blow. For a moment they stood steadfastly
regarding each other, then the doctor's old face relaxed, his eyes
softened. He put his big hand on the boy's shoulder.

"Now, by the Lord that made you and me!" he said, "we were meant for a
team, and a team we'll make. I'll help you and I'll make you pay." The
boy's face brightened.

"How?" he cried eagerly.

"We'll change work." The doctor's old eyes began to twinkle. "I want
fall ploughing done and my cordwood hauled."

"I'll do it!" cried Barney. A light broke in his eyes and flooded his
face. At last he saw his path.

"Here," said the doctor, taking down a book, "here's your Gray." And
turning the leaves, "Here's what happened to Ben Fallows. Read this. And
here's the treatment," pulling down another book and turning to a page,
"Read that. I'll make Ben your first patient. There's no money in it,
anyway, and you can't kill him. He only needs three things, cleanliness,
good cheer, and good food. By and by we'll get him a leg. Here's that
Buffalo doctor's catalogue. Take it along. Now, boy, I'll work you,
grind you, and you'll go for your first examination next spring."

"Next spring!" cried Barney, aghast, "not for three years."

"Three years!" snorted the doctor, "three fiddlesticks! You can do this
first examination by next spring."

"Yes. I could do it," said Barney slowly.

The doctor cast an admiring glance at the line of jaw on the boy's face.

"But there's the mortgage and there's Dick's college."

"Dick's college? Why Dick's and not yours?"

The boy's rugged face changed. A tender light fell over it, filling in
its cracks and canyons.

"Because--well, because Dick must go through. Dick's clever. He's awful
clever." Pride mingled with the tenderness in look and tone. "Mother
wants him to be a minister, and," he added after a pause, "I do, too."

The old doctor turned from him, stood looking out of the window a few
minutes, and then came back. He put his hands on the boy's shoulders. "I
understand, boy," he said, his great voice vibrating in deep and tender
tones, "I, too, had a brother once. Make Dick a minister if you want,
but meantime we'll grind the surgeon's knife."

The boy went home to his mother in high exultation.

"The doctor wants me to look after Ben for him," he announced. "He is
going to show me the dressings, and he says all he wants is cleanliness,
good cheer, and good food. I can keep him clean. But how he is to get
good cheer in