d to fill to overflowing as they crowded in after him,
accompanied by three lean hounds, who sniffed suspiciously at his
leggings.

Far in the darkest corner lay the father on a pallet of corn-husks
covered with soiled bedclothing. The windows were mere holes in the
walls, unglazed, unframed, and closed at night or in bad weather by
wooden shutters, when the room was lighted only by the flames from the
now black and empty fireplace. Here, while mother and children were out
by "the branch" washing, the injured man lay alone, stoically patient,
declaring that his "laig" was some better, that he did not feel "so much
misery in hit as yesterday."

Thryng had seen much squalor and wretchedness, but never before in a
home in the country where women and children were to be found. For a
moment he looked helplessly at the silent, staring group, and at the
man, who feebly tried to indicate to his wife the extending of some
courtesy to the stranger.

"Set a cheer, Polly," he said weakly, offering his great hand. "You are
right welcome, suh. Are you visitin' these parts?"

"This is the doctor I was telling you about, Cate,--Doctor Thryng. I
begged him to come up and see could he do anything for you," said
Cassandra. Then she urged the woman to go back to her work and take the
children with her. "Doctor and I will look after your old man awhile."
She succeeded in clearing the place of all but one lean hound, who
continued to stand by his master and lick his hand, whining presciently,
and one or two of the children, who lingered around the door to peer in
curiously at the doctor.

A shutter near the bed was tightly closed and, in struggling to open it,
Cassandra discovered it was broken at the hinges and had been nailed in
place. David flew to her assistance and, wrenching out the nails, tore
it free, letting in a flood of light upon the wretchedness around them.
Then he turned his attention to the patient, a man of powerful frame,
but lean almost to emaciation, who watched the young physician's face
silently with widely opened blue eyes, their pale color intensified by
the surrounding shock of matted, curling, vividly red hair and beard.

It required but a few moments to ascertain that the man's condition was
indeed critical. Cassandra had gone out and now returned with her hands
full of dry pine sticks. Bending on one knee before the empty fireplace,
she arranged them and hung a kettle over them full of fresh water. David
tu