ver let go of a dollar till the eagle screamed for marcy.
But he done a sight more good than folks knowed about--till after he
died. An' d'ye know the most important clause in his will, Miss?"

"In grandfather's will?"

"Ya-as. It was the instructions to his execketer to give a receipted
bill to ev'ry patient of his that applied for the same, free gratis for
nothin'! An' lemme tell ye," added the mail-carrier, preparing to drive
on again, "there was some folks on both sides o' this ridge that was
down on the old doctor's books for sums they could never hope to pay."

As he started off 'Phemie called after him, brightly:

"I'm obliged to you for telling me what you have about grandfather."

"Beginning to get interested in neighborhood gossip already; are you?"
said her sister, when 'Phemie joined her, and they walked back up the lane.

"I believe I am getting interested in everything folks can tell us about
grandfather. In his way, Lyddy, Dr. Apollo Phelps must have been a great
man."

"I--I always had an idea he was a little _queer_," confessed Lyddy. "His
name you know, and all----"

"But people really _loved_ him. He helped them. He gave unostentatiously,
and he must have been a very, very good doctor. I--I wonder what Aunt Jane
meant by saying that grandfather used to say there were curative waters on
the farm?"

"I haven't the least idea," replied Lyddy. "Sulphur spring, perhaps--nasty
stuff to drink. But listen here to what Aunt Jane says about father."

"He's better?" cried 'Phemie.

The older girl's tone was troubled. "I can't make out that he is," she
said, slowly, and then she began to read Aunt Jane's disjointed account
of her visit the day before to the hospital:

* * * * *

"I never _do_ like to go to such places, girls; they smell so of ether,
and arniky, and collodion, and a whole lot of other unpleasant things. I
wonder what makes drugs so nasty to smell of?

"But, anyhow, I seen your father. John Bray is a sick man. Maybe he don't
know it himself, but the doctors know it, and you girls ought to know
it. I'm plain-spoken, and there isn't any use in making you believe he is
on the road to recovery when he's going just the other way.

"This head-doctor here, says he has no chance at all in the city. Of
course, for me, if I was sick with anything, from housemaid's knee to
spinal mengetus, going into the country would be my complete finish! But
the