stranger; but even in his
feebleness he spoke a little recklessly; "I was always 'Murad the
Unlucky;' it would have been all over with me in a few hours if the
doctor had not found me. I was just at the end of my tether,"--but
here a hard cough seemed to tear him to pieces.

"Lie still and try to sleep again," returned Olivia, hurriedly; then
she went out of the room and summoned Martha.

When Marcus returned and went in search of her, he found her airing
some sheets at the kitchen fire.

"Marcus," she said, "Martha has been lighting a fire in that little
empty room, where the iron bedstead is; there are the mattress and the
two blankets Aunt Madge lent me when I was ill; I am going to make up a
bed there for to-night."

"You think we ought to keep him, then," returned her husband, looking
at her questioningly. "To be sure, I hardly know how we are to turn
him out; but if he falls ill on our hands, eh, Livy?"

"If he be very ill, you would have to take him to a hospital," she
returned, quickly. "We have not got the cruise of oil, remember, and,
as Aunt Madge says, we must be just before we are generous--but he has
such a terrible cough, Marcus."

"Oh, that is from cold and exhaustion, and, as I told you before, he
has evidently recovered from some severe illness, probably pleurisy or
pneumonia. Well, Livy, I think you are about right; we must do our
best for the poor beggar; now and then one must help 'lame dogs over
stiles,'" and Marcus, whose bump of benevolence was largely developed,
and who believed in practical religion, was sincerely grateful that his
wife had fallen in with his views.

"I think you were sent to him to help him," returned Olivia, softly.
"'Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these my brethren.'
Oh, Marcus, you know how that finishes," and Marcus smiled back at her
as he left the room.

CHAPTER X.

A GENTLEMANLY TRAMP.

"'Tis not enough to help the feeble up,
But to support him after."--_Timon of Athens_.

When Olivia had finished her preparations she summoned Marcus upstairs,
and with an air of housewifely pride showed him all the arrangements
she had made.

In his bachelor days Dr. Luttrell had been in the habit of picking up
all sorts of miscellaneous articles at sales, that he thought might be
useful some day, and though Olivia had often laughed at his purchases
and ca