'd smoke him blue in the face, if for nothing
but to drown his abominable assafoetida, the pig!"

"Aw, non, M'syae," interrupted Pierre, to protect the idol of the Maple
Inn; "Meestare Bulky ees not a peeg, but assafeetiter is vorse zan a
peeg-stye. N'est ce paw, Angelique?"

"I 'ave no vord to say of M'syae Bulky," replied Madame, taking up her
mending and entering the house. She was at once recalled to the verandah
by a juvenile voice that called "Mrs. Latchness!" The speaker soon
appeared in the person of a small boy, about twelve years old, who,
hatless, coatless, and shoeless, ran up from the river bank. "Vat you
vant vis me, Tommee?" asked Madame. "I come from Widder Toner's--Ben's
dyin', she says, and can't move a stir. She wants to know if they's
anybody here as knows anything about doctorin', and, she says, hurry
awful quick!" cried the breathless youngster.

"I 'ear you spick of medical, M'syae Coristine; do you know it? Can you
'elp ze pauvre vidow?" asked Madam.

"It's mighty little I know, Madame, but I'll go. Wait till I get my
flask," said the lawyer, going after his knapsack in the sitting room.
Returning, he handed it to the hostess with the request that she would
fill it with the best, and add any remedy she had in the house. Soon she
came out of the railed-off bar with a filled flask and a bottle of St.
Jacob's Oil. Pocketing them both, the lawyer said, "Come on, Tommy,"
and, with his guide, set out for Widow Toner's.

CHAPTER VII.

Ben's Sudden Sickness--The Spurious Priest--Coristine as
Doctor--Saved by the Detective--Anxiety at the Maple--A Pleasant
Evening--Sunday Morning and Ben--The Lawyer Rides--Nash and the
Dominie Talk Theology on the Road--At the Talfourds--Miss Du
Plessis the Real--The False Meets Mr. Rawdon--Mr. Terry and
Wilkinson at the Kirk.

"What is the matter with Ben?" asked Coristine, as they single-filed
along the narrow path by the river.

"He's tumbled down over some grindstones, and hurt himself, and fainted
right away," replied the youthful Tommy, pulling up handfuls of tall
grass and breaking an occasional twig from a bush as he stumbled along.

"What are you to the Toners?"

"I ain't nuthun' to the Toners."

"How did you come to be their messenger, then?"

"I was runnin' to the farm to tell the widder that the priest was
comin', when she come out cryin' and sent me off. Guess the priest's
there by now."

"What priest is