e contents
of the shelves.

Not suspecting the full extent of the paralyzing effect his presence
had had upon Hank, and fearing he might attempt to follow, the Dr.
took a circuitous route home, and in his haste stumbled over something
which he discovered to be a shivering, half naked child, crouched upon
the ground.

"What are you doing out here this time of night, my little fellow?"
said he.

"I'm afraid of papa," sobbed the child, "he said he'd skin me alive if
I didn't get out of his sight."

"What is your name? Where do you live? what bad thing have you been
doing?" said the Dr., all in a breath.

"I live in a shanty out there, I am Fanny Green. I ain't done anything
bad but cry, and I couldn't help it, for papa was striking mamma so."

"Well, come with me, Fanny, I'll take you to your home, and I won't
let your papa hurt you."

"Are you an angel?" said Fanny, feeling of the hand that held hers.

"No, I'm a man, my little girl."

"I thought you were one of those angels dressed in white that mamma
told me about; they take folks to heaven, and I want to go there, I
don't want to go home."

They had now reached the wretched hovel that the child called her
home, and she began to weep afresh.

"O, no, no! I dare not go in," she said, clinging convulsively to her
protector, "I'm afraid he will kill me."

While she was speaking, the door was roughly flung open, and her
unnatural parent rushed out, brandishing a heavy club; but, at sight
of the figure clad in white, he dropped his bludgeon and ran off,
howling like a wild beast deprived of its prey.

With a glad cry the child bounded into the shanty, and he heard her
childish voice saying "mamma, don't be afraid any more, papa has gone
way off."

On reaching his room, the Dr. was relieved to find that his absence
had remained undiscovered, and he drank himself off to sleep. He was,
however, suddenly awakened quite early in the morning by loud
exclamations coming from daddy, and, in the intervals, he
distinguished the sound of the same childlike voice which was
associated with his night's adventure. Immediately calling his old
servant, he inquired the meaning of the commotion.

"'Tween you and me," said daddy indignantly, "there's more
distruction; little Fanny Green's mother is dead; that brute of a
husband has fairly killed her; knocked her skull in with a club."

"When did it happen?"

"O, in the night; Fanny had run out door for to get out of his