ittle while, and care for my sick friend here. Where can we go?"

Doctor Thayer cast a judicial eye over the landscape, while he held his
hat up into the breeze. "It's going to clear; it'll be a fine
afternoon," said he. Then deliberately: "Why don't you go up to the
old red house? Sallie Kingsbury's there keeping it, just as she did
when Hercules was alive; waiting for you or the lawyer or somebody to
turn her out, I guess. And it's only five miles by the good road. You
couldn't go to any of these sailor shacks down here, and the big summer
hotel over yonder isn't any place for a sick man, let alone a lady
without her trunk."

Agatha looked in amazement at the doctor. "Go to the old red house--to
stay?"

"Why not? If you're Agatha Redmond, it's yours, isn't it? And I guess
nobody's going to dispute your being Agatha Shaw's daughter, looking as
you do. The house is big enough for all creation; and, besides,
they've been on pins and needles, waiting for you to come, or write, or
do something." The doctor gave a grim chuckle. "Hercules surprised
them all some, by his will. But they'll all be glad to see you, I
guess, unless it is Sister Susan. She was always pretty hard on
Hercules; and she didn't approve of the will--thought the house ought
to go to the Foundling Asylum."

Agatha looked as if she saw the gates of Eden opened to her. "But
could I really go there? Would it be all right? I've not even seen
the lawyer." There was no need of answers to her questions; she knew
already that the old red house would receive her, would be a refuge for
herself and for James, who needed a refuge so sorely.

The doctor was already making his plans. "I'll drive this man here,"
indicating James, "and he'll need some one to nurse him for a while,
too. You can go up in one of Simon Nash's wagons; and I'll get a nurse
up there as soon as I can."

The launch had tied up to the larger dock, and Hand and Little Simon
had been waiting some minutes while Agatha and the doctor conferred
together. Now, as Agatha hesitated, the businesslike Hand was at her
elbow. "I can help you, Mademoiselle, if you will let me. I have had
some experience with sick men." Agatha looked at him with grateful
eyes, only half realizing what it was he was offering. The doctor did
not wait, but immediately took the arrangement for granted. He began
giving orders in the tone of a man who knows just what he wants done,
and knows also that