dow-sill, praying silently that God would
indeed save this soul, teaching it that which heretofore she had been
unable and unworthy to teach. The effort at obedience to what was so
evidently her duty had greatly strengthened the girl; she felt that God
was with her in the still room, and the glad joy of those who against
their own inclinations work for him began to spring up in her soul.

The doctor and Mrs. Doyle found her thus, and springing to her feet,
Etta came over to the bed to hear what the former thought about
Gretchen.

Judging from Mrs. Doyle's account, the doctor seemed inclined to make
light of the case, until he had made a careful investigation, and then
he looked very grave, and asked where the patient had come from, and
how long she had been in this country. Hearing that it was nearly a year
since she crossed the ocean, and that she had worked for eight months in
Squantown Paper Mill, he looked still more puzzled, and finally
said:--

"I really can't account for it, but it certainly is a case of
ship-fever; a very bad case, too."

Mrs. Doyle's consternation was extreme. She muttered something about
having her children to care for, shut the door tight, and went hastily
downstairs, leaving the doctor and the delicately bred young girl to
decide what was to be done in the situation.

Doctor Bolen looked at his companion in somewhat quizzical perplexity.
Here was a patient dangerously ill with a contagious disorder, at the
top of a house swarming with human beings. She must have care and close
watching, and the only person within reach to give it was a girl whose
gay light-heartedness and instability were well known in the town. Had
she known what to do, she was too young and delicate for such a task.
And should she take the infection--what then? Would the wealthy
mill-owner thus expose his youngest child, and, as every one knew, his
idol?

"I must get hold of some responsible person," he said at last, aloud,
but more to himself than to his companion. "But whom? I don't know of a
nurse that would come even from the city. Besides, it would cause a
panic to do so, and a panic is the most likely thing in the world to
cause the infection to spread. Mrs. Doyle, it is clear, is frightened
out of her senses, and she can't be expected to risk her children and
her livelihood for a stranger. One of the Irishwomen across the way
might take care of her for money; but then she'd talk, and the whole
gang would be