the rest of your natural life, as far as William Adolphus and
I are concerned. You may then return to your wallowing in the mire and
be as dirty and comfortable as of yore."

Alexander Abraham growled again. The prospect didn't seem to cheer him
up as much as I should have expected. Then he did an amazing thing. He
poured some cream into a saucer and set it down before William Adolphus.
William Adolphus lapped it up, keeping one eye on Alexander Abraham lest
the latter should change his mind. Not to be outdone, I handed Mr. Riley
a bone.

Neither Alexander Abraham nor I had worried much about the smallpox. We
didn't believe he would take it, for he hadn't even seen the girl who
was sick. But the very next morning I heard him calling me from the
upstairs landing.

"Miss MacPherson," he said in a voice so uncommonly mild that it gave me
an uncanny feeling, "what are the symptoms of smallpox?"

"Chills and flushes, pain in the limbs and back, nausea and vomiting,"
I answered promptly, for I had been reading them up in a patent medicine
almanac.

"I've got them all," said Alexander Abraham hollowly.

I didn't feel as much scared as I should have expected. After enduring a
woman hater and a brindled dog and the early disorder of that house--and
coming off best with all three--smallpox seemed rather insignificant. I
went to the window and called to Thomas Wright to send for the doctor.

The doctor came down from Alexander Abraham's room looking grave.

"It's impossible to pronounce on the disease yet," he said. "There is
no certainty until the eruption appears. But, of course, there is every
likelihood that it is the smallpox. It is very unfortunate. I am afraid
that it will be difficult to get a nurse. All the nurses in town who
will take smallpox cases are overbusy now, for the epidemic is still
raging there. However, I'll go into town to-night and do my best.
Meanwhile, at present, you must not go near him, Peter."

I wasn't going to take orders from any man, and as soon as the doctor
had gone I marched straight up to Alexander Abraham's room with some
dinner for him on a tray. There was a lemon cream I thought he could eat
even if he had the smallpox.

"You shouldn't come near me," he growled. "You are risking your life."

"I am not going to see a fellow creature starve to death, even if he is
a man," I retorted.

"The worst of it all," groaned Alexander Abraham, between mouthfuls of
lemon cream, "is that t