rudgingly enough I thought.

I climbed the brief flight of stairs. I knew that Clem had not refused
to get up without reasons that seemed sufficient to him. In a narrow bed
in one of the doll-house rooms he lay coughing.

"So you can't get up this morning?" I asked.

"Yes, seh, Mahstah Majah, Ah _was_ a-gittin' up, but Ah was fohced to
cough raght smahtly an' Miss Cahline she yehs it an' she awdeh me back
to baid, seh. Then Ah calls out to huh that Ah ain't go'n' a' have no
sech foolishness in this yeh place, an' so she stahts to come up, which
fohces me to retiah huhiedly. Then she stands theh at th' head of th'
staihs an' she faulted me--yes, seh--she _threaten_ me, Mahstah Majah,
an' she tek mah clothes away, an' so on an' so fothe. Then Ah huhd huh
a' mekin' th' fiah an' then she brung this yeh cawfee an' she done mek
it that foolish that Ah can't tech it. Yes, seh, she plumb ruined that
theh cawfee, _that's_ what she done!"

His tone was peevish. Clem himself was not talking as I thought would
have been becoming in him. And there was a definite issue of veracity
between him and his mistress. I went down again, for the room was cold.

"He has some fever," I said.

"He is a lazy black hound," said Miss Caroline.

"He says you ordered him to stay in bed--threatened him and hid his
clothes."

"Oh, never fear but what that fellow will always have an excuse!" she
retorted shortly.

Observing that she had a day's supply of wood at hand, I left, not a
little annoyed at both of them. I missed my coffee.

When I knocked at the door that evening, no one came to admit me. I went
in, hearing Clem's voice in truculent protest from a large room on the
first floor which had been called the room of Little Miss. I went to the
door of this room.

Clem and his bed were there. We had two physicians in Little Arcady, Old
Doc and Young Doc. Young Doc was now present measuring powders into
little papers which he folded neatly, while Miss Caroline stood at hand,
cowering but stubborn under Clem's violence.

"Miss Cahline, yo' suttinly old enough t' know betteh'n that. Ah do wish
yo' Paw was about th' house--he maghty quickly put yo'-all in yo' place.
Now Ah tole yo' Ah ain't go'n' a' have none o' this yeh Doctah
foolishness. Yo' not go'n' a' stravagate all that theh gole money on
sech crazy doin's an' mek us be indigent in ouah ole aige. What Ah
_want_ with a Doctah? Hanh! Anseh me that! Yo'-all jes' git me a little
bit cala