e doctor muttered
angrily to himself while the shepherd was gone to the spring for
water. "Blast it all, I'm a fool, a meddlesome, old fool. Ought to
have let well enough alone. No need to drag him back into it all
again; no need. Do no good; no good at all."

When the morning meal was finished, Mr. Howitt said, "David, will
you think me rude, if I leave you alone to-day? The city pavement
fits one but poorly to walk these hills of mine, and you are too
tired after your trip and the loss of your regular sleep to go
with me this morning. Stay at the ranch and rest. If you care to
read, here are a few of your favorites. Will you mind very much? I
should like to be alone to-day, David."

"Right, Daniel, right. I understand. Don't say another word; not a
word. Go ahead. I'm stiff and sore anyway; just suit me."

The shepherd arranged everything for his friend's comfort, putting
things in readiness for his noonday meal, and showing him the
spring. Then, taking his own lunch, as his custom was, he went to
the corral and released the sheep. The doctor watched until the
last of the flock was gone, and he could no longer hear the tinkle
of the bells and the bark of the dog.

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

I AIN'T NOBODY NO MORE.

With the coming of the evening, the shepherd returned to his
guest. Dr. Coughlan heard first the bells on the leaders of the
flock, and the barking of the dog coming nearer and nearer through
the woods. Soon the sheep appeared trooping out of the twilight
shadows into the clearing; then came Brave followed by his master.

The countenance of the old scholar wore again that look of calm
strength and peace that had marked it before the coming of his
friend. "Have you had a good rest, David? Or has your day been
long and tiresome? I fear it was not kind of me to leave you alone
in this wilderness."

The doctor told how he had passed the time, reading, sleeping and
roaming about the clearing and the nearby woods. "And you," he
said, looking the other over with a professional eye, "you look
like a new man; a new man, Daniel. How do you do it? Some secret
spring of youth in the wilderness? Blast it all, wish you would
show me. Fool Sarah and the girls, fool them, sure."

"David, have you forgotten the prescription you gave me when you
ordered me from the city? You took it you remember from one of our
favorite volumes." The shepherd bared his head and repeated,

"If thou art worn and hard beset