e
the same trouble again when we couldn't get hold of him."

"How'm I to have it again?" demanded Miss Mattie, pricking up her ears,
"when I'm cured? If I take all the medicine, I'll stay cured, won't I?
You ain't got no logic, Roger, no more'n your pa had."

"I wish you wouldn't, Mother," pleaded the boy, genuinely distressed.
"It's the medicine that makes you sleep so."

"I reckon," responded Miss Mattie, settling herself comfortably back
among the pillows, "that he wanted me to have some sleep. In all my life
I ain't never had such sleep as I'm havin' now. You go away, Roger, and
study law. You ain't cut out for medicine."

The last words died away in an incoherent whisper. Miss Mattie slept
again, with the box tightly clutched in her hand. As her fingers
gradually loosened their hold, Roger managed to gain possession of it
without waking her. He did not dare dispose of it, for he well knew that
the maternal resentment would make the remainder of his life a burden.
Besides, she might have another attack, when the ministering mind-reader
was not accessible. If it were possible to give her some harmless
substitute, and at the same time keep the "searching medicine" for a
time of need.

[Sidenote: A Bright Idea]

A bright idea came to Roger, which he hastened to put into execution. He
went to the druggist and secured a number of empty capsules of the same
size. At home, he laboriously filled them with flour and replaced those
in the box with an equal number of them. He put the "searching
medicine" safely away in his desk at the office, and went to work, his
heart warmed by the pleasant consciousness that he had done a good deed.

When he went home at night, Miss Mattie was partially awake and inclined
to be fretful. "The strength is gone out of my medicine," she grumbled,
"and it ain't time to take more. I've got to set here and be deprived of
my sleep until eight o'clock."

Roger prepared his own supper and induced his mother to eat a little.
When the clock began to strike eight, she took two of the flour-filled
capsules, confidently climbed upstairs, and--such is the power of
suggestion--was shortly asleep.

[Sidenote: Favourable Opportunity]

Having an unusually favourable opportunity, Roger went over to see
Barbara. He had not seen her since the night before the operation, but
Doctor Conrad had told him that in a few days he might be allowed to
talk to her or read to her for a little while at a time.