burning
up with fever, and he has a real wild light in his eyes."

"What do you mean, Matilda?"

"Well, brother, not to mince matters, I think if you undress him I'll
turn to and clean him up some. After that we'll put him to bed in the
little room off the dining-room and send for a doctor. I suppose they
have a doctor somewhere around here, haven't they?"

Levi puckered up his lips and frowned.

"I've questioned about that, too," he admitted. "There is a
doctor--goes horseback with saddle bags and medicine chest on a circuit
covering acres and acres. Kind of a medical bully; brings people into
the world and hustles them out. Doses and cuts them according to his
lights. He's off on a stabbing case back among the hills--some still,
they say, has let itself loose. He will be back when he patches up the
worst and turns the rest over to the authorities. Matilda!"

Miss Markham started.

"Yes, brother."

"I don't want any one to see or know about that boy until after we've
seen the doctor. He looks badly used and starved to me, and I never
turn a dumb brute off when its luck is against it, until I know what
I'm turning it to. You get a tub of hot water ready and I'll tackle
the lad now."

It was seven that evening when the doctor returned from the hills and
was told the "folks from the North" wanted to see him. He did not
hurry himself. He rested, ate, and changed his clothes and then
sauntered down the road to the cottage. Sandy, the worst of him, as
Matilda explained, lay in a comatose state on the narrow, immaculate
bed with Bob, now fed and comforted, on the floor beside him.

"That's Morley's boy from Lost Hollow," the doctor drawled, as he gazed
upon the restless form. "At first I wasn't sure. I never saw him
clean before. As I passed through The Hollow to-day Morley came out
and told me the news. The boy's left home; he's going to get an
education somehow--the father said he had saved money."

"There's nearly thirty-one dollars in his pants' pocket," Matilda broke
in accurately.

"He comes of good stock back about the time of the Revolution. Running
to seed since. It's mighty odd how blood bursts out now and again.
This fellow's mother came from The Forge--a pretty creature--died when
he was born. Took me thirty-six hours to bring him into life--but I
couldn't save the mother. The father is a degenerate--the only sign of
decency I ever noticed in him is his thought about this boy. L